Sometimes, when I am reading about a novel that is mostly about spaceships firing projectiles at each other at near relativistic speeds (and I’m mostly thinking of David Weber here), I wonder if some sort of coin-flipping/dice-rolling was engaged in on the part of the author to decide the gender/ethnicity/etc of the various characters in their equal-opportunity space navy.
I am using the coin flip method to determine gender. With the exception of the Captain, who was predetermined to be a lady.
On a side note, looking at the Wikipedia entry for David Weber was the first time I’ve seen a picture of the man – or should I say, man-mountain. Seriously, it looks like he could punch my head off without getting too worked up about it.
–Geoff