Guest Post: Grand Tradition Science Fiction by Bascomb James
May
15
2014

Today I have a guest post by Bascomb James, editor of Far Orbit: Speculative Space Adventures, to share with you! He’s here to discuss the appeal and breadth of Grand Tradition Science Fiction, the common element binding the stories in Far Orbit together. This anthology, released a couple of weeks ago, contains a letter to science fiction by Elizabeth Bear and stories written by Gregory Benford, Tracy Canfield, Eric Choi, Barbara Davies, Jakob Drud, Julie Frost, David Wesley Hill, K. G. Jewell, Sam Kepfield, Kat Otis, Jonathan Shipley, Wendy Sparrow, and Peter Wood.

Far Orbit edited by Bascomb James

Grand Tradition Science Fiction

Over at World Weaver Press, we have been beating the drums about our new anthology, Far Orbit, Speculative Space Adventures. The anthology features modern stories crafted in the Grand Tradition of Science Fiction. So what is Grand Tradition SF and why are we making happy noises about stories written in a vintage style?

Much of what I call Grand Tradition SF was published in the late 1930s through 1960. Grand Tradition SF has its literary roots in the pulp fiction era but it was heavily pruned and shaped by editor Hugo Gernsback’s “Super Science” era that focused on the gizmo and by editor John W. Campbell’s desire for more scientific achievement and realism. Despite these significant influences, Grand Tradition stories never really fit within the Gernsback or the Campbell model.

The hallmark of the Grand Tradition story was that it was fun to read. Grand Tradition stories were pure entertainment; they were adventure stories that were found nowhere else. Grand Tradition stories were written in every SF motif (horror, noir, pulp fiction, first contact, spaceship, alien invaders/visitors, political intrigue, hard science fiction, etc.) and they embraced all of the familiar SF tropes. Grand Tradition stories often included social/political commentaries and they opened windows on worlds we could not otherwise see, but these elements were part of the subtext. The foreground story was the adventure, the wonder, the delightful romp through a strange and wondrous universe.

Somewhere along the way, a derisive public wrote off Grand Tradition SF as mere escapism – as if escapism was something unsavory. Fun stories – stories written for entertainment – became childish indulgences in an increasingly tight-sphinctered world. In her open letter to SF, Elizabeth Bear asks why “[SF seems] to think that nothing fun can have value.” I agree with her completely. Mind you, I am not advocating a return to the days of schlocky pulp fiction, but even the most serious and dedicated science fiction fan wants to have a little fun now and then.

The author response to our call for submissions demonstrates that modern authors still write Grand Tradition stories and we are proud to include 13 wonderful examples of Grand Tradition SF in the Far Orbit anthology. The anthology showcases the breadth of Grand Tradition SF and includes 1940s-style pulp fiction, realistic hard SF, noir fiction, horror SF, spaceship fiction, alien uplift, and action-adventure motifs. This diversity makes it easy for every SF fan to find a favorite.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin: Excerpt & Ebook Giveaway
May
12
2014

Ursula K. Le Guin’s science fiction novel The Lathe of Heaven was released as an ebook for the first time last month, and today I have an excerpt from chapter one to share with you as well as a chance to win the ebook! Like many of Ursula Le Guin’s novels, The Lathe of Heaven is an award winner: it won the Locus Award for Best Novel in 1972, and it also had the distinction of being nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards. I hope you enjoy reading a sample from this acclaimed novel, and if you want to read more, there is more information about the giveaway after the excerpt.

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

About The Lathe of Heaven:

For the first time as an eBook, a science fiction classic by one of the greatest writers in any genre.

Winner of the Nebula Award, the Hugo Award, the Locus Award, and one of the most acclaimed writers in science fiction, Ursula Le Guin’s classic novel The Lathe of Heaven imagines a world in which one man’s dreams can change all of our realities.

In a world beset by climate instability and overpopulation, George Orr discovers that his dreams have the power to alter reality. Upon waking, the world he knew has become a strange, barely recognizable place, where only George has the clear memory of how it was before. He seeks counseling from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately understands how powerful a weapon George wields. Soon, George is a pawn in Haber’s dangerous game, where the fate of humanity grows more imperiled with every waking hour.

As relevant to our current world as it was when it won the Locus Award, Ursula Le Guin’s novel is a true classic, at once eerie and prescient, wildly entertaining and ferociously intelligent.

1

Confucius and you are both dreams, and I who say you are dreams am a dream myself. This is a paradox. Tomorrow a wise man may explain it; that tomorrow will not be for ten thousand generations.

— CHUiANG TSE: II

Current-borne, wave-flung, tugged hugely by the whole might of ocean, the jellyfish drifts in the tidal abyss. The light shines through it, and the dark enters it. Borne, flung, tugged from anywhere to anywhere, for in the deep sea there is no compass but nearer and farther, higher and lower, the jellyfish hangs and sways; pulses move slight and quick within it, as the vast diurnal pulses beat in the moon-driven sea. Hanging, swaying, pulsing, the most vulnerable and insubstantial creature, it has for its defense the violence and power of the whole ocean, to which it has entrusted its being, its going, and its will.

But here rise the stubborn continents. The shelves of gravel and the cliffs of rock break from water baldly into air, that dry, terrible outerspace of radiance and instability, where there is no support for life. And now, now the currents mislead and the waves betray, breaking their endless circle, to leap up in loud foam against rock and air, breaking…

What will the creature made all of seadrift do on the dry sand of daylight; what will the mind do, each morning, waking?

 

His eyelids had been burned away, so that he could not close his eyes, and the light entered into his brain, searing. He could not turn his head, for blocks of fallen concrete pinned him down and the steel rods projecting from their cores held his head in a vise. When these were gone he could move again; he sat up. He was on the cement steps; a dandelion flowered by his hand, growing from a little cracked place in the steps. After a while he stood up, but as soon as he was on his feet he felt deathly sick, and knew it was the radiation sickness. The door was only two feet from him, for the balloonbed when inflated half filled his room. He got to the door and opened it and went through it. There stretched the endless linoleum corridor, heaving slightly up and down for miles, and far down it, very far, the men’s room. He started out toward it, trying to hold on to the wall, but there was nothing to hold on to, and the wall turned into the floor.

