A big box of Mardock Scramble has arrived and we're giving away four copies! You may remember our last contest in November, and this one will be similar in that it's an essay contest.

if you're interested in winning a copy of Mardock Scramble, just leave a comment on this post—in English, Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Greek, Chinese—discussing the now-common science fiction and fantasy trope of the "kick-butt heroine." Once there were few real heroines in SF and fantasy; for the most part the men did the heavy lifting. There were exceptions, of course: Asimov had the intellectual Susan Calvin in his robot stories, C. L. Moore had Jirel of Joiry, a sword-and-sorcery butt-kicker, but nowadays the kick-butt heroine is everywhere, and most often she has a vampire boyfriend and a werewolf boyfriend.



So what do you think of kick-butt heroines? Refreshing? Overplayed? Pandering? Exciting? Did you know that Rune Balot of Mardock Scramble kicks some butt...and plays some cards? Drop me a line and if your comment impresses me on entirely subjective grounds known only to me, I'll ship you a copy of Mardock Scramble! Get your remarks in by noon on January the 14th, Pacific time.




And don't worry if your comment doesn't turn up right away—we get a ton of spam that I have to dig through each morning.