I have been avoiding packing by sorting through my digital life, and spent some quality time yesterday with the Speculative Fiction folder in my Bloglines account. As a result, I have a significant starters list for next year’s reading.
I can’t remember what I have said here about my reading habits, so perhaps some background is in order. In the early 1990s I discovered feminist speculative fiction, and taught a seminar on Religion in Feminist Utopian fiction in 1997. At that time I joined on online book group devoted to feminist science fiction and fantasy (now largely dead, a victim of 2.0 technologies. Remind me some time to do a post on how blogging — I lead, I own, I direct — and listservs are not the same, and which I think foster community, and the whyfor blogging can kill a community). When I came to my current POW I was invited to join a faculty Feminist Scifi book group, and have happily been engaged there for three years (although we have come up short on new authors this past year, coincident with the demise of the online books group. I have missed the steady influx of recommended authors and books! Many fruitful blog posts there about the state of feminist scifi, and feminism in literature might spring from this statement). Which is all to say, I like a pretty specific slice of speculative fiction
It would be easy to say I only read feminist specfic (I have no strong preference for SF over fantasy — those aren’t the qualities that draw me. Both have qualities that can drive me away though!), but it’s harder to define that than it is to say it. Basically, my bottom line is that if the offends my feminism, I’m not interested. (hard to find that distinction on the book spine though!)
So, what draws me?
- Excellent world-building.
- Interesting characters.
- The absence of buxom maidens and stalwart knights.
- Boys’ quests are a total yawn (if anyone would like top pull the Aes Sedaii out of the Wheel of Time books, give me a call!).
- Boys with toys are also a yawn. Whether the toys be guns, spaceships or lances matter not.
- A world with complex religion is always a plus.
- If you are writing the Fae you have to work very hard to tell me why I should read your book.
- If the point of the book is romance, I’m not that interested. But if romance happens along the way, that’s fine with me. And I am equally engaged with reading any kind of romance — it’s the characters that matter, not their species or gender. Unless we’re talking werewolves or vampires, in which you can kill me now. Laurel Hamilton put a stake in that microgenre for me a while back.
- Some sex in my story is fine, but I can find my own porn if that’s going to be the point of the book.
- I am horrified by how much I like some books I hate — where interesting worlds and interesting characters trump horrid writing.
Favorite authors? Sherri Tepper, Guy Gavriel Kay, Octavia Butler, NIcola Griffith, Suzy McKee Charnas, Marge Piercy, Elizabeth Hand, Anne Bishop, Marie Jakober, Pat Murphy, Juliet Marillier, Jacquline Carey, Mary Doria Russell, Louise Marley, Elizabeth Bear has caught my eye, Lois Bujold…a few names to start.
So, enough background! The books that caught my eye after about an hour scanning my months-neglected feeds is below. Tell me what you think, what you know, what you like!
Elizabeth Bear’s The Promethean Age
- Blood & Iron
- Whiskey & Water
- Ink & Steel
- Hell & Earth
Elizabeth Bear’s Jacob’s Ladder series (proposed trilogy)
- Dust
Jeanne Duprau Book of Ember
- The City of Ember
- The People of Sparks
- The Prophet of Yonwood
- The Diamond of Darkhold
Karen Miller The Riven Kingdom
Galen Beckett The Magicians & Mrs. Quent
Trudi Canavan–Black Magician Trilogy
- Age of the Five
- The Traitor Spy
- The Magician’s Apprentice (prequel)
Esteban Martín & Andreu Carranza. The Gaudi Key
Justin Allen Slaves of the Shinar
Sherrilyn Kenyon Acheron
Marie Brennan, Midnight Never Come
Kim Wilkins The Veil of Gold
Gail Z. Martin
- The Summoner
- The Blood King
- Dark Haven
Jay Lake Mainspring
Dora Machado Stonewiser: The Heart of the Stone.
Dorothy Hearst Promise of the Wolves
Tananarive Due Blood Colony
Patrice Sarath Gordath Wood
Judith Moffett:
- The Ragged World
- Time, Like an Ever rolling Stream
- The Bird Shamans
David Anthony Durham Acacia – Book One: The War With the Mein
Sarah Ash Flight Into Darkness.
Jane Lindskold Thirteen Orphans
Greg Bear City at the End of Time
C.E. Murphy The Queen’s Bastard