“Easy now. Easy there.”

The elevator guard’s face was hanging above him like a paper lantern, pallid, fringed with graying hair.

“It’s the radiation,” he said, but Mannie didn’t seem to understand, saying only, “Take it easy.”

He was back on his bed in his room.

“You drunk?”

“No.”

“High on something?”

“Sick.”

“What you been taking?”

“Couldn’t find the fit,” he said, meaning that he had been trying to lock the door through which the dreams came, but none of the keys had fit the lock.

“Medic’s coming up from the fifteenth floor,” Mannie said faintly through the roar of breaking seas.

He was floundering and trying to breathe. A stranger was sitting on his bed holding a hypodermic and looking at him.

“That did it,” the stranger said. “He’s coming round. Feel like hell? Take it easy. You ought to feel like hell. Take all this at once?” He displayed seven of the little plastifoil envelopes from the autodrug dispensary. “Lousy, mixture, barbiturates and Dexedrine. What were you trying to do to yourself?”

It was hard to breathe, but the sickness was gone, leaving only an awful weakness.

“They’re all dated this week,” the medic went on, a young man with a brown ponytail and bad teeth. “Which means they’re not all off your own Pharmacy Card, so I’ve got to report you for borrowing. I don’t like to, but I got called in and I haven’t any choice, see. But don’t worry, with these drugs it’s not a felony, you’ll just get a notice to report to the police station and they’ll send you up to the Med School or the Area Clinic for examination, and you’ll be referred to an M.D. or a shrink for VTT—Voluntary Therapeutic Treatment. I filled out the form on you already, used your ID; all I need to know is how long you been using these drugs in more than your personal allotment?”

“Couple months.”

The medic scribbled on a paper on his knee.

“And who’d you borrow Pharm Cards from?”

“Friends.”

“Got to have the names.”

After a while the medic said, “One name, anyhow. Just a formality. It won’t get ’em in trouble. See, they’ll just get a reprimand from the police, and HEW Control will keep a check on their Pharm Cards for a year. Just a formality. One name.”

“I can’t. They were trying to help me.”

“Look, if you won’t give the names, you’re resisting, and you’ll either go to jail or get stuck into Obligatory Therapy, in an institution. Anyway they can trace the cards through the autodrug records if they want to, this just saves ’em time. Come on, just give me one of the names.”

He covered his face with his arms to keep out the unendurable light and said, “I can’t. I can’t do it. I need help.”

“He borrowed my card,” the elevator guard said. “Yeah. Mannie Ahrens, 247-602-6023.” The medic’s pen went scribble scribble.

“I never used your card.”

“So confuse ’em a little. They won’t check. People use people’s Pharm Cards all the time, they can’t check. I loan mine, use another cat’s, all the time. Got a whole collection of those reprimand things. They don’t know. I taken things HEW never even heard of. You ain’t been on the hook before. Take it easy, George.”

“I can’t,” he said, meaning that he could not let Mannie lie for him, could not stop him from lying for him, could not take it easy, could not go on.

“You’ll feel better in two, three hours,” the medic said. “But stay in today. Anyhow downtown’s all tied up, the GPRT drivers are trying another strike and the National Guard’s trying to run the subway trains and the news says it’s one hell of a mess. Stay put. I got to go, I walk to work, damn it, ten minutes from here, that State Housing Complex down on Macadam.” The bed jounced as he stood up. “You know there’s two hundred sixty kids in that one complex suffering from kwashiorkor? All low-income or Basic Support families, and they aren’t getting protein. And what the hell am I supposed to do about it? I’ve put in five different reqs for Minimal Protein Ration for those kids and they don’t come, it’s all red tape and excuses. People on Basic Support can afford to buy sufficient food, they keep telling me. Sure, but what if the food isn’t there to buy? Ah, the hell with it. I go give ’em Vitamin C shots and try to pretend that starvation is just scurvy…”

The door shut. The bed jounced when Mannie sat down on it where the medic had been sitting. There was a faint smell, sweetish, like newly cut grass. Out of the darkness of closed eyes, the mist rising all round, Mannie’s voice said remotely, “Ain’t it great to be alive?”

Courtesy of Diversion Books, I have one ebook edition of The Lathe of Heaven to give away! This giveaway is open internationally, and the winner has a choice between ePub and Mobi formats.

Giveaway Rules: To be entered in the giveaway, fill out the form below OR send an email including the format of your choice (ePub or Mobi) to kristen AT fantasybookcafe DOT com with the subject “The Lathe of Heaven Giveaway.” One entry per person and one winner will be randomly selected. Those from any country in the world are eligible to win this giveaway. The giveaway will be open until the end of the day on Monday, May 19.

Please note email addresses will only be used for the purpose of contacting the winner. Once the giveaway is over all the emails will be deleted.

Good luck!

Update: Now that the giveaway is over, the form has been removed.

Guest Post by Freda Warrington: Vampire Fiction–Where Next?
May
07
2014

Today I’m happy to welcome the author of some of my favorite books, Freda Warrington! The first of her novels I read, Elfland, became one of my favorite books for its beautiful writing, memorable main characters, and sheer readability. I’ve wanted to read more of her previous books ever since discovering it, and I was thrilled when I learned her Blood Wine Sequence was being republished since I’d heard this vampire series was especially good. The first two of these novels, A Taste of Blood Wine and A Dance in Blood Velvet, are now available in both the US and the UK with the third book, The Dark Blood of Poppies, coming out in the UK on May 9 (and the US this fall).  A brand new fourth book in the series, The Dark Arts of Blood, is coming out next year. Since I love A Taste of Blood Wine even more than Elfland—it’s currently my favorite of her books I’ve read—I am delighted she is here to talk about vampire fiction today!

A Taste of Blood Wine by Freda Warrington A Dance in Blood Velvet by Freda Warrington The Dark Blood of Poppies by Freda Warrington

Vampire Fiction – Where Next?

“Every age embraces the vampire it needs.” – Nina Auerbach, Our Vampires, Ourselves.

The mythology of the vampire has existed throughout human history and in every culture. Now that vampires have become a staple of romantic fiction, it’s interesting to reflect how utterly horrific the original folklore actually was: rooted in a fear that your dead relatives might claw their way out of the grave and come back to suck out your life force! In past ages when people died of plagues, when illness, infection and death were not properly understood, and “magical thinking” reigned – a failure to connect cause with effect – this fear must have had a ghastly hold on the imagination. All sorts of terrifying things may dwell in the darkness beyond the safety of our fireside, but vampires have proved singularly powerful and enduring. When your crops fail or your cows die, how much easier to blame this on a conscious, evil force – the witch, the vampire, the grumpy old woman who lives with her cat – than to accept your misfortune as the caprice of nature.

The Vampyre (1819, John Polidori) is acknowledged as the first piece of vampire fiction published, marking a shift from superstitious belief towards the vampire as a literary metaphor: the foreigner, the outsider who inveigles his or her way among humans and upsets the social order. There are earlier works of poetry from the eighteenth century, revealing how folklore found its way from oral storytelling into early modern literature. An example is the hypnotically sensual poem “Christabel” (Samuel Taylor Coleridge), which seems likely to have inspired the story Carmilla by JS LeFanu. If only STC had finished that poem!

Carmilla is one of my favourite vampire tales. In turn, it was acknowledged by Bram Stoker as a major influence on Dracula. Rereading the story recently, I realised how flawed it is – the ending is rushed, leaving many loose threads – but the character of Carmilla remains compelling. As a beautiful, vulnerable, needy, very human-seeming girl who latches onto the narrator Laura like a best-friend-come-lover, Carmilla caught my imagination when I was young, and still holds a place there. It was only on rereading, however, that I realised what an incredibly creepy character she is. Her vulnerability is a sham. She is actually pretending to be human by mimicking Laura. I should have noticed first time round, right? But Carmilla took me in, as she did her prey. She is actually a kind of intelligent, calculating leech, doomed to kill the one she loves. Has any vampire since sent such a shiver down the spine? Like Laura, I still hear her soft footstep outside the drawing room door…

And that’s why I count Carmilla as a major inspiration of my own vampire novels.

We’re all familiar with Dracula, of course, and over the course of the twentieth century we’ve seen him morph from horrifying old man in the original novel, to dangerous foreigner (Bela Lugosi), to dark but disturbingly sexy villain in the Hammer Horror films (thank you, Christopher Lee!) to romantic idol in the 1979 Dracula film, starring Frank Langella – who, I must confess, remains my favourite Dracula. But – he’s more attractive than horrifying, no?

I’ve always found vampires more intriguing than monstrous. It drove me nuts that they must be hunted down and staked, and never allowed to explain, to put their own side of the story, to enjoy some plot and character development before the stake went in!

In the late 1970s, along came Anne Rice to change all that. Here were vampires as thinking, feeling creatures with their own stories to tell. They also had supernatural beauty and poetic souls that Ms Rice’s readers found utterly captivating.

Personally, though, I remained frustrated that relationships between humans and vampires were still shown to be impossible – that’s part of their tragedy, of course. But I kept wondering how it would be if you could break through the barriers and come to know this alluring creature, not as predator and prey, but as an equal? I couldn’t find that book, so guess what – I decided to write it myself! And that, in the early 1980s, inspired me to begin my own vampire series (A Taste of Blood Wine, A Dance in Blood Velvet, The Dark Blood of Poppies and (coming in 2015) The Dark Arts of Blood).

When Interview with the Vampire became huge in the late 1980s, I told my agent I’d got this novel that I’d written just to please myself… Only to be told that “Vampires are over!” I’ve been hearing that vampires are “over” for the last twenty years, yet they still keep rising from the grave!

Can this continue indefinitely?

To examine the lasting appeal of the vampire requires essays, theses, academic tomes – of which there are many. In short, I believe the answer lies in their paradoxical nature. They represent things we fear – death, blood, illness, the dead rising from the grave to suck out the life force of the living – and also things we may desire, such as immortality, eternal youth, and power over others. We love to be scared, and we love the erotic undercurrents of forbidden love. Put these together, and you can appreciate why vampires remain so eternally appealing.

Over the last thirty years or so, vampire fiction has spread like the plague that overtakes humankind in Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend. Vampires branched out into new genres: science fiction, comedy, occult detective thrillers, romance, alternative history. In the Anno Dracula series, Kim Newman presents a post-modern twist in which Count Dracula – rather logically – is not defeated but goes on to conquer Great Britain and marry Queen Victoria. Why wouldn’t he? Authors like myself are faced with the dilemma of finding convincing reasons why vampires, if they’re so powerful, DON’T take over the world! Answers? Maybe they don’t want to. Maybe they’re not as strong as they seem. Perhaps some external control puts a brake on them. Or they’re fighting among themselves too much… and so on.

From Anne Rice to Brian Lumley to Stephen King to Nancy Collins to Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Blade to Charlaine Harris and authors too numerous to mention, the versatility of the undead has become overwhelming. A veritable vampire overdose, even before the phenomenon of Twilight hit us! A glance at Amazon’s new releases reveals a teetering avalanche of paranormal romance, mostly American, mostly aimed at the Young Adult market, and mostly (it seems to me) written in a similar tone of voice: street-smart, flippant, heavy on sexual content but short on emotional depth. And nearly always battling werewolves, witches, faeries, demons…

Do I sound a bit judgmental? I’m a fine one to talk, having authored three (nearly four) romantic gothic novels in which the vampires are elegant, sexy, and conflicted rather than black-and-white in their morality. In mitigation, I first wrote the books twenty-plus years ago, and I wrote them from a place of deep, dark daydreams and passions that owed nothing at all to the new wave. I had a lot to express about psychology and mythology and gender issues, and it all came out through the adventures of Karl, Charlotte and Violette.

