bookgazing (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bookgazing) wrote2010-10-20 12:00 am
bookgazing) wrote2010-10-20 12:00 am
Is It Just Fantasy? No There's Sci-fi Too
I need to leave my book club. It’s not one of those lovely clubs where you read books together, it’s the kind that sends you catalogues full of cheap hardbacks that you can buy. I’ve been so good and haven’t bought a thing since the beginning of the year, but this month they sent out the Christmas gift magazine, which is full of tempting sets, including the sf and fantasy book bundles (yes bundleS I feel I was very restrained to just get one).
Ten hard backs became mine for just £25. This seems like a great bargain when you consider that I really wanted seven of these books, quite fancied the other three and even in paperback seven books would cost around £35 - £40. Here’s what I got (if you’re bored of ‘books wot I got’ lists please let me know and I’ll cut them out next year):
'Fire' - Kristin Cashore
'The Adamantine Palace' - Stephen Deas
'Best Served Cold' - Joe Abercrombie
'Last Argument of Kings' - Joe Abercrombie
'Nights of Villjamur' - Mark Charan Newton
'The Edge of the World' - Kevin J. Anderson
'Red Seas Under Red Skies' - Scott Lynch
'Reaper's Gale' - Steven Erikson
'Heritage of the Xandim' - Maggie Furey
'Shout for the Dead' - James Barclay
They are preeeeety.
This seems like a good moment to mention that Naill over at Torque Control is collecting peoples top ten lists of sci-fi novels written by women (worldwide, in the last ten years) in response to realisations that US and UK sci-fi may not contain many female writers (thanks to The Booksmugglers for sharing the links).
I don’t read that much sci-fi right now. My interests have spread all over the fictional map this year, but I do and always will love sci-fi and fantasy so I guess I should just say this concerns me, but I haven’t really done anything to further the cause of female sci-fi writers.
Of course the wonderful thing about a reading life is that there’s always next year. I joined The Women of Sci-fi and The Women of Fantasy reading groups recently (I’m not going to call them challenges, lest my challenge averseness makes me fall of the wagon). All the reading will take place in 2011, with readers aiming to read a specific book by a female author each month (but you don’t have to read all the books). I defy you not to be seduced by the bootiful covers put up in the sign up posts. I feel like making this a super huge sf/fantasy post so here’s what I’ll be aiming to read next year:
January: Dust – Elizabeth Bear (sf)
February: The Dispossessed – Ursula Le Guin (sf)
March: Prospero Lost – L Jagi Lamplighter (fantasy)
April: Four and Twenty Blackbirds – Cherie Priest (fantasy)
June: Liliths Brood – Octavia Butler (sf)
July: All the Windwracked Stars – Elizabeth Bear (fantasy)
October: Farthing – Jo Walton (sf) and Tooth and Claw – Jo Walton (fantasy) (I know a double commitment month, what am I thinking?)
November: Gaslight Dogs – Karin Lowachee (fantasy)
Let me know if you sign up for either of next year’s groups. I’d love to see sci-fi and fantasy posts appearing all year.
Ten hard backs became mine for just £25. This seems like a great bargain when you consider that I really wanted seven of these books, quite fancied the other three and even in paperback seven books would cost around £35 - £40. Here’s what I got (if you’re bored of ‘books wot I got’ lists please let me know and I’ll cut them out next year):
'Fire' - Kristin Cashore
'The Adamantine Palace' - Stephen Deas
'Best Served Cold' - Joe Abercrombie
'Last Argument of Kings' - Joe Abercrombie
'Nights of Villjamur' - Mark Charan Newton
'The Edge of the World' - Kevin J. Anderson
'Red Seas Under Red Skies' - Scott Lynch
'Reaper's Gale' - Steven Erikson
'Heritage of the Xandim' - Maggie Furey
'Shout for the Dead' - James Barclay
They are preeeeety.
This seems like a good moment to mention that Naill over at Torque Control is collecting peoples top ten lists of sci-fi novels written by women (worldwide, in the last ten years) in response to realisations that US and UK sci-fi may not contain many female writers (thanks to The Booksmugglers for sharing the links).
I don’t read that much sci-fi right now. My interests have spread all over the fictional map this year, but I do and always will love sci-fi and fantasy so I guess I should just say this concerns me, but I haven’t really done anything to further the cause of female sci-fi writers.
Of course the wonderful thing about a reading life is that there’s always next year. I joined The Women of Sci-fi and The Women of Fantasy reading groups recently (I’m not going to call them challenges, lest my challenge averseness makes me fall of the wagon). All the reading will take place in 2011, with readers aiming to read a specific book by a female author each month (but you don’t have to read all the books). I defy you not to be seduced by the bootiful covers put up in the sign up posts. I feel like making this a super huge sf/fantasy post so here’s what I’ll be aiming to read next year:
January: Dust – Elizabeth Bear (sf)
February: The Dispossessed – Ursula Le Guin (sf)
March: Prospero Lost – L Jagi Lamplighter (fantasy)
April: Four and Twenty Blackbirds – Cherie Priest (fantasy)
June: Liliths Brood – Octavia Butler (sf)
July: All the Windwracked Stars – Elizabeth Bear (fantasy)
October: Farthing – Jo Walton (sf) and Tooth and Claw – Jo Walton (fantasy) (I know a double commitment month, what am I thinking?)
November: Gaslight Dogs – Karin Lowachee (fantasy)
Let me know if you sign up for either of next year’s groups. I’d love to see sci-fi and fantasy posts appearing all year.
