Author Vonda N. McIntyre, 1948-2019
by Doc on Apr.02, 2019, under Books, Obituaries
Award-winning Science Fiction author Vonda N. McIntyre, perhaps best known for her work in Star Trek including giving the characters of Sulu and Uhura first names as well as being just the third woman to win a Hugo Award, passed away yesterday at the age of 70 from pancreatic cancer.
McIntyre wrote the first original Star Trek novel (and second overall, after the novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture), “The Entropy Effect”, in which she gave first names to a couple of the original characters, Hikaru Sulu and Nyota Uhura. The former became canon after fellow author Peter David visited the set of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and convinced the director, Nicholas Meyer, to use the name. The latter didn’t become canon until 2009’s Star Trek movie reboot.
She also won the Hugo, Nebula and Locus Awards for Best Novel in 1979 for Dreamsnake.
You can read her official obituary here.