Comparison with Heinlein and Asimov
After Reclamation won the Locus Magazine award for best first novel, New York Times reviewer Gerald Jonas said that Zettel's "confident treatment of her ambitious material shows just how entertaining the 'grand tradition of Heinlein and Asimov' can still be in sympathetic hands."

Sci-Fi in the curriculum The University has a fantasy and science fiction Web site at www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/index.html. It is the electronic offspring of Prof. Eric S. Rabkin and his students and colleagues. Rabkin Rabkin has taught sci-fi and fantasy literature in the English department for many years. He has written that science fiction is "arguably the 20th century's most important literature, the verbal thread of a cultural fabric that includes film and music and even morals". "By some definitions it is an ancient genre, dating at least from the work of Lucian of Samosata/A>," Rabkin continued. "Its appeal is world-wide: the most popular writer in Eastern Europe is Stanislaw Lem and one of modern Japan's best selling masters is Kobo Abe. The real Cyrano de Bergerac wrote two important SF novels in the mid-seventeenth century and the creators of The Wizard of Oz and Tarzan of the Apes were both SF writers. The inventor of the communication satellite was the same Arthur C. Clarke who later wrote 2001. Hugo Gernsback's invention of radar was first published, along with a detailed diagram, in his pulp SF novel called Ralph 124 C41+."

Praise of that intensity has bewitched many an author into suffering a second-book jinx. But not Zettel. Her second novel, Fool's War, made the Times's "Notable Books of 1997" list. Written during the Gulf War, the story "initially was about artificial intelligence and juggling," Zettel says. "Then I started hearing on the news that Arabic people in Dearborn, Michigan, were being harassed for who they were, not for supporting a political cause, not for counter-protesting, nor even speaking out at all, but for just being Arabic. That's not what America is about! We're all supposed to get along here, make use of all the strengths of the people who came here and who are born here. I was wondering what specifically I could do as a writer to address this, so I created a positive Arabic heroine, Starship Captain Katmer Al Shei."

Religious concepts and conflicts interest Zettel, who lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan, with her husband, Timothy Smith, newborn son Alexander ("born, get this, on 02/02/02") and cat Buffy the Vermin Slayer. Both Playing God (1998) and The Quiet Invasion (2000) examine civilizational clashes over belief systems. "Am I presenting what I feel are religious truths?" she asks. "If I do, they are more along the lines of we've got to find room for everybody, be inclusive rather than exclusive, rather than identify an absolute right or absolute wrong. If we look at history, it is by inclusion that we have thrived and by exclusion we have suffered. If there's a religious or spiritual truth I present in my books, there it is."

The fifth novel in Zettel's productive five-year span, Kingdom of Cages (2001), examines the response of the Pandorans, "peaceful, benign and smug in their isolation," to the environmental and genetic catastrophe afflicting humanity's extraterrestrial colonies. If the Pandorans can't solve the crisis, hordes of starving, diseased and desperate refugees will overrun their planet.

The only bothersome aspect of science fiction to Zettel is that many readers still see it as a genre for 15-year old boys. That's an image she wants to change. "Science-fiction is in a ghetto," she says, "and in some ways it's a ghetto of our own making. People look in and say, 'That's all for teenage boys; it's intellectually and philosophically beneath us.' Those of us who are on the inside tend to say, 'Oh, you simply don't understand, so we're going to close the door and stay in here because you out there don't understand us.'"

Messages in a vessel
Messages are precious cargo in science fiction vessels. And Zettel thinks strong female characters, even octogenarians, can deliver them as well as males. In addition to Katmer Al Shei, another of her protagonists is The Quiet Invasion's Dr. Helen Failia, a scientist in her 80s.

"Science fiction does not present old women; women have a tendency to vanish, especially after they've had children," says Zettel, who was expecting her first child in February. "Once you became a mother, that's the end of it; you aren't going to do anything interesting, especially as an older woman. Men can be any age. Men can be 17-year old heroes and 90-year old patriarchs. Women vanish. Look at Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The oldest female character was Joyce, Buffy's mother, and Joyce just died. Women don't get to grow old. It became a character necessity for Dr. Failia to be in her 80s, but it also became a point of pride. I wanted to present an active, politically involved older woman."

Of all her characters, Zettel has a special place in her heart for the Fool's War's Evelyn Dobbs. Readers love the courageous Dobbs, too, and often ask her if the character will reappear in another story. Zettel, however, says she has no plans to bring back Dobbs. "The longer I write, the more I get convinced the real trick is knowing when to stop," she explains. "You've got to know when the story is over, because otherwise you keep telling hollow stories you have no real interest in, and it shows. Readers can spot it."

Exploring New Worlds Michigan Today: What are you working on now? Sarah Zettel: I'm making a complete departure, a fantasy trilogy Tor Books is publishing. The working title is Isavalta. It begins with a lady lighthouse keeper named Bridget, who rescues an alien sorcerer from the grips of Lake Superior. I'm drawing heavily on Russian, Chinese and Indian folklore for this project. The first of the three will come out soon, Sorcerer's Treason. How does fantasy differ from science fiction? The main difference is that sci-fi is rocket ships, and fantasy is elves and dwarves. Do you think having a baby will affect your imagination? A writer I know, Lois McMaster Bujold, wrote a space opera after her first baby, in which someone invented artificial wombs. Do sci-fi writers see one another often? We band together about three or four times a year at various conventions. It can be great nerdy fun just like you see in the movie Galaxy Quest. We're a smaller group than it may seem. People who read sci-fi read a lot, but as a whole they account for relatively small print runs and make quite a narrow segment of the book market. What sci-fi classics or current masterpieces do you recommend? For nonenthusiasts: The Lathe of Heaven [1971] by Ursula LeGuin and, more recently, Bears Discover Fire [1995], a short story collection by Terry Bisson.

Kurt Anthony Krug is a freelancer based in Ann Arbor. Visit Sarah Zettel on her Web-site: www.sff.net/people/sarah-zettel.