They were the vampires I needed at the time.

I don’t think us “veterans” of the genre could have predicted, let alone understood, the mass appeal of Twilight. I did eventually read the first three, and although they were better than I’d been led to expect, they left me faintly nauseous, like too much candy floss. Every rule of good storytelling was broken, yet all that teenage angst struck a nerve with millions! Some commentators have fretted that Ms Meyer’s work has ruined vampires forever, turning them into the horror equivalent of My Little Pony.

No. We’ll get over it. All fads fade, and the good stuff, the atmospheric cobwebby classics, endure.

But has the genre been diluted too far by endless teen paranormal fantasies? Over the past few years we’ve seen the market grow and grow, like a balloon filling up with water until it’s wobbling dangerously on the verge of going *sploosh* over everything… and yet it keeps on getting bigger, swelling and wobbling away.

One problem with vampires no longer being the “bad guys” is that they have, in some portrayals, become (excuse the term) emasculated. We see vampires drinking blood from bottles, only preying on animals, or abstaining completely. Fine, if that’s what the writer wants to do – each to their own – but personally I like my vampires to be vampires! Yes, they can have moral struggles over how they live, but I don’t see the point of having a blood-drinker as a character, only to defang him.

So what does the future hold?

Well, I don’t think vampires will go away – the genre’s now as well-established as any other, be it romance, crime, historical, science fiction, epic fantasy et al. On the positive side, there has been a massive moral shift within society that is mirrored by what authors and their vampires are getting up to these days. From Victorian times, right up until the 1970s, the sensual element of vampirism was shown to be wrong, out of order, part of the Evil. Yes, titillating (in its hypocritical way), but still BAD. Women were (mostly) victims, and any female character acting on her sexuality – perhaps displaying a little too much cleavage, going out for a midnight tryst, or enjoying Dracula’s attentions – would be punished by death. The “good girl” who stuck to society’s norms would be rescued (by her heroic man) and saved.

That, thank heaven, has changed. In my novel, The Dark Blood of Poppies, Violette (who identifies with the demon-goddess Lilith) has been “brainwashed” in a sense by her deranged father to believe that All Women Are Evil. Her journey involves deconstructing the lies she’s been told, and part of that means coming to understand Lilith as an archetype who represents everything women are not “supposed” to be. When I wrote the book, those old patriarchal ideas were receiving an almighty challenge (from feminist scholars) that was long overdue. Although society still has a long way to go on the equality front, it’s finally okay for female characters to be equal, to be sexy, to take the lead, to slay the vampire, love the vampire or to BE the vampire, without being punished.

That’s a good direction to be heading. I can’t predict the next big revival – if only! – but what will keep the genre going, as ever, is good authors telling strong stories.

Modern vampire fiction has come to embrace all shades of fluid gender and sexuality, with the vampire as a sharp focus for questions of morality. Men are no longer just macho cardboard heroes or villains, women are no longer mere victims. All are free to be human.

Even the vampires.

Women in SF&F Month 2014: Final Post
May
03
2014
Women in SF&F Month Banner

The third annual Women in SF&F Month here at Fantasy Cafe has come to an end. Thank you to all of this year’s participants—without each of them, this monthly series of guest posts would not be possible, and I’ve been blown away by the amazing articles that were written for it!

For the last post of this year’s event, I just want to talk a bit about why I’ve begun this annual event and share some resources that show there all all kinds of science fiction and fantasy books written by women.

Like Trudi Canavan and Beth Bernobich, I’ve seen comments that “women don’t read/write science fiction and fantasy.” A large part of why I started this annual event was in response to those comments, which are mind-boggling when there are so many wonderful writers of these genres who are women—when there are women like N. K. Jemisin, Kate Elliott, Patricia A. McKillip, Lois McMaster Bujold, Karen Lord, Tanya Huff, Elizabeth Bear, Tananarive Due, Freda Warrington, Robin Hobb, Karin Lowachee, Laini Taylor, Martha Wells, Kristin Cashore, Nancy Kress, Carol Berg, Rachel Neumeier, Marie Brennan, Teresa Frohock, Catherine Asaro, Rachel Hartman, Courtney Schafer, and so many more writing excellent science fiction and fantasy books. I was also dismayed to see comments that women did not read and review these genres when I myself do and also read many blogs by women who do the same—Angieville, The Book Smugglers, The Little Red Reviewer, My Bookish Ways, Sci-Fi Fan Letter, Spec-fic Romantic, and many more.

It’s a bigger problem than a few people on the Internet who wrongly believe there are not women writing, reading, and discussing science fiction and fantasy, though. In general, women’s books are often reviewed less than men’s in a variety of publications containing book reviews. Strange Horizons has also compiled stats showing that nearly half of the science fiction/fantasy books Locus receives for review are by women but a lot of SFF venues that review books are not even close to covering an equal proportion of books by men and women. There are some caveats mentioned regarding the book count, such as some of them being reprints instead of new books published that year, but the 2012 count did show that about 46% of books received from the US and UK combined were written or edited by women and about 53% by men (with a few books that were by both and a few unknown). Over half of the SF venues they tracked reviewed books by women roughly 1/4 of the time or less. (After I wrote most of this post, they released the 2013 count.)

These have contributed to my decision to spend the month of April highlighting and hearing from some women writing these genres. Before then, I felt like women’s books were not reviewed as much on book blogs so I already reviewed a lot of books by women. This was before I saw these statistics for blog reviews by gender compiled by Renay at Lady Business, but that was also a contributing factor in the first Women in SF&F Month. I do think I see more books reviewed by women on blogs than I used to as more people have become aware of this issue—and that’s why looking at statistics like these is so important. I don’t think many people do pay attention to whether or not the authors of the books they are reading are men or women—I know I never used to think about it, and it wasn’t until I saw a discussion about women writing speculative fiction that I realized I found it a lot easier to name men writing these genres than women. Only by knowing about it can we begin to change it.

Fortunately, there are lots of places to find information on women writing speculative fiction and recommendations for their books. During the three months total that have comprised Women in SF&F Month, there have been guest posts by many authors and bloggers who are women—and mainly different women during these three months since I have been trying to invite (at least mostly) different guests from year to year. Many of these guests have mentioned some of their own favorite books by women so there have been lots of recommendations as well. In particular, I’d like to point out:

The 2013 List of SFF Books by Women
Last year, Renay from Lady Business asked for people to submit some of their favorite speculative fiction books by women. The response was amazing, and it resulted in a list of over 800 individual books by women (many people recommended the same books multiple times and the list shows how many times each book was recommended). After this year, we’ll have a 2014 list and that will eventually be merged with the 2013 list to make an even bigger list.

The Book Smuggler’s List of Female SFF Authors Writing YA/MG
Last year, Ana and Thea of The Book Smugglers recommended some of their favorite lesser known YA/MG books by women and also shared a Goodreads shelf containing over 100 recommendations total.

Trudi Canavan’s List of Australian Women Writing Alternate World Fantasy
Trudi Canavan discovered that about 2/3 of Australian fantasy fiction is written by women, and she also compiled a list of Australian fantasy writers with links to their Goodreads pages.

There are also a variety of resources elsewhere on the Internet that show the great number of SFF books by women:

SF Mistressworks
Ian Sales began this site to collect reviews of science fiction books written by women published during or before the twentieth century.

Andrea K. Höst’s List of Female Authors with Books on Her Keeper Shelf
Andrea K. Höst provided a list of 99 authors on her keeper shelf at The Book Smugglers. There are also many more authors mentioned in the comments.

Non-European Fantasy by Women
This list, compiled by Martha Wells and hosted at The Mad Hatter’s Bookshelf and Book Review, contains a lot of recommendations for fantasy books by women set in non-European settings.

Science Fiction Romance Authors
Heather at The Galaxy Express has a list of authors of science fiction romance by decade, starting with the 1930s. While not all of these authors are women, many of them are. (You can also read her guest post from this year to find additional resources for discovering more science fiction romance.)

Female Science Fiction Author Reading List
Jessica at Sci-Fi Fan Letter started a reading list of science fiction books by women with their subgenre.

FeministFantasy.com
While this site has books by both male and female authors, it is a great place for finding recommendations for books that are feminist friendly.

It’s been a very busy month and I haven’t read a single book (eek!). I am now going to take a break from blogging and spend some of my weekend reading, but check back on Wednesday for a guest post on vampire fiction written by Freda Warrington, author of the Blood Wine Sequence!

Women in SF&F Month: Upcoming Books in 2014
May
02
2014
Women in SF&F Month Banner

As Beth Bernobich said in her eloquent article “The Invisible Woman” toward the beginning of April:

 

Women write SF/F, but if no one talks about us, it only perpetuates the myth we don’t write in the genre. So. Tell your friends about that amazing author you discovered. Write that review on Amazon. Add that author and their books to the next Goodreads list you make. And maybe, with all the talk, the next conversation about books in the genre will include their names.

After the guest posts have all been posted, I usually write one post doing exactly this—talking about science fiction and fantasy by women. I thought a lot about which books to discuss this year. There are some excellent books written by women that I’ve read since this time last year (such as A Taste of Blood Wine by Freda Warrington, Warchild by Karin Lowachee, and The Silvered by Tanya Huff), but I kept coming back to how many great-sounding books are coming out later this year, many of which are written by women, and decided to write about upcoming 2014 releases.

Although there are many upcoming releases written by this year’s participants I’m very excited about (Tainted Blood by M. L. Brennan, Champion of the Scarlet Wolf by Ginn Hale, Gemsigns by Stephanie Saulter, Thief’s Magic by Trudi Canavan, I could go on and on!), I’m going to write about books by authors not participating this month to get some different books and names out there. Some books are by favorite authors or in favorite series and others are by authors I’ve never read before, but they all have one thing in common—they all sound wonderful! In order of release date, here is my list.

Artemis Awakening by Jane Lindskold
Artemis Awakening by Jane Lindskold
Release Date: May 27

I haven’t yet read any of Jane Lindskold’s books, but I’ve heard good things about them and I love the sound of Artemis Awakening. Rediscovery of a forgotten planet of legend and a psych-linked puma companion?! I have to read this book!

 

Artemis Awakening is the start of a new series by New York Times bestseller Jane Lindskold. The distant world Artemis is a pleasure planet created out of bare rock by a technologically advanced human empire that provided its richest citizens with a veritable Eden to play in. All tech was concealed and the animals (and the humans brought to live there) were bioengineered to help the guests enjoy their stay…but there was always the possibility of danger so that visitors could brag that they had “bested” the environment.

The Empire was shattered in a horrific war; centuries later humanity has lost much of the advanced technology and Artemis is a fable told to children. Until young archeologist Griffin Dane finds intriguing hints that send him on a quest to find the lost world. Stranded on Artemis after crashing his ship, he encounters the Huntress Adara and her psych-linked companion, the puma Sand Shadow. Their journey with her will lead Dane to discover the planet’s secrets…and perhaps provide a key to give unimagined power back to mankind.

Unexpected Stories by Octavia E. Butler
Unexpected Stories by Octavia E. Butler
Release Date: June 24

Two new stories by Octavia Butler are going to be released as an e-book next month! I’ve only read her novel Parable of the Sower, but it was excellent and I’d like to read more of her stories.

