ŷ������

Hello everyone, very excited to see this group here.

I was in grad school for the last three years, so I am not as well read as I would like, but I recently finished and now I have time to read for myself again.

Ursula K. LeGuin (my favorite writer in general)
Octavia Butler
Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
Women of Wonder: Science-Fiction Stories by Women about Women
The Heat Death of the Universe by Pamela Zoline (short story)
James Tiptree Jr.
The Maid of the North: Feminist Folk Tales from Around the World
Lightspeed Magazine: Women Destroy Science Fiction!

One author I am surprised not to have seen mentioned in this thread yet is Nnedi Okorafor

I discovered her right before entering grad school so I haven't read as much as I would like yet, but her novel Who Fears Death blew me away. It is very disturbing, but also very powerful and unique work of science-fantasy with some strong feminist themes and moments. Her YA fantasy novel Akata Witch is also very good, as is every short story of hers I've read. (My apologies if someone has mentioned her and I missed it.

One novel I'm hoping to read sometime soon is Joanna Russ' The Female Man. Loved her story When it Changed back when I read it in college (undergrad) but I still haven't read anything else by her.

Honorable Mention: Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
Actually a fantasy novel and written by a man, but it is one of the first works (that I am aware of) to criticize the fact that traditionally all wizards are male.

Hi Viv and Tony! Some great writers listed there!

Hi, just joined the grp & haven't had time to scroll all the way thru this discussion (sorry), but has any1 mentioned/tried Sheri Tepper yet? 2 of her books, The Gate to Women's Country and The Fresco are 2 of my very favorite feminist books.

Hi Lynn! Tepper has of course been mentioned in this group on occasion... but perhaps less often than she deserves.
ŷ������ lets you search what's been said in a group: /group/comme...

You can also search the shelves of group members.
Unsurprisingly, it turns out The Gate to Women's Country is popular here: /group/show_...
The Fresco much less so however...

Hi Lynn! Glad to see you here!

Thank you! And I urge you to read Tepper's The Fresco if possible, it's excellent!

Hi, new to this group but I am trying to read more books by women. I enjoyed the Ancillary Justice books and would like to read more like that.

Welcome to the group Ultra! Ann Lecke's books are fabulous. Lots more in the same vein in our "Read" category, take a peek!

Having a look through the threads now, already added Zero Sum Game to my TBR list ;)

Ultra wrote: "Having a look through the threads now, already added Zero Sum Game to my TBR list ;)"

I hope you don't mind me asking something off topic Ultra, but is that your pet rat in your profile picture? I have two of them myself.

More On topic: Yes, I found several books I would like to read going through here. I have he first Ancillary Justice book on audio and I am looking forward to listening to it.

Hey Tony, yes that's one of my rats, I breed and show them. They are the best pets :D

Ultra wrote: "Hey Tony, yes that's one of my rats, I breed and show them. They are the best pets :D"

They sure are. I like mice too, but rats have more personality and affection. I was inspired to try them both out because of all of the rat and mouse related books, movies, etc.. I loved as a kid.
I even have a bookshelf dedicated to them.
/review/list...

Anyway, I better cut out this off topic stuff, lol.

Hello friendly sci fi feminists... My name is Patty and this is my introduction. I love to read Sci Fi, but I have never found a great female author to follow in this genre so I'm reading through this introduction page to add some books to my TBR shelves. Looking to also add a few friends to my profile so I can compare books. Send a request my way if you are interested! :)

Welcome, Patty, just sent you a fr. req.

Lynn wrote: "Welcome, Patty, just sent you a fr. req."
thank you!! :)

Tony wrote: "Hello everyone, very excited to see this group here.

I was in grad school for the last three years, so I am not as well read as I would like, but I recently finished and now I have time to read fo..."
I love the work of Okorafor and I agree that she should be mentioned here. Really powerful books told from a non traditional western viewpoint.

Sounds great, wish I didn't live 12 hours away; I would join a group like that if there any in my area in a minute!

WackyRomanticPyrate wrote: "Anyone here from West Los Angeles? Would it be welcome to make a local meetups folder? Invite for this Sunday below!

My fav books are: ( most think the author is feminist, I think the book is also..."

"*For women born women only*"? So this was a trans-exclusionary event? Shame on TERFs :c

#notallterfs

Taken literally, the criteria would exclude other people besides transwomen. Excluding some groups in some circumstances can in principle be justified but "women born women only" was either poorly thought out or plain bigotry.
I had pondered deleting that post because of that turn of phrase. Then there's the spamming aspect. But I figured deleting the post might be more harmful than beneficial. Do tell if you think I erred.

I, uh, would be and am uncomfortable in a group that will let that sort of phrasing slide.

Sorry for contributing to making you uncomfortable then. My bias is generally towards letting things slide. Hopefully you'll accept the symbolic deletion of the offending post as an apology.
Though there isn't much point in belaboring the matter considering the group is basically dead and I have little time for ŷ������ (or even for reading fiction) these days, do tell if you have other concerns.

