The SF “Mistressworks” Meme

I may be doing a little better today.  I can sit up without feeling like I’m going to keel over, anyway, which is progress.  Dying to do some real exercise, since inactivity is hell on my joints and muscles.

No writing, for obvious reasons.  Instead, have a meme that I’ve been meaning to do for ages (and have put off for fear of showing my ignorance): The SF Mistressworks list:

The list is in order of year of publication.

You know how it works: bold those you’ve read, italicise those you own but have not read. (If you’ve read the entire named series, you can even emboldenize that as well.)

1 Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (1818)
2 Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1915)
3 Orlando, Virginia Woolf (1928)
4 Lest Ye Die, Cicely Hamilton (1928)
5 Swastika Night, Katherine Burdekin (1937)
6 Wrong Side of the Moon, Francis Leslie Ashton (1951)
7 The Sword of Rhiannon, Leigh Brackett (1953)
8 Pilgrimage: The Book of the People, Zenna Henderson (1961)
9 Memoirs of a Spacewoman, Naomi Mitchison (1962)
10 Witch World, Andre Norton (1963)
11 Sunburst, Phyllis Gotlieb (1964)
12 Jirel of Joiry, CL Moore (1969)
13 Heroes and Villains, Angela Carter (1969)
14 Ten Thousand Light Years From Home, James Tiptree Jr (1973)
15 The Dispossessed, Ursula K Le Guin (1974)
16 Walk to the End of the World, Suzy McKee Charnas (1974)
17 The Female Man, Joanna Russ (1975)
18 Missing Man, Katherine MacLean (1975)
19 Arslan, MJ Engh (1976)
20 Floating Worlds, Cecelia Holland (1976)
21 Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, Kate Wilhelm (1976)
22 Islands, Marta Randall (1976)
23 Dreamsnake, Vonda N McIntyre (1978)
24 False Dawn, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (1978)
25 Shikasta [Canopus in Argos: Archives], Doris Lessing (1979)
26 Kindred, Octavia Butler (1979)
27 Benefits, Zoe Fairbairns (1979)
28 The Snow Queen, Joan D Vinge (1980)
29 The Silent City, Élisabeth Vonarburg (1981)
30 The Silver Metal Lover, Tanith Lee (1981)
31 The Many-Coloured Land [Saga of the Exiles], Julian May (1981)
32 Darkchild [Daughters of the Sunstone], Sydney J van Scyoc (1982)
33 The Crystal Singer, Anne McCaffrey (1982)
34 Native Tongue, Suzette Haden Elgin (1984)
35 The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (1985)
36 Jerusalem Fire, RM Meluch (1985)
37 Children of Anthi, Jay D Blakeney (1985)
38 The Dream Years, Lisa Goldstein (1985)
39 Despatches from the Frontiers of the Female Mind, Sarah Lefanu & Jen Green (1985)
40 Queen of the States, Josephine Saxton (1986)
41 The Wave and the Flame [Lear's Daughters], Marjorie Bradley Kellogg (1986)
42 The Journal of Nicholas the American, Leigh Kennedy (1986)
43 A Door into Ocean, Joan Slonczewski (1986)
44 Angel at Apogee, SN Lewitt (1987)
45 In Conquest Born, CS Friedman (1987)
46 Pennterra, Judith Moffett (1987)
47 Kairos, Gwyneth Jones (1988)
48 Cyteen , CJ Cherryh (1988)
49 Unquenchable Fire, Rachel Pollack (1988)
50 The City, Not Long After, Pat Murphy (1988)
51 The Steerswoman [Steerswoman series], Rosemary Kirstein (1989)
52 The Third Eagle, RA MacAvoy (1989)
53 Grass, Sheri S Tepper (1989)
54 Heritage of Flight, Susan Shwartz (1989)
55 Falcon, Emma Bull (1989)
56 The Archivist, Gill Alderman (1989)
57 Winterlong [Winterlong trilogy], Elizabeth Hand (1990)
58 A Gift Upon the Shore, MK Wren (1990)
59 Red Spider, White Web, Misha (1990)
60 Polar City Blues, Katharine Kerr (1990)
61 Body of Glass (AKA He, She and It), Marge Piercy (1991)
62 Sarah Canary, Karen Joy Fowler (1991)
63 Beggars in Spain [Sleepless trilogy], Nancy Kress (1991)
64 A Woman of the Iron People, Eleanor Arnason (1991)
65 Hermetech, Storm Constantine (1991)
66 China Mountain Zhang, Maureen F McHugh (1992)
67 Fools, Pat Cadigan (1992)
68 Correspondence, Sue Thomas (1992)
69 Lost Futures, Lisa Tuttle (1992)
70 Doomsday Book, Connie Willis (1992)
71 Ammonite, Nicola Griffith (1993)
72 The Holder of the World, Bharati Mukherjee (1993)
73 Queen City Jazz, Kathleen Ann Goonan (1994)
74 Happy Policeman, Patricia Anthony (1994)
75 Shadow Man, Melissa Scott (1995)
76 Legacies, Alison Sinclair (1995)
77 Primary Inversion [Skolian Saga], Catherine Asaro (1995)
78 Alien Influences, Kristine Kathryn Rusch (1995)
79 The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell (1996)
80 Memory [Vorkosigan series], Lois McMaster Bujold (1996)
81 Remnant Population, Elizabeth Moon (1996)
82 Looking for the Mahdi, N Lee Wood (1996)
83 An Exchange of Hostages [Jurisdiction series], Susan R Matthews (1997)
84 Fool’s War, Sarah Zettel (1997)
85 Black Wine, Candas Jane Dorsey (1997)
86 Halfway Human, Carolyn Ives Gilman (1998)
87 Vast, Linda Nagata (1998)
88 Hand of Prophecy, Severna Park (1998)
89 Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson (1998)
90 Dreaming in Smoke, Tricia Sullivan (1999)
91 Ash: A Secret History, Mary Gentle (2000)