 

Two never-before-published stories from the archives of one of science fiction’s all-time masters

The novella “A Necessary Being” showcases Octavia E. Butler’s ability to create alien yet fully believable “others.” Tahneh’s father was a Hao, one of a dwindling race whose leadership abilities render them so valuable that their members are captured and forced to govern. When her father dies, Tahneh steps into his place, both chief and prisoner, and for twenty years has ruled without ever meeting another of her kind. She bears her loneliness privately until the day that a Hao youth is spotted wandering into her territory. As her warriors sharpen their weapons, Tahneh must choose between imprisoning the newcomer—and living the rest of her life alone.

The second story in this volume, “Childminder,” was commissioned by Harlan Ellison for his legendary (and never-published) anthology The Last Dangerous Visions™. A disaffected telepath connects with a young girl in a desperate attempt to help her harness her growing powers. But in the richly evocative fiction of Octavia E. Butler, mentorship is a rocky path, and every lesson comes at a price.

Child of a Hidden Sea by A. M. Dellamonica
Child of a Hidden Sea by A. M. Dellamonica
Release Date: June 24

Indigo Springs, A. M. Dellamonica’s debut, is supposed to be very good, and I’m quite interested in her next book and reading about a smart, determined heroine facing the challenges of politics and a conspiracy.

 

One minute, twenty-four-year-old Sophie Hansa is in a San Francisco alley trying to save the life of the aunt she has never known. The next, she finds herself flung into the warm and salty waters of an unfamiliar world. Glowing moths fall to the waves around her, and the sleek bodies of unseen fish glide against her submerged ankles.

The world is Stormwrack, a series of island nations with a variety of cultures and economies—and a language different from any Sophie has heard.

Sophie doesn’t know it yet, but she has just stepped into the middle of a political firestorm, and a conspiracy that could destroy a world she has just discovered… her world, where everyone seems to know who she is, and where she is forbidden to stay.

But Sophie is stubborn, and smart, and refuses to be cast adrift by people who don’t know her and yet wish her gone. With the help of a sister she has never known, and a ship captain who would rather she had never arrived, she must navigate the shoals of the highly charged politics of Stormwrack, and win the right to decide for herself whether she stays in this wondrous world . . . or is doomed to exile

One-Eyed Jack by Elizabeth Bear
One-Eyed Jack by Elizabeth Bear
Release Date: Late June to Mid-August*

Elizabeth Bear is one of my favorite authors, and her Promethean books are special to me because the first of her books I read was Blood and Iron. She had plans for a lot of different books in this setting, and a second pair of books taking place long before the first duology was released fairly soon after I read them. I enjoyed those as well and was sad when I learned no more Promethean books were forthcoming, so I am thrilled a new one is coming out this summer!

* I’m not certain what the release date for this one is since Barnes and Noble says it will have copies on June 25, Amazon says July 8, and the publisher’s website says August 13.

 

The One-Eyed Jack and the Suicide King: personifications of the city of Las Vegas—its history, mystery, mystical power, and heart…

When the Suicide King vanishes—possibly killed—in the middle of a magic-rights turf war started by the avatars of Los Angeles, a notorious fictional assassin, and the mutilated ghost of Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel–the King’s partner, the One-Eyed Jack, must seek the aid of a bizarre band of legendary and undead allies: the ghosts of Doc Holliday and John Henry the steel-driving man; the echoes of several imaginary super spies, decades displaced in time; and a vampire named Tribute, who bears a striking resemblance to a certain long-lost icon of popular music.

All stories are true, but some stories are truer than others

Magic Breaks by Ilona Andrews
Magic Breaks by Ilona Andrews
Release Date: July 29

Kate Daniels is one of my favorite series and the seventh installment is very high on my list of books I can’t wait for! The authors (Ilona Andrews is actually a husband and wife writing team) have done an amazing job of building up a character it sounds like we might finally meet in this book, and Kate is a wonderfully developed protagonist with a naturally humorous narrative voice. I cannot gush about this series and how fantastic it is enough (especially book 3)!

 

No matter how much the paranormal politics of Atlanta change, one thing always remains the same: if there’s trouble, Kate Daniels will be in the middle of it…

As the mate of the Beast Lord, Curran, former mercenary Kate Daniels has more responsibilities than it seems possible to juggle. Not only is she still struggling to keep her investigative business afloat, she must now deal with the affairs of the pack, including preparing her people for attack from Roland, a cruel ancient being with god-like powers. Since Kate’s connection to Roland has come out into the open, no one is safe—especially those closest to Kate.

As Roland’s long shadow looms ever nearer, Kate is called to attend the Conclave, a gathering of the leaders from the various supernatural factions in Atlanta. When one of the Masters of the Dead is found murdered there, apparently at the hands of a shapeshifter, Kate is given only twenty-four hours to hunt down the killer. And this time, if she fails, she’ll find herself embroiled in a war which could destroy everything she holds dear…

Dust and Light by Carol Berg
Dust and Light by Carol Berg
Release Date: August 5

Carol Berg is a fantastic fantasy author, and I’m always happy to hear about a new book by her. My favorite of her books, Transformation, has both a unique world and wonderful characterization. I also very much enjoyed her Lighthouse Duet, and Dust and Light is the first book in a new duology set in the same world as that one.

 

National bestselling author Carol Berg returns to the world of her award-winning Flesh and Spirit and Breath and Bone with an all-new tale of magic, mystery, and corruption….

How much must one pay for an hour of youthful folly? The Pureblood Registry accused Lucian de Remeni-Masson of “unseemly involvement with ordinaries,” which meant only that he spoke with a young woman not of his own kind, allowed her to see his face unmasked, worked a bit of magic for her….After that one mistake, Lucian’s grandsire excised half his magic and savage Harrowers massacred his family. Now the Registry has contracted his art to a common coroner. His extraordinary gift for portraiture is restricted to dead ordinaries—beggars or starvelings hauled from the streets.