Maybe you'd also like to point people to an explainer so that they might understand your perspective, how not to be an asshole and so forth.

I'm Mirielen, I'm 23 and I'm a Arts & Design student with focus in cinema. I like to read about everything except horror books. I love comics, I'm addicted with tv shows and movies (Netflix is my church kkkk)... I'm trying to finish 13 books because a book bingo, I could eat Bis all day, I like to write but I don't have courage to show it to anyone.
I'm trying a Lesbian Book Bingo from JAE and I'm really late with the books.
I adore music, Jazz is my favorite genre (did you ever heard Holly Cole singing? She's amazing!) and I'm a weirdo here because of it. But I like rock and heavy metal too.
I got dumped because I'm "too nerd" and it was hard but I'm proud of myself.
English is not my first language so sorry any mistake and hiiii!

Hi, Mirielen, welcome!

Hi Mirelen!
Don't worry about English mistakes. It's not my first language either so I'm hardly qualified to judge but I think you're doing fine.
Feel free to try to revive this group if there's something you'd like to talk about like feminism (or the frustrating lack thereof) in science-fictioney TV or movies.

Thank you ❣❣❣❣��

Hi my name is Milly and I joined this page to get into feminist sci fi books, does anyone have any reccomendations for my first?

The most celebrated authors in this subgenre are probably U.K. Le Guin (recently deceased) and O. Butler. Both have written remarkable short fiction so you can get a taste without investing much of your time. If you don't mind grimly political and occasionally violent stories, I'd recommend starting with Bloodchild and Matter of Seggri.

One neat feature of ŷ������ group is that you can look up the ratings and reviews posted by group members if you search for a book in the group's bookshelf.
If you want to look at what people outside of this group tag as feminist SF, there's also www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/feminist...

Milly wrote: "Hi my name is Milly and I joined this page to get into feminist sci fi books, does anyone have any reccomendations for my first?"


Hi Milly,

You have so many options to choose from...

If you haven't read Joanna Russ, I think you should start with "We Who are About to..." It's a quick read. After that, I would read her Alyx stories, especially "Picnic on Paradise." Russ was a queer academic etc., great writer.

Octavia Butler is also great, her work deals with power structures of many shapes and sizes. "Lilith's Brood" was my starting point.

James Tiptree Jr.'s "Screwfly Solution". "The Girl Who Was Plugged In". "Your Faces, O My Sisters! Your Faces Filled of Light!" Tiptree was a badass/tragic figure. Her stories can be very heavy and disturbing, tread carefully.

N.K. Jesimin's "Broken Earth" series is brilliant. It's contemporary, and the least problematic out of any of my recommendations. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Samuel Delany is an amazing writer, but doesn't always have the best track record regarding gender. That being said "Tales of Neveryon" is feminist, read it!

Nicola Griffith's "Ammonite" is also worth a read. It has its problems, but I mostly liked it.


Although LeGuin was a great writer, some of her works are kinda misogynistic. I find her to be triggering... She's worth a mention, but I've found that the previous authors listed provide a more rewarding reading experience.

Milly wrote: "Hi my name is Milly and I joined this page to get into feminist sci fi books, does anyone have any reccomendations for my first?"

A lot my recommendations include disturbing/mature themes. I didn't read a lot of these until college. I can include content warnings for the stories I've recommended if you would like.

This is going to be pretty random but... I think I recall Ann-Marie Hendrickson reading The Girl Who Was Plugged In on the radio 10 years ago or so. Does anyone else remember that by any chance?

I find the definite misogyny in Le Guin to be more a (sometimes exagerated) reflection of the culture in which she was writing rather than revealing of the writer's issues. Her perspective also doesn't come off as peculiarly North American (unlike Butler's or Tiptree's for instance).
We all seem to agree Lilith's Brood is great anyway. It's also been published as Xenogenesis or as three separate books (the first one is called Dawn).

Welcome, Matt!

Hi
I can't remember if I have introduced myself. I did just now on a sub thread. I read solely feminist SF for years in the 70s and 80s. ( I started reading Sf at the age of 7 or 8 in the 60s).

I have read many of the SF authors mentioned and I plan to look at the feminist SF bookshelf created by OUTIS? I am introducing SF to my bookclub with "the left hand of darkness".

A name I haven't seen mentioned in my skim readings of these threads is Doris Lessing. I plan to try to reread those very obscure SF books she wrote (I think there were 4-5 of them).

so hi to those folks still reading these threads.

Hello Nichola.
I also used to read LeGuin, Butler and so forth before the days of the Internet. But I may never have read Lessing. You're right: while it's not the first time I hear about her work, she's not mentionned very often in the context of this subgenre.

