sf mistressworks

[antiloquax]

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 loved it. If you like Woolf at all, don't be put off.
If you have not read "Mrs. Dalloway", I suggest you read that and then read "The Hours" by Michael Cunningham. I found that a very enjoyable combination.

 

[Fried Egg]

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

Thanks for the recommendations, a few of which I have already read and others I will definitely try to seek out in the course of my sampling books on this list.

"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).

I have read this one and I very much considered it to be SF. Extrapolating into the not too distant future to present a dark and depressing vision of what society might become like is very much something I like to read in SF.

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.

That doesn't really bother me; what bothers me more is when a mainstream author attempts to deny their work as being SF when it clearly is. A form of snobbery and looking down on the genre.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

The June or July issue of Lightspeed magazine will be an all-female-writers double-sized issue.

 

[antiloquax]

I have read this one [The Handmaid's Tale] and I very much considered it to be SF. Extrapolating into the not too distant future to present a dark and depressing vision of what society might become like is very much something I like to read in SF.

That doesn't really bother me; what bothers me more is when a mainstream author attempts to deny their work as being SF when it clearly is. A form of snobbery and looking down on the genre.

Interesting points, Fried Egg. I'm glad you enjoyed "The Handmaid's Tale". I think it is a really great novel. Strangely, I haven't read any of her other books ... something I should put right.

 

[Fried Egg]

My next reading from this list was a great improvement upon the first:

"Sarah Canary" by Karen Joy Fowler

A beautifully written, philosophical work set in late nineteenth century America that explores issues of racism, sexism, mental illness and exploitation of the time.

Sarah Canary, so named by one of the central characters of the story, appears out of nowhere to blaze a path through Northwest America and the lives of the people she encounters despite not being able to understand anyone, nor speak intelligibly herself. Her origin remains a mystery throughout and it never becomes clear why she seems to have such a magnetic effect on those she meets, nor why everyone she encounters seem to project their own ideas about who or what she is.

I'm not so sure this is even a science fiction story at all although I accept it is one possible interpretation. I just think there is very little in the story itself to suggest this interpretation in particular. Whether Sarah Canary is or is not an alien doesn't really matter though, the important thing is the effect that she has on the lives of the characters she encounters and the way they come to understand themselves.

So, all in all a very good book marred only slightly by a somewhat weak sense of direction. I am definitely keen on trying something else she has written.

 

[David Selig]

My next reading from this list was a great improvement upon the first:

"Sarah Canary" by Karen Joy Fowler

A beautifully written, philosophical work set in late nineteenth century America that explores issues of racism, sexism, mental illness and exploitation of the time.

Sarah Canary, so named by one of the central characters of the story, appears out of nowhere to blaze a path through Northwest America and the lives of the people she encounters despite not being able to understand anyone, nor speak intelligibly herself. Her origin remains a mystery throughout and it never becomes clear why she seems to have such a magnetic effect on those she meets, nor why everyone she encounters seem to project their own ideas about who or what she is.

I'm not so sure this is even a science fiction story at all although I accept it is one possible interpretation. I just think there is very little in the story itself to suggest this interpretation in particular. Whether Sarah Canary is or is not an alien doesn't really matter though, the important thing is the effect that she has on the lives of the characters she encounters and the way they come to understand themselves.

So, all in all a very good book marred only slightly by a somewhat weak sense of direction. I am definitely keen on trying something else she has written.

I'd recommend Fowler's latest novel, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. It's not SFF in the conventional sense (Fowler doesn't do that in her novels, only in her short fiction, at least from what I've read of her work), since it takes place in a contemporary setting with no fantastical elements, but it's very much science, its ethics, the consequences of scientific experiments, biology, etc, plus it's really well written. My choice for best 2013 novel Ive read so far. Her short fiction is really good too.

 

[Connavar]

What kind of list are you going after FE? With all these light SF element general fiction books.

I might read Fowler for good exploration of racism, sexism but for SF mistressworks list im not sure.

 

[Fried Egg]

I'm expecting my list of books to look something like this:

ORLANDO - Virginia Woolf
WITCH WORLD - Andre Norton
THE FEMALE MAN - Joanna Russ
ARSLAN - M. J. Engh
SHIKASTA - Doris Lessing
THE SILVER METAL LOVER - Tanith Lee
CYTEEN - C. J. Cherryh
SARAH CANARY - Karen Joy Fowler
AMMONITE - Nicola Griffith
HALFWAY HUMAN - Carolyn Ives Gilman