Women in Scifi: books and graphic novels
Oct. 19th, 2012 09:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrWhat science fiction books by/about women (preferably both) do you consider "required reading" (as much as that phrase makes sense)? eg The books that are so great or influential you think most scifi book geeks should at least give them a go.
Obviously this is hugely subjective! And nothing is really required, read what you like. I just thought it would be interesting to compare to the previous list.
So, my incredibly subjective and limited list. Graphic novels and manga are included, but games/movie/tv are not. Unfortunately I haven't been very successful at transcending the "white people from the US" bias of most reclists, the publishing industry etc. These are NOT all feminist, and some are very problematic/dated etc.
Stuff I really liked:
Octavia Butler: Wild Seed (and probably the rest of the Patternist series once I've read it), Parable of the talents, Xenogenesis
Lois McMaster Bujold: The Miles Vorkosigan Series
Connie Willis: To Say Nothing of the Dog
Ursula K Le Guin: The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, a billion other books
Pat Cadigan: Fools
Phil and Kaja Foglio: Girl Genius
N K Jemisin: The Effluent Engine
Shaenon Garrity: Narbonic
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller: Liaden Series (most of what I've read of it, anyway)
Stuff I really like with great female characters and male writers:
Andrew Hussie: Homestuck (sooo many caveats)
Brian K. Vaughan: Runaways
Daniel Keyes Moran: The Armageddon Blues
Adam Rex: The True Meaning of Smekday
"Classics" I thought were just ok:
C J Cherryh: Cyteen, Downbelow Station, Foreigner, etc
Elizabeth Moon: The Speed of Dark
Kate Wilhelm: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
James Tiptree Junior: Up the Walls of the World
Anne McAffery: The Rowan, the Ship Who Sang, etc (though I adored them as a teen)
"Classics" I didn't like:
Suzette Haden Elgin: Native Tongue
Mary Doria Russell: The Sparrow
Sherri S Tepper: Beauty (...wait that's not scifi. But it put me off trying her other stuff)
Joan D. Vinge: The Snow Queen
Nancy Kress: Beggars in Spain
Vonda McIntyre: Dreamsnake
"Classics" I haven't read:
Andre Norton: ???
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein
On my "To Read" list:
Janet Kagan: Hellspark
I KNOW I am missing some really obvious books. So tell me :)
Obviously this is hugely subjective! And nothing is really required, read what you like. I just thought it would be interesting to compare to the previous list.
So, my incredibly subjective and limited list. Graphic novels and manga are included, but games/movie/tv are not. Unfortunately I haven't been very successful at transcending the "white people from the US" bias of most reclists, the publishing industry etc. These are NOT all feminist, and some are very problematic/dated etc.
Stuff I really liked:
Octavia Butler: Wild Seed (and probably the rest of the Patternist series once I've read it), Parable of the talents, Xenogenesis
Lois McMaster Bujold: The Miles Vorkosigan Series
Connie Willis: To Say Nothing of the Dog
Ursula K Le Guin: The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, a billion other books
Pat Cadigan: Fools
Phil and Kaja Foglio: Girl Genius
N K Jemisin: The Effluent Engine
Shaenon Garrity: Narbonic
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller: Liaden Series (most of what I've read of it, anyway)
Stuff I really like with great female characters and male writers:
Andrew Hussie: Homestuck (sooo many caveats)
Brian K. Vaughan: Runaways
Daniel Keyes Moran: The Armageddon Blues
Adam Rex: The True Meaning of Smekday
"Classics" I thought were just ok:
C J Cherryh: Cyteen, Downbelow Station, Foreigner, etc
Elizabeth Moon: The Speed of Dark
Kate Wilhelm: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
James Tiptree Junior: Up the Walls of the World
Anne McAffery: The Rowan, the Ship Who Sang, etc (though I adored them as a teen)
"Classics" I didn't like:
Suzette Haden Elgin: Native Tongue
Mary Doria Russell: The Sparrow
Sherri S Tepper: Beauty (...wait that's not scifi. But it put me off trying her other stuff)
Joan D. Vinge: The Snow Queen
Nancy Kress: Beggars in Spain
Vonda McIntyre: Dreamsnake
"Classics" I haven't read:
Andre Norton: ???
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein
On my "To Read" list:
Janet Kagan: Hellspark
I KNOW I am missing some really obvious books. So tell me :)
no subject
Date: 2012-10-19 09:52 am (UTC)You make a very good point about Speed of Dark. I think I...rewrote the ending in my mind, or something, because I couldn't believe she'd done what she seemed to have done. Your description about the army-ness of her other books reminded me why I never got into them.
I think I need to revisit Foreigner, I was quite young when I read it and my tastes have changed pretty dramatically.
Yeah with McCaffery the "think is ok" is basically an average of my love as a teen and my much much lower opinion now :)
The couple of Nancy Kress books I've read basically seemed to assume that most people are nasty and selfish, and her scifi worldbuilding grew from that. I found this unpleasant and unconvincing.
People keep telling me that Animorphs is great, but until now they've all been people who read them as a teen. If they hold up to a new adult reader maybe I should give them a go.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-19 07:54 pm (UTC)(okay i will stop commenting in this thread now.)
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Date: 2012-10-20 09:11 am (UTC)Not sure the library system does loans from the eastern states though. I guess I could give it a go!
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Date: 2012-10-20 11:52 am (UTC)in the unlikely event that you can't find a copy at all, i'd be happy to borrow it and post it to you. (although there'll be no library trips for me until my foot heals. heh, i initially typed 'heels'. clearly i need to go to bed.)
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Date: 2012-10-21 01:55 am (UTC)Doesn't look like they have "Kindred", though; only "Fledgling" and "Parable of the Sower".
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Date: 2012-10-28 07:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-19 11:49 pm (UTC)My copy of Kindred was ex-library in NZ. I think I got Wild Seed from the library too. I hope you do find her books somewhere near.