But sketching the truth of dead men’s souls brings unforeseen consequences. Sensations not his own. Truths he cannot possibly know and dares not believe. The coroner calls him a cheat and says he is trying to weasel out of a humiliating contract. The Registry will call him mad—and mad sorcerers are very dangerous….

Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb
Fool’s Assassin by Robin Hobb
Release Date: August 12

Assassin’s Apprentice was one of the earlier fantasy books I read when I first starting reading the genre. I went on to read the rest of the Farseer novels, then Liveship Traders, and then the first Tawny Man book. This was followed by impatiently waiting for the rest of the books to come out, and I even ordered the last two books from the UK once they were available since they came out there before the US! I love these books, and I’m excited to read a new series that takes place after Tawny Man.

 

Nearly twenty years ago, Robin Hobb burst upon the fantasy scene with the first of her acclaimed Farseer novels, Assassin’s Apprentice, which introduced the characters of FitzChivalry Farseer and his uncanny friend the Fool. A watershed moment in modern fantasy, this novel—and those that followed—broke exciting new ground in a beloved genre. Together with George R. R. Martin, Robin Hobb helped pave the way for such talented new voices as Scott Lynch, Brandon Sanderson, and Naomi Novik.

Over the years, Hobb’s imagination has soared throughout the mythic lands of the Six Duchies in such bestselling series as the Liveship Traders Trilogy and the Rain Wilds Chronicles. But no matter how far she roamed, her heart always remained with Fitz. And now, at last, she has come home, with an astonishing new novel that opens a dark and gripping chapter in the Farseer saga.

FitzChivalry—royal bastard and former king’s assassin—has left his life of intrigue behind. As far as the rest of the world knows, FitzChivalry Farseer is dead and buried. Masquerading as Tom Badgerlock, Fitz is now married to his childhood sweetheart, Molly, and leading the quiet life of a country squire.

Though Fitz is haunted by the disappearance of the Fool, who did so much to shape Fitz into the man he has become, such private hurts are put aside in the business of daily life, at least until the appearance of menacing, pale-skinned strangers casts a sinister shadow over Fitz’s past . . . and his future.

Now, to protect his new life, the former assassin must once again take up his old one. . . .

The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley
Release Date: August 26

This doesn’t appear to have a cover yet, but I had to include it! I haven’t yet read any of Kameron Hurley’s books even though I’ve heard God’s War is excellent, but I’ve very much enjoyed every single blog post I’ve read by her (she is very deservedly one of this year’s Hugo nominees for Best Fan Writer and Best Related Work). Her upcoming book also sounds fantastic, and it’s been on my list of books I want to read ever since I first heard about it.

 

On the eve of a recurring catastrophic event known to extinguish nations and reshape continents, a troubled orphan evades death and slavery to uncover her own bloody past… while a world goes to war with itself.

In the frozen kingdom of Saiduan, invaders from another realm are decimating whole cities, leaving behind nothing but ash and ruin.

As the dark star of the cataclysm rises, an illegitimate ruler is tasked with holding together a country fractured by civil war, a precocious young fighter is asked to betray his family and a half-Dhai general must choose between the eradication of her father’s people or loyalty to her alien Empress.

Through tense alliances and devastating betrayal, the Dhai and their allies attempt to hold against a seemingly unstoppable force as enemy nations prepare for a coming together of worlds as old as the universe itself.

In the end, one world will rise – and many will perish.

Stories of the Raksura: Volume One by Martha Wells
Stories of the Raksura: Volume One by Martha Wells
Release Date: September 2

The Cloud Roads, the first of the Books of the Raksura, was a book I could not put down. I loved the original world and found the main character’s plight easy to sympathize with, and the other two books in the trilogy were also very good (especially the last one, my favorite of the three). More novels in this world would be great, but I’m just as happy to know I’ll soon be able to read two novellas about the Raksura!

 

In The Falling World, Jade, ruler of the Indigo Cloud Court, has travelled with Chime and Balm to another Raksuran court. When she fails to return, her consort Moon, along with Stone and a party of warriors and hunters, must track them down. Finding them turns out to be the easy part; freeing them from an ancient trap hidden in the depths of the Reaches is much more difficult.

The Tale of Indigo and Cloud explores the history of the Indigo Cloud Court, long before Moon came to Court. In the distant past, Indigo stole Cloud from Emerald Twilight. But in doing so, the reigning Queen Cerise and Indigo are now poised for a conflict that could ruin everything.

Stories of Moon and the shape changers of Raksura have delighted readers for years. This world is a dangerous place full of strange mysteries, where the future can never be taken for granted, and must always be fought for with wits and ingenuity, and often tooth and claw. With two brand-new novellas, Martha Wells shows that the world of Raksura has many more stories to tell…

Summer Moon by Jan DeLima
Summer Moon by Jan DeLima
Release Date: September 30

Jan was my local librarian and is my friend. Of course, I was incredibly excited for her when Ace picked up her first book, the romantic urban fantasy Celtic Moon! I enjoyed it a lot, particularly her resilient “older” heroine Sophie (36 is practically ancient in fantasy heroine years!). I’m very much looking forward to reading Summer Moon and the story of Rosa and Luc.

 

She won’t be ruled again……

Rosa Alban has been obedient her entire life. But when her alpha husband dies, she seizes the opportunity to flee the oppressive Guardians—the rulers of the secret shapeshifter world. Her flight instantly brands her as a pack traitor, and she has no choice but to seek protection from a neighboring tribe by marrying one of their sons.

Known as the Beast of Merin, Luc Black loyally plays the part of unwanted son and devoted brother. He realizes marrying Rosa will strengthen his tribe’s territory, but he has no intention of loving ever again. Still, he’s unprepared for the intense physical need the wild she-wolf awakens in him.

