Diversity – it’s really more than a mere fad as far as books, film and TV. My personal favorite Star Trek series is “Deep Space Nine”, largely for the sheer range of both human and alien diversity among its characters.

The popularity of the recent film “Black Panther” as well as the latest reincarnation of the Time Lord (Lady?) on Doctor Who, both also point to growing attention toward diversity in both Hollywood and studios across the world. Personally, apart from Thor, I would have to say “Black Panther” is my favorite Marvel film – as much for the strong female characters as for the Black African technological utopia element.

That said, I’d love to see such diversity included in literature, particularly fiction. Furthermore, something that would be great to include is diversity that actually fits within the context of the story, as opposed to including diverse characters simply to fill a quota. For example, the dominant race in my sci-fi debut “Apex Five” is depicted as a very dark-complected people – but it’s got nothing to do with diversity and everything to do with environmental adaptation! In fact, without revealing spoilers, I’ll leave it at their appearance correlating to the factor behind their power as a species. I guess I just got lucky that this race happens to fill today’s ‘diversity quota’.

And on that note, I’d love to hear you guys’ take on diversity – do you expect to see it on TV and in books nowadays and how do you feel if you don’t? Do you notice? Moreover, all you authors and filmmakers out there, do you make a point to include diverse characters in your projects or is diversity more something that comes as part of the flow?

For 2019 reading, check out sci-fi debut Apex Five!