(no subject)

[naath]

Meme, nicked offof rmc. Women writers in SFF



Usual rules: bold if you've read, strike through if you hated, italics if it's on the shelf waiting to be read.

Both these lists are from Ian Sales. The first is his list of "Mistressworks":

1 Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (1818)
2 Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1915)
3 Orlando, Virginia Woolf (1928)
4 Lest Ye Die, Cicely Hamilton (1928)
5 Swastika Night, Katherine Burdekin (1937)
6 Wrong Side of the Moon, Francis Leslie Ashton (1951)
7 The Sword of Rhiannon, Leigh Brackett (1953)
8 Pilgrimage: The Book of the People, Zenna Henderson (1961)
9 Memoirs of a Spacewoman, Naomi Mitchison (1962)
10 Witch World, Andre Norton (1963)
11 Sunburst, Phyllis Gotlieb (1964)
12 Jirel of Joiry, CL Moore (1969)
13 Heroes and Villains, Angela Carter (1969)
14 Ten Thousand Light Years From Home, James Tiptree Jr (1973)
15 The Dispossessed, Ursula K Le Guin (1974)
16 Walk to the End of the World, Suzy McKee Charnas (1974)
17 The Female Man, Joana Russ (1975)
18 Missing Man, Katherine MacLean (1975)
19 Arslan, MJ Engh (1976)
20 Floating Worlds, Cecelia Holland (1976)
21 Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, Kate Wilhelm (1976)
22 Islands, Marta Randall (1976)
23 Dreamsnake, Vonda N McIntyre (1978)
24 False Dawn, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (1978)
25 Shikasta [Canopus in Argos: Archives], Doris Lessing (1979)
26 Kindred, Octavia Butler (1979)
27 Benefits, Zoe Fairbairns (1979)
28 The Snow Queen, Joan D Vinge (1980)
29 The Silent City, Élisabeth Vonarburg (1981)
30 The Silver Metal Lover, Tanith Lee (1981)
31 The Many-Coloured Land [Saga of the Exiles], Julian May (1981)
32 Darkchild [Daughters of the Sunstone], Sydney J van Scyoc (1982)
33 The Crystal Singer, Anne McCaffrey (1982) VILE BOOK. ugh ugh ugh.
34 Native Tongue, Suzette Haden Elgin (1984) I really want to read this
35 The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (1985)
36 Jerusalem Fire, RM Meluch (1985)
37 Children of Anthi, Jay D Blakeney (1985)
38 The Dream Years, Lisa Goldstein (1985)
39 Despatches from the Frontiers of the Female Mind, Sarah Lefanu & Jen Green (1985)
40 Queen of the States, Josephine Saxton (1986)
41 The Wave and the Flame [Lear's Daughters], Marjorie Bradley Kellogg (1986)
42 The Journal of Nicholas the American, Leigh Kennedy (1986)
43 A Door into Ocean, Joan Slonczewski (1986)
44 Angel at Apogee, SN Lewitt (1987)
45 In Conquest Born, CS Friedman (1987)
46 Pennterra, Judith Moffett (1987)
47 Kairos, Gwyneth Jones (1988)
48 Cyteen , CJ Cherryh (1988) I keep meaning to borrow (and read) this. I've read some other Cherryh though.
49 Unquenchable Fire, Rachel Pollack (1988)
50 The City, Not Long After, Pat Murphy (1988)
51 The Steerswoman [Steerswoman series], Rosemary Kirstein (1989)
52 The Third Eagle, RA MacAvoy (1989)
53 Grass, Sheri S Tepper (1989)
54 Heritage of Flight, Susan Shwartz (1989)
55 Falcon, Emma Bull (1989)
56 The Archivist, Gill Alderman (1989)
57 Winterlong [Winterlong trilogy], Elizabeth Hand (1990)
58 A Gift Upon the Shore, MK Wren (1990)
59 Red Spider, White Web, Misha (1990)
60 Polar City Blues, Katharine Kerr (1990)
61 Body of Glass (AKA He, She and It), Marge Piercy (1991)
62 Sarah Canary, Karen Joy Fowler (1991)
63 Beggars in Spain [Sleepless trilogy], Nancy Kress (1991) I THINK I've read the trilogy... I don't recall the individual titles though
64 A Woman of the Iron People, Eleanor Arnason (1991)
65 Hermetech, Storm Constantine (1991)
66 China Mountain Zhang, Maureen F McHugh (1992)
67 Fools, Pat Cadigan (1992)
68 Correspondence, Sue Thomas (1992)
69 Lost Futures, Lisa Tuttle (1992)
70 Doomsday Book, Connie Willis (1992)
71 Ammonite, Nicola Griffith (1993)
72 The Holder of the World, Bharati Mukherjee (1993)
73 Queen City Jazz, Kathleen Ann Goonan (1994)
74 Happy Policeman, Patricia Anthony (1994)
75 Shadow Man, Melissa Scott (1995)
76 Legacies, Alison Sinclair (1995)
77 Primary Inversion [Skolian Saga], Catherine Asaro (1995)
78 Alien Influences, Kristine Kathryn Rusch (1995)
79 The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell (1996)
80 Memory [Vorkosigan series], Lois McMaster Bujold (1996)
81 Remnant Population, Elizabeth Moon (1996)
82 Looking for the Mahdi, N Lee Wood (1996)
83 An Exchange of Hostages [Jurisdiction series], Susan R Matthews (1997)
84 Fool’s War, Sarah Zettel (1997)
85 Black Wine, Candas Jane Dorsey (1997)
86 Halfway Human, Carolyn Ives Gilman (1998)
87 Vast, Linda Nagata (1998)
88 Hand of Prophecy, Severna Park (1998)
89 Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson (1998)
90 Dreaming in Smoke, Tricia Sullivan (1999)
91 Ash: A Secret History, Mary Gentle (2000)

