Sci Fi Book Club and Blog - The Sword and Laser

I just ran across this Sci Fi Book Club and Blog by Veronica Belmont of CNET Buzz Out Loud and Mahalo Daily fame: The Sword and Laser. That title can only mean one thing... totally sweet!

Invisibility, Force Fields, Light Sabers, Lasers, Sci Fi Tech Becoming Real

from the NY Times' blogosphere "Why Don't We Invent It Tomorrow.". A story about 3 science fiction technologies that may become real in the near future.

What?!? Orson Scott Card is a Homophobe?

I've been reading some Orson Scott Card books lately. I just finished Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. I loved them both! Deep, full of politics, technology, Nostradamal predictions, and character. And I just started on Xenocide, which has started off a little slow for me.

So I find out today (totally randomly on one of Leo Laporte's gaxillion podcasts), that Orson Scott Card is an outspoken homophobe. I had no idea! Apparently this was old news back in 2000, as you can see in this article by Salon.com. You've got to ask, how can someone genius enough to write Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead be homophobic?

Well, part of me wants to stop reading Card's Ender series, but I'll probably finish Xenocide anyway, since I bought it. I definitely am disappointed and disillusioned, and probably won't enjoy the book as much. And I don't know if I'll buy any more of his books. Damn, I just loved the series. Hopefully, Card will educate himself and change his views. What a contrast to a writer like Joe Haldeman, who wrote The Forever War. Writers, especially writers who write about an imagined future, have a responsibility to include homosexual people and tolerance in their vision of the future.