When the Guardians hone in on Rosa, Luc must fight to protect his new bride. And as war descends, the unlikely allies discover their destinies are irrevocably entwined……

The Inheritance Trilogy Omnibus by N. K. Jemisin
The Inheritance Trilogy by N. K. Jemisin
Release Date: December 9

I’ve already read the three novels in this trilogy, but I love them and N. K. Jemisin’s book that was on my list of most anticipated books of 2014 was recently rescheduled for 2015… So I’m including this one instead! The omnibus edition will also include a new novella titled “The Awakened Kingdom” which will also be released separately as an ebook. You can read more about it in the recent announcement on N. K. Jemisin’s blog.

 

In this omnibus edition of N.K. Jemisin’s brilliantly original award-winning fantasy series, a young woman becomes entangled in a power struggle of mythic proportions.

A REALM OF GODS AND MORTALS.

Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky. There, to her shock, Yeine is named an heiress to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is thrust into a vicious power struggle.

The Inheritance Trilogy omnibus includes the novels: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, The Broken Kingdoms, and The Kingdom of Gods.

I could make a long list of the books released this year out now that I still really want to read like The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan, Half-Off Ragnarok by Seanan McGuire, Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor, Steles of the Sky by Elizabeth Bear, Turquoiselle by Tanith Lee, Night Broken by Patricia Briggs, The Gospel of Loki by Joanne Harris, and The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. Also, there are books I’ve read published this year that I really enjoyed like Black Dog by Rachel Neumeier and Iron Night by M. L. Brennan. As mentioned previously, there are also books coming out written by authors who wrote guest posts this year that sound very interesting. These eleven books listed are just a start when it comes to the science fiction and fantasy books by women being released in 2014, and there are many more to be excited about!

For more, check out this list at The Bibliosanctum and this one at Lady Business.

Women in SF&F Month: Karen Healey
May
01
2014
Women in SF&F Month Banner

Even though it’s the first day of May, there is one more guest post and it’s by science fiction and fantasy author Karen Healey! She has written SF&F for young adults, including The Shattering and Guardian of the Dead, the winner of the 2010 Aurealis Award for Best YA Novel. Her latest book is the science fiction novel When We Wake, a finalist for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy in 2013. A companion to this novel, While We Run, will be released later this month on May 27. I’m thrilled she is here today talking about how her teaching and her books intersect to encourage young women to explore questions about their world!

Karen Healey

Private Universes

“Did you know that you’re all made out of stars?” I asked my Year Nine class, and 25 thirteen-year-old girls lit up.

We’d been discussing a short story that dealt with various beliefs of what happens to humans after death. One girl had asked about mine. I’d told them that I believed our atoms became parts of other things, which I could see they didn’t think was properly solemn. Thus, their origins as star-stuff.

“I knew,” said one girl.

“Really?”

“In fact, what most scientists say is that everything in the entire universe comes from, uh, from something called the Big Bang. There was nothing, and then there was an explosion of all the matter that has ever existed.” I clenched my hands together, then spread them, fingers wide. “That made stars. And then the material in the stars became the material that makes us.”

Another girl raised her hand. “But how did that happen?”

“That’s a good question!” I said. “I don’t think I can tell you properly off the top of my head. You should definitely ask your science teacher, though. Now, back to the story…”

I’m a first-year English teacher at an all-girls’ school in New Zealand, and I write science fiction and urban fantasy for young adults. This year, I’ve discovered just how intersectional my chosen careers are.

My students ask a lot of questions. I want them to find answers, whether from me, or their smartphones, or their science teacher. (For detailed explanations of astrophysics, definitely their science teacher.) I want them to keep asking. How did that happen? Why did she do that? What happens next? And, the question that underlines almost everything I create, what if?

When We Wake, which came out last year, deals with the what ifs of cryonics and climate change. What if you came back to life a hundred years after you’d died? What if the world was dying? What if Australia had closed its borders? What if refugees were criminalized, lied to, used?

What if you stumbled upon a giant government-backed conspiracy?

These are questions that concern my students. They worry about climate change. They’re interested in social justice. They’re connected to the world as it is, and they’re curious about the world as it could be. They want to know what they can do.

For a long time, girls weren’t supposed to do any of that stuff. An interest in the political process? An inquiry into injustice? A will to take action? Heavens, no! These girls will strain their adorable little ladybrains and render their delicate parts unsuitable for childbearing! One of the reasons I looked for work at a girls school is because a terrifying number of people worldwide are still operating under the delusion that girls shouldn’t/couldn’t/wouldn’t want to save the world.

SFF, despite all its flaws, provides some fantastic young women who are willing to do just that. I wouldn’t want to teach my own texts (although a couple of them are being taught in a few classrooms, which is just delightful). But I’d love to teach Alaya Dawn Johnson’s The Summer Prince, which explores the power of revolutionary art. Or Kristin Cashore’s Bitterblue, in which the young Queen struggles with serious questions of power, reconciliation and grace. One day, I will.

But I’m a first year teacher – I’ve also got to work with budget constraints and the texts already available. Fortunately, that’s not hard. This year, my Year Nine girls, all of them made of stars, are studying The Hunger Games .

They’ve all read it, or watched the movie (some of them multiple times), which means we can get right into the ideas. What if our culture involved heavy surveillance of our activities? (It does). What if our lives were mediated by forces more interested in selling a good story than telling the truth? (They are). What if we sacrificed children for our own comfort and investment in the status quo? (We do.)

What if the children fought back? What could they do?

And what happens next?

When We Wake was about Tegan Oglietti and the substance of her choices. While We Run is about Abdi Taalib, and his ability to deal with consequences. When We Wake asks if its protagonist is brave enough to do the right thing when she discovers the truth. While We Run asks what its protagonist will do when he’s no longer sure what the right thing is.

No decent teacher pretends to have all the answers. For me, it’s a privilege and a joy that whether I’m teaching or writing, I get to help young women explore those questions.

When We Wake by Karen Healey While We Run by Karen Healey