Not doing very well... have in fact not even HEARD of most of those.

The second list, also from Ian Sales, is the list of sf novels published by the Women's Press in the 1980s.


1. Kindred, Octavia Butler
2. Walk to the End of the World and Motherlines, Suzy McKee Charnas
3. The New Gulliver: Or The Adventures of Lemuel Gulliver, Jr. in Capovolta, Ésme Dodderidge
4. Machine Sex and Other Stories, Candas Jane Dorsey
5. Native Tongue, Suzette Haden Elgin
6. The Judas Rose, Suzette Haden Elgin
7. The Incomer, Margaret Elphinstone
8. Carmen Dog, Carol Emshwiller
9. The Fires of Bride: A Novel, Ellen Galford
10. The Wanderground, Sally Miller Gearhart
11. Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
12. Despatches from the Frontiers of the Female Mind, Jen Green & Sarah LeFanu
13. The Godmothers, Sandi Hall
14. Women as Demons, Tanith Lee
15. The Book of the Night, Rhoda Lerman
16. Evolution Annie and Other Stories, Rosaleen Love
17. The Total Devotion Machine, Rosaleen Love
18. The Revolution of Saint Jone, Lorna Mitchell
19. Memoirs of a Spacewoman, Naomi Mitchison
20. The Mothers of Maya Diip, Suniti Namjoshi
21. Planet Dweller, Jane Palmer
22. The Watcher, Jane Palmer
23. Woman on the Edge of Time, Marge Piercy
24. Star Rider, Doris Piserchia
25. Extra(Ordinary) People, Joanna Russ
26. The Adventures of Alyx, Joanna Russ
27. The Female Man, Joana Russ
28. The Hidden Side of the Moon, Joanna Russ
29. The Two of Them, Joanna Russ
30. We Who Are About To…, Joanna Russ
31. Queen of the States, Josephine Saxton
32. Travails of Jane Saint and Other Stories, Josephine Saxton
33. I, Vampire, Jody Scott
34. Passing for Human, Jody Scott
35. A Door Into Ocean, Joan Slonczewski
36. Spaceship Built of Stone and Other Stories, Lisa Tuttle
37. Across the Acheron, Monique Wittig

ahahaha... no. Mostly these days I'm reading very recently published things, I'm not much interested in going back and reading stuff I've never heard of published 20 years ago I don't think. Stuff I've got personal recomendations for, yes, stuff just because "a woman wrote it" probably not. I do keep meaning to (borrow and) read more Cherryh (but there's such a lot of it!).

Comments

[lethargic_man]

There's at least one male name on that list. <checks Wikipedia> Yup, definitely male. (Now should I tell you which one it is or let you find it yourself?)

