David Oberhelman

co-author of Lois McMaster Bujold: Essays on a Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy

February 4, 2013

David D. Oberhelman is a professor in the Humanities-Social Sciences Division of the Oklahoma State University Library. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine and a MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh. He serves as the library's subject specialist for English, foreign languages and literature, theatre and music and is active in national and international professional organizations. Dr. Oberhelman has published and presented on J.R.R. Tolkien, Anglo-American fantasy literature, Digital Humanities, and the research needs of literary critics.

Lois McMaster Bujold has won a shelf full of awards–Hugos, Nebulas, and others–for both her science fiction and fantasy writing. She is one of the most respected names in the field, always delivering polished, thoughtful, and well-crafted writing. She consistently addresses great issues and problems on a human level, where they are faced by quirky, prickly, and very real characters, and her exploration of the theory of reader-response is an important critical contribution. Yet there has been a surprising dearth of serious critical writing about her output--in part because she resists neat and easy classification by genre, politics, or subject matter. This collection of fresh essays aims to correct that situation by presenting critical insights into many aspects of her writing. Attention is given to both her Miles Vorkosigan science fiction series and her Chalion and Sharing Knife fantasy series, as well as the books that fall outside these series.

David D. Oberhelman is the author of the essay From Iberian to Ibran and Catholic to Quintarian: Lois McMaster Bujold's Alternate History of the Spanish Reconquest in the Chalion Series which focuses on Bujold's recasting of the religious conflicts of the Spanish Reconquista into the complex theological and political landscape of her award-winning Chalion books.

URL: https://library.okstate.edu/news/celebratingbooks/2013-honorees/david-oberhelman

Last Updated: 12 January 2022