Book meme, why not?

[luzula]

I've gone back to work today. What better time for a procrastinatory meme? From various other people: bolded means I've read it, italics means I've read something else by the same author, strikethrough means I didn't finish it.

Grimspace by Ann Aguirre
Primary Inversion by Catherine Asaro
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear
Flesh and Spirit by Carol Berg
Chime by Franny Billingsley
Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop
Tithe by Holly Black
The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett
Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
Synners by Pat Cadigan
Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Survival by Julie E. Czerneda
Tam Lin by Pamela Dean
King's Dragon by Kate Elliott
Black Sun Rising by C.S. Friedman
Slow River by Nicola Griffith
Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly
Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb
The God Stalker Chronicles by P.C. Hodgell
Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
Valor's Choice by Tanya Huff
God's War by Kameron Hurley
The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Daggerspell by Katharine Kerr
The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein
Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress
Deryni Rising by Katherine Kurtz
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Ash by Malinda Lo
Warchild by Karin Lowachee
Legend by Marie Lu
Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre
The Thief's Gamble by Juliet E. McKenna
Sunshine by Robin McKinley
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
Diving into the Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The Female Man by Joanna Russ
Old Man's War by John Scalzi
A Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski
The Grass King's Concubine by Kari Sperring
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
City of Pearl by Karen Traviss
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr.
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge
Farthing by Jo Walton
The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells

Does anyone particularly recommend any of the ones I haven't read? Also, I assume that the book Synners is not about the community of tag wranglers on the AO3... ("to syn" = to make a tag a synonym of a canonical tag).

Comments

[isis]

Huh, this almost looked like a list of all female authors, but John Scalzi is in there?

Anyway, as you may now I loved The Raven Boys but the whole series sort of falls apart plotwise as it goes on. I really liked Range of Ghosts and the rest of the series - it's fantasy Mongolia/Asia/Arabia.

Legend was like distilled dystopian YA, like you put Hunger Games and Matched and all that stuff in a blender, a decent book but nothing special and I noped out of the second in that series. I didn't finish Rosemary and Rue or Black Sun Rising.

ETA: I see on other people's versions the last one is To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. I liked that one a lot, though I liked her Bellwether better.

[luzula]

Huh, this almost looked like a list of all female authors, but John Scalzi is in there?

I saw this too after I'd posted and wondered about it. Huh.

I'll put Range of Ghosts on my list of books to check out!

[the_antichris]

I've been wondering if it's a commentary on that thing where there's a List of Important SF and it's like 99 dudes and Ursula LeGuin. Though Scalzi is an odd choice if so.

[isis]

Yeah, I saw that it came from ladybusiness and so was likely a deliberate mocking of that. Scalzi is maybe a relatively progressive dude writer liked by women?

[green_grrl]

I really love Beggars in Spain. The SF premise is interesting, and it is basically an extended response against Ayn Rand-type philosophy.

[rachelmanija]

I also like Beggars in Spain. The sequels, not so much, but the first book is self-contained.

[luzula]

Thanks! I'll put it on my list of books to check out. : )

[rachelmanija]

GOD STALK. The first book is self-contained, so you could easily either stop there or continue if you enjoyed it. (I liked the sequels, but I liked the first book best.) It's a really unique, fun book with lots of comedy and weirdness. Here's the heroine, who is a magnet for strange disasters, trying out a spell to make bread rise:

Apprehensively, she recited the charm. It usually took Cleppetty half an hour to ready her bread for the oven; Jame's rose in five minutes. When the widow sliced into the baked loaf, however, they discovered that its sudden expansion had been due to the growth of rudimentary internal organs.

That was the end of Jame's apprenticeship in the kitchen.

[luzula]

Thanks! That sounds like something to save up for when I need something light and funny.

[rachelmanija]

Oh! I should warn you that it is funny, but it's not really light. The comedy can be on the dark side, and there's some tragedy and violence and so forth. I find it really fun, but not fluffy.

And when you're in the mood to ponder politics...

[jesse_the_k]

A Door into Ocean explores interesting themes: biodiversity, a planet as an ecosystem, identity politics. Like Kirstein’s Steerswoman series, Slocziewski demonstrates political affairs guided by peace-, not war-makers (Joan is a Quaker.) It’s definitely of a time and place – mid 80s 2nd wave feminism – but it’s one of the best of that era.

---

It seems I could write an essay on Joanna Russ (and many better writers have, since her first publication in 1967). An out lesbian, radical 2nd feminist writing approvingly about parthogenesis blew many minds in the late 60s SF world. Handy bibliography at the Science Fiction Database:

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?222

The Female Man is a key historical document which is as relevant today as when it was written. It’s also post-modern, lacks a hero, and required three read-throughs for me to follow the characters. This essay may help you decide whether it’s worth reading:

http://www.tor.com/2011/03/15/queering-sff-the-female-man-by-joanna-russ-bonus-story-qwhen-it-changed

She wrote other stories set in that universe, including: “When It Changed”, one of the best SF stories ever.
http://web.archive.org/web/20061014180559/www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/russ/russ1.html

She wrote great non-fiction: How to suppress women’s writing uses humor to memorably flay open & teach the oppressor’s rhetorical moves.

Re: And when you're in the mood to ponder politics...

[luzula]

Russ has been on my list of books to check out for a long time, but I haven't gotten around to her yet. And I do recall you mentioning A Door Into Ocean before. Thanks for the recs! : )

[mific]

I like the Books of the Raksura a lot - The Cloud Roads, by Martha Wells. Interesting politics and characters, and great worldbuilding.

I'm very suspicious of John Scalzi stuck in the middle there. Is the whole meme some underhand plan to advertise him?

[luzula]

Thanks, I've been meaning to check out Martha Wells. Just, there are so many interesting books out there. : ) But thanks for the rec!

Yeah, I wondered about the Scalzi book, too. Weird.