[ptc24]

Indeed. I can see at least two definitely male names, and one probably-male name. In one case the person involved really does seem to be male, in two others they seem to be male pseudonyms for female authors.

[ptc24.livejournal.com]

From this list:

53 Grass, Sheri S Tepper (1989)

stuck in my mind as something that's well worth reading.

[fhtagn.livejournal.com]

Might I ask why? My encounter with Tepper started out as "not particularly well written but idea laden with potential" and then hit Jinian Star-Eye where the perfect and wonderful solves-everything main character encounters the "Church of St Phallus". I've not been back since.

[ptc24.livejournal.com]

I will admit that Tepper can lay it on a bit thick at times (to say the least), it does depend on your tastes, some of the things she writes do grate more than a little. But in the main I liked it, and I'm not going to apologise for my tastes. It is possible to find positive reviews of Grass on the internet, go read them.

I haven't read Jinian Star-Eye, looking at the blurbs I don't feel particularly inspired to read her earlier stuff.

[fhtagn.livejournal.com]

She gets better than. Glad to hear it because, as I said, lots of potential then bleurgh.

[ptc24.livejournal.com]

Some of it is distinctly better than others - OTOH the ones I read first were the ones I liked most, so it may just have been that the merits were obvious at first, and the annoyance at things that grated built up with time. So it's hard to say for sure.

The one I keep recommending is Beauty.

[rmc28]

I read Beauty first, and then Grass. They are both amazing.

Gibbon's Decline & Fall is also a cunningly-disguised sf novel that starts out like contemporary srs chicklit and doesn't reveal the sf until you are thoroughly sucked into the plot.

[ptc24.livejournal.com]

Gibbon's Decline & Fall

Oooh, I haven't read that one (well, I've read bits of Gibbon itself, but that's different), I'll have to track it down at some point.

[pavanne.livejournal.com]

Beauty is amazing, and Sideshow. Raising the Stones is also pretty good.

I also like A Plague of Angels. She does her 'issues' stuff well and it was fresh and amazing the first time, but she has written much the same thing in so many books as if she's trying to get it right. I think that is the reason for the 'first ones I read were the best' effect.

[ptc24.livejournal.com]

I think I preferred Raising the Stones over Sideshow, although both of those were good. Yes, she does have an obsession with the same issues.

Incidentally, is there any SF author out there these days other than Tepper who writes "real-world style" trans* characters (by "real-world" I mean not things like Culture citizens or the aliens from Left Hand of Darkness or things like that)? In particular in Beauty there's Bill Pictee who I seem to have some similarities with, I find the portrayal doesn't quite get to the heart of what Bill's inner feelings might be, but nevertheless it seems like a good description of how a sympathetic ciswoman might see such a person.

I should re-read Grass, and Sideshow, to see how I feel about the characters there these days.

[rmc28]

At some point I will have to talk to you about why you hate Crystal Singer so much - I really enjoyed it as a teenager, but haven't reread it recently.

[naath.livejournal.com]

I guess the bad bits might all be in the sequels. It's been a while since I read it.

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

I have read a few, nd can recommend some that I liked. First of all, if you find anything by Zenna Henderson, - well, I read most of her books decades ago, and she stuck in my memory all that time. I now intend to re-read some. Then:

Fool’s War, Sarah Zettel
Vast, Linda Nagata

There are others I liked, but I can't remember enough of the stories. Writers I normally choose to read:
Susan Shwartz, Emma Bull, Pat Cadigan, Elizabeth Moon (I really like her space opera, also the near future book The Speed of Dark).

I remember that both Élisabeth Vonarburg and Kathleen Ann Goonan spoke very interestingly at SF conventions, and I *intend* to read some of their writing, though I keep having the fantasy of re-learning well enough enough to read Vonarburg in French.

[sath.livejournal.com]

I do try and go back and read older books, if they're particularly recommended. But like you say.. not just because a woman wrote it. Most of the time I don't even notice the gender of the other, and the rest of the time I usually get it wrong anyway. I thought china mieville was a woman.

[naath.livejournal.com]

I think I met China before I read any of his books... so I never made that error (although I don't think the name reads as "typically male").

[passage.livejournal.com]

More typically country ...