Yeah, I haven’t actually read a lot of this list.  Which brings me to the question – what is really worth reading on the list that I haven’t yet?

 

 

Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn.

Not a Review: Power and Majesty and The Shattered City, by Tansy Rayner Roberts

I’ve been toying with the idea of blogging more about some of the books that I read.  Not doing formal reviews, but just rambling a bit about them.

And so I shall begin, looking at two books: Power and Majesty and The Shattered City, books one and two of The Creature Court by Tansy Rayner Roberts.

I have to say one thing first – Tansy is a huge inspiration to me.  I’ve been following her blog and Twitter feed for a long time, and have been constantly amazed by how she balances her life – she is a small business owner, a mother and a writer.  And on top of that, she reviews books, and is part of the podcasting team at Galactic Suburbia.

Tansy has given me so much hope that I can find balance in my own life – especially with balancing mothering and writing.  I was very happy to be able to meet her at Swancon and thank her for her inspiration face to face.

And now, onto the books.  Which, I have to say, have some amazing covers.  They reminded me at first of the Australian editions of Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels books (which may be intentional, perhaps, because the series do have similar feels to them, in my opinion, anyway).

I adore Tansy’s writing in this.  Her voice is so strong in all of it, her characters finely drawn and complex (something that I didn’t appreciate fully until reading the second book, and I suspect will appreciate even more when the third book is released).  Tansy has an amazing way with dialogue, too, and reveals so much about her characters through their speech.

I love the world of these books.  Honestly, at the beginning of the first book I wasn’t that enamoured with it.  I was intrigued, yes – especially with the shapeshifters, which are treated in a very original fashion.  It was only at about midway through the first book that I found myself truly lost in this world.  But from that point on, I was totally lost.

I am now desperate for the third book, which I believe is going to be released late in the year.  And I suspect that I’m going to read it, and then promptly reread the whole trilogy from the beginning again.  Because I know that there’s lots of sneaky bits and pieces in the first book that I missed on the first read through

If you’re a fan of dark fantasy – especially if you’re a fan of Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels books – the Creature Court books are highly recommended.

 

Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn.