Not only did Tiptree/Shelton write some really great stories, she also
created characters with real personalities and situations and reactions
that were also as real as one could get in the circumstances she
created.

While most male SF writers were busy showing off how they knew their
science homework and leaving most of their characters as cardboard
cutouts, Tiptree was able to do all three - plot, character, and accurate
science, though the latter was not her big focus.

After all, if I want to learn about some aspect of science, I'll read a science
text. With SF I want to be entertained and motivated by new ideas and
characters, which she was able to do far more often than not.

And it was a shame she had to hide her gender. I thought that went out
with George Elliot in the Nineteenth Century. Funny how in many critical
ways SF was and is still behind the times in certain areas.