Reviews and Blog Posts: Science Fiction

When I set the challenge to find sci-fi and fantasy that featured women who weren’t fan service, sidekicks, or the only woman in the book, I thought it would be relatively easy and definitely fun to research. After all, sci-fi and fantasy are making a comeback and there are so many great new books published every year. What we found instead is that even now it’s hard to find books written about women who exist as actual people. It’s easier in Teen fiction, but I think there’s more of a push and purpose in that area to make sure that young women and girls have people to look up to.

What is the Weird West you ask? The Weird West takes all your favorite nuggets from genres such as Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy and puts in them in an American West setting (or off-world in a place very much like the American West) and tells a story in a gritty and descriptive language that propels readers through each action-packed moment.

Weird West Books:

Just one of DPL's many panels is entitled: It's the End of the World as We Know It: Books that Taught Us Survival Strategies for a Terrifying Future. Here's a brief description:

Meeting at some point between science fiction, apocalyptic fiction, thriller, and contemporary fiction, these books take some of today's predictions and warnings about climate change and extrapolate. With Earth Day and the weather on many people's minds these days, it might be time to try one of these reads. They range from thought-provoking to thrilling!

The Odds Against Tomorrow, Nathaniel Rich

The winners won't be announced until September, so you have plenty of time to get caught up on some of the year's best science fiction! The nominees are:

Best Novel

Our next meeting is Saturday, April 20 from 10-11:30 a.m. in the Burnham Hoyt book club room at the Central Library. We’re reading Glow by Amy Ryan. If you want to join us, read the book and come hang out. We’ll have coffee and donuts. If you don’t get a chance to read the book in time but want to join the book club, come by anyway. We’ll be picking books for the next sessions plus talking about the book we read. I’m pretty sure no one bites.

What is the Tiptree? Given since 1991, it is "an annual literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender...The aim of the award is not to look for work that falls into some narrow definition of political correctness, but rather to seek out work that is thought-provoking, imaginative, and perhaps even infuriating." The Tiptree is named after Alice B. Sheldon, who used the pen name James Tiptree, Jr. to publish her science fiction and fantasy stories, genres largely closed to women at the time she was writing.

I've read 8 out of 11 (I'm embarrassed to admit that the ones I haven't read are the "classics"). How many have you read? Did they get the list right? Would you take any out? What would you add? And, most importantly, which one of the ones I haven't read (in bold) should I read next? Maybe we'll make it a Geeks Who Read Book Club selection for 2013!