Elevating Women Writers - Forbidden Planet disappointment

Last week when I was on holiday I visited Forbidden Planet, a shop for all things geeky, SF, fantasy, comics, cult etc.  I was ambling around looking at the books when I noticed the Staff Picks section so I popped over to have a read to see if there was anything interesting I might want to try. 

I had read a couple of the picks and the Forever War is already on my To Read list when I suddenly had a thought.  I wondered what the distribution of male to female authors was in the Picks list and what I saw wasn't great.  There were 15 staff picks, of these 1 was obviously written by a women and most of the other authors I knew were men rather than pseudonyms - James Tiptree, I am looking at you!

I wandered over to my partner and told him and said I was thinking I ought to mention this oversight to Forbidden Planet.  He pointed out that since they were Staff Picks - Forbidden Planet might just say that they had no control over what their staff read and recommended and he had a point. But I felt sad, marginalised and a bit alienated over the whole thing. So I went away and consulted some good friends and then emailed Forbidden Planet with a list of our Reader Picks because there is some amazing SF and Fantasy writing out there by women and it seems a shame if the staff of Forbidden Planet are not reading it. In compiling this list I leaned heavily on many excellent friends who had many excellent suggestions.  Some things made the cut and some didn't but obviously this list is not exhaustive and will probably grow organically over the years.

I am posting it publicly because in my quest to compile it I was really sad to see many of my good friends say that they couldn't really name any SF or Fantasy they had read written by women.  So to all of you I say take this list as an inspiration for some really cool stuff you might enjoy.

There is lots on this list I haven't read that I can't wait to get stuck into so please bear in mind that this list is a group effort and that everyone likes different things.

So without further ado... the list

 Octavia Butler - the Parable of the Talents/Lillith's Brood
 Ursula Le Guin - The Earthsea Trilogy/ The Left Hand of Darkness/The Dispossessed
 Elizabeth Moon - The Sheepfarmer's Daughter
 Joan D. Vinge – The Snