sf mistressworks

[iansales]

The Golden Age was not that all-male. Apart from Brackett and Moore, forrest Ackerman cites at least half a dozen female authors published by Hugo Gernsback and includes some of their tales in the collection Gosh! Wow!. Will look up the names and post them here, they could serve as useful pointers for Ian's project.

There's also Women of Wonder: The Classic Years, an anthology edited by Pamela Sargent, which I plan on buying. I've just bought a copy of Women of Wonder: The Contemporary Years. Both are from the mid-1990s, but Sargent also edited three women of wonder anthologies in the mid-1970s.

 

[iansales]

I've actually read both of them fairly recently. I thought WW was a tad squishy in regards to the various mysterious and never adequately explored characters. One could hope that the various sequels got down to the nitty gritty. SofS, OTOH was a good old-fashioned space opera with blasters, space suits and rockets. Much more accessible, but, perhaps not as artistically rendered. The sequels didn't add much.

This probably doesn't help, but I liked the space opera better.

I'll see if I can get hold of a copy, then. Thanks.

 

[iansales]

On SF Mistressworks so far:

China Mountain Zhang, Maureen F McHugh
Grass, Sheri S Tepper
Ammonite, Nicola Griffith
The Journal of Nicholas the American, Leigh Kennedy
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K Le Guin
The Female Man, Joanna Russ
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, Kate Wilhelm
The Steerswoman, Rosemary Kirstein
The Dispossessed, Ursula K Le Guin
Pennterra, Judith Moffett
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
Rebel Sutra, Shariann Lewitt
Escape Plans, Gwyneth Jones
Halfway Human, Carolyn Ives Gilman
And Chaos Died, Joanna Russ
Hermetech, Storm Constantine
Black Wine, Candas Jane Dorsey
The Sword of Rhiannon, Leigh Brackett
Doomtime, Doris Piserchia
Queen City Jazz, Kathleen Ann Goonan
Winterlong, Elizabeth Hand
The City, Long After, Pat Murphy


Check them out.



I'm still looking for more reviews of relevant books, btw.

 

[Connavar]

Good work Ian, i read the first author linked.

I have to see McHugh,Wilhelm and co are easy to get library,second hand.

 

[iansales]

Because SF Mistressworks is only books published before 2000, I suspect some of them might be hard to find. Some authors, like Doris Piserchia, were never even published in the UK (except for one novel by The women's Press). The same is true of Shariann Lewitt and Carolyn Ives Gilman. Still, there's always eBay... And the dealer's room at sf conventions is usually a good source, too.

 

[clovis-man]

Glad to see Kathleen Goonan on the list. Although not terribly prolific, she has a unique voice in the literature.

 

[Connavar]

Because SF Mistressworks is only books published before 2000, I suspect some of them might be hard to find. Some authors, like Doris Piserchia, were never even published in the UK (except for one novel by The women's Press). The same is true of Shariann Lewitt and Carolyn Ives Gilman. Still, there's always eBay... And the dealer's room at sf conventions is usually a good source, too.

If they are realesed in UK or US im good because abebooks have alot of books there. I cant find many popular books even in swedish libraries let alone old,less known acclaimed SF.

It has to be really special for book not find second hand online.

 

[dask]

Do DAW books make it to the UK? Piserchia also wrote horror type sf using the pen name Curt Selby.

 

[iansales]

Do DAW books make it to the UK? Piserchia also wrote horror type sf using the pen name Curt Selby.

US books were not routinely distributed in the UK and so only available from specialist sf book shops such as Birmingham's Andromeda Bookshop (which closed over 10 years ago).

 

[thatollie]

I was going to suggest a short story anthology called New Eves, but checking on Amazon it appears to be a pain to get a hold of.

 

[iansales]

New Eves looks like it has interesting contents - see here. I'll see if I can track down a copy. Thanks.

 

[thatollie]

An anthology that's quite easy to get a hold of would really add to the list, short stories have always been really important to the genre.

 

[antiloquax]

I very much like your blog post. I am a fan of Russ, Haden-Elgin and Marge Piercy. Glad to see there's a lot more to discover. Planning to read some Cherryh next.
a

 

[Fried Egg]

Since I've now challenged myself to read at least ten books from this list this year, I thought I'd post my mini reviews as I go along.

First up, "Orlando" by Virginia Woolf

My apologies in advance to anyone who likes this book, I can only preface this review by stating up front that I probably came to this book for the wrong reasons, reading it with misplaced expectations.

I'm a big science fiction fan and I was given the impression that this was one of the classics of SF, an early example of a female authored SF. And let's face it, SF it isn't. At least not after 150 pages which is as far as I managed to sustain an interest.

That said, it need not have been a barrier to me enjoying the novel. It doesn't have to be SF to be of interest to me. But try as I might, I just couldn't really enjoy this on any level. I guess it was deliberately written this way but it was devoid of any kind of narrative tension and hardly any dialogue. I was hoping that when the pivotal event happened (Orlando became a woman) that it would all come together and the story would really take off. Instead, the opposite happened. Once Orlando returned to England the story became dull, dull, dull. What little interest I had maintained until that point disappeared completely and I found myself simply not caring what was going to happen next.

Like I said, I'm fully prepared to admit that I am the wrong man for this book. I'm not saying this is inherently a bad book, only that it is very bad for me. Only let my review put you off reading it if you think you are considering it for the same reasons as I did.

 

[antiloquax]

Hi FriedEgg,

Im sorry to hear you didn't enjoy the first book you'd chosen for this "challenge".

I think you are right that "Orlando" is in no way an SF novel. My feeling was that it was a kind of magic realism and probably influenced writers such as Jeannette Winterson.

I did enjoy it myself, but then I like the other novels of hers that I have read (especially "Mrs. Dalloway").

Anyway, good luck with the rest of your challenge.
mark

 

[Fried Egg]

Well currently I'm reading "Sarah Canary" by Karen Joy Fowler and, so far, I'm enjoying it much more.

I know it's still early days (I'm about 100 pages in) but it's interesting to note that (once again): 1) So far very little in the way of SF in evidence, 2) This has also been described as magical realism. I hope soon I'm actually going to find some SF in this challenge!

 

[Extollager]

Jane Austen's books, for example, are still considered classics and they're 300 years old.

Just to amend a possible slip of the keyboard, this should be 200 years, with her novels being published from 1811 (Sense and Sensibility) to, posthumously, 1818 (Northanger Abbey, Persuasion), the year Frankenstein was published.

 

[Bick]

First up, "Orlando" by Virginia Woolf

My apologies in advance to anyone who likes this book, ... I'm not saying this is inherently a bad book, only that it is very bad for me.

I'm quite willing to believe it's empirically rubbish, Fried Egg
My second attempt to read some Virginia Woolf ended with me hurling To the Lighthouse in a bin as I passed by. Unreadable, sleep-inducing garbage. See here for another write up on Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group, with which I have some sympathy.

 

[GOLLUM]

As as Woolf fan boy runs for cover....

Actually I've never read Orlando. It's in my TBR pile but comments here are making me think twice.

I enjoyed The Waves her most experimental novel as well as A Room of One's Own. To the Lighthouse is one of her better known works and as I recall I had a decent enough reaction to it. It's more than 20 years since I read it, so my tastes may have changed.

One of my New Year resolutions was to read more Woolf, Orwell and Joyce in 2014.

 

[antiloquax]

Well currently I'm reading "Sarah Canary" by Karen Joy Fowler and, so far, I'm enjoying it much more.

I hope soon I'm actually going to find some SF in this challenge!

I don't know that one, ...

Just had another look at the original list:
Here are some I enjoyed which def. feel like SF novels:

"Grass" Sherry S. Tepper. Set on another planet, interesting alien species which interact with humans in unexpected ways ...

"Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang" Kate Wilhelm (I am currently reading this but it is about cloning and won a Hugo).

"Native Tongue" Suzette Haden Elgin - I love the way she handles interaction with alien species, but this book is "really" about patriarchy, power and language.

"The Female Man" Joanna Russ. I have also read "We Who Are About To ... " which was a big disappointment in comparison. TFM is great.

"The Silver Metal Lover" by Tanith Lee. Inventive book about a girl who falls in love with a robot. I wasn't expecting to like this, but I really did.

"Cyteen" by C. J. Cherryh - okay, I haven't read this one, but on the strength of "Downbelow Station" (which I have) I am sure it is a cool space opera type thing.

"Beggars in Spain" by Nancy Kress. I actually did not adore this, but it is an interesting book. Comparable to "Odd John" (in terms of content if not quality).




"Herland" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Not really SF. Very good early female utopia book though.
"The Handmaid's Tale" (Margaret Atwood" is a brilliant book, although not really SF. It's a dystopia that could almost be set in present day America (but with most people being infertile).

Actually I agree with Connavar. I don't like it when a mainstream literary fiction author includes an SF trope or two in their work and then gets massive plaudits for being a great SF writer from people who would not be seen dead reading a book with a space-ship on the cover.