If I may answer here a question you asked in another thread, this group was created and originally run by women. Naturally, there used to be lots of female voices in the threads (you can still read them of course). But after a while, the group's creator life priorities changed while the main female contributor to the discussion disappeared from ŷ������. There are of course other women who made valuable contributions to the group but the ones who are still active have either dialed down their activity or have never been very active here to begin with.
I currently don't have much time to contribute either (in fact I don't have much time to read fiction these days) but I'm sticking around mainly to provide administrative support in case that was needed by someone who might want to revive this dead group. One advantage over starting a new group would be that this group has a lot of old members and I assume some of them would get notifications about any new group activity.
Certainly you are welcome to critique and analyse SF here (even if you're only reposting something you originally wrote elsewhere) and see that resonates with the people who are still getting notifications.

Hi, I'm Jass Richards and I write feminist novels, two of which are science fiction -- or at least speculative fiction.

The ReGender App is just out:
What if there was an app that could cloak you in a cross-gendered hologram? And it had a voice modulation module? Women could present as men and get better-paying jobs. Men could present as women and get groped in the subway. Cool.

A Philosopher, a Psychologist, and an Extra-terrestrial Walk into a Chocolate Bar was published a couple years ago ...

And since I published the first-mentioned myself (the second was published by Lacuna), I can offer review copies to anyone who asks!The ReGender App

/book/show/4...

If anyone is interested in an active group here on ŷ������ that reads feminist science fiction, check out Women of the Future

/group/show/...

Hey Everyone, I'm Christabel or Chrissy to my friends. I joined the group yesterday and thought I should stop by to say hello. I've been into reading for as long as I can remember, but I guess it was Mockingjay from the Hunger Games series which introduced me to feminist speculative fiction. There were things about the book I didn't like, but the overall concept was great and it was refreshing to see a strong female character in an action role. I greedily devoured the rest of the series and read a bunch of other feminist sf and fantasy. I especially enjoyed Malinda Lo's Huntress, because it featured two female characters in love at a time when I was starting to come to terms with my own sexuality and the relationship was such a non-issue. The Handmaid's Tale is another big fave of mine. It's great to meet you all.

Hi Everyone,
What a great group! I just recently joined, and I have a question. Is this also a space where writers such as myself can request reviews for Advanced Review Copies? If so, I'd love to find readers for my new feminist science fiction book. I can write more if it's okay to solicit readers, if not, then I apologize in advance!

Hi Susan,
This group is basically dead but as long as no one has a better idea for what to do with it, I think it should be used for promotion.
First and foremost however, I think it should be used to promote alternatives, whether it be the Women of the Future group or completely different things outside of ŷ������.

The topic of ARC has come up before, and the only problems with that are that we don't want to abuse people's notifications for commercial purposes and that we want to avoid overwhelming the group with commercial content.
I think the latter problem is easier to manage: make a thread dedicated to ARC or R4R offers, with a title which clearly signals its the commercial nature. This way, members interested in such offers could subscribe to the thread. There could conceivably be two or three such threads but we can't have every author creating a new one, especially considering there is so little non-commercial activity. So if you do create such a thread, please open with a paragraph instructing other authors to post in the same thread upon pain of deletion and use an adequately generic title.
As to the other problem, I can only ask you not to post such offers too frequently. Likewise, I can't allow a bunch of your aquaintances to post many times in order to draw attention to your work or something. Most importantly though, I ask you to carefully consider the nature of the group before promoting your work and only go ahead if you are honestly convinced it's not off-topic. In doubt, message me privately.

Finally, since this has unfortunately come up of late, while this group is non-sectarian and I am biased towards freedom of speech, I can of course not condone hateful or gratuitously offensive content in this group. Again, in doubt message me privately before posting.
Thank you!

Thanks so much for your reply! It seems like it would be better for me to focus on groups dedicated to ARCS.
Take care, and thanks again!
Susan

I joined! Yes I am a feminist from my first memories. My aunt took me to Chicago to volunteer with the Jane project and I was hooked.

The drives there and back, and all around the country protesting forced pregnancy in the 70's led to my SF addiction and progressive politics, ethics, and writings . Dune, 1984, , Frankenstein. Woman protagonists hit me the most. Like the movies Aeon Flux, Alien(s). So I wrote one book too.

If I can promote it here- in the spirit of progressive politics, human rights, reproductive rights, gender empathy . I will try it for those reasons only!

Proximity Factor by S.S. Jung
Meet Cynthia Austin, a brilliant 32-year-old PhD neurologist whose career has taken her to the forefront of high-security scientific experimentation within the US Pentagon's Air Force Division.Assigned to evaluate a mysterious project gone wrong in the remote community of Gakona, Alaska, Cynthia soon discovers an global experiment with dystopian consequences. Fighting against rogue scientists, human experimentation, mind control and hallucinations. Her investigations uncover a plan to bring our government, institutions and environment�� to an end as we know it. Only to open it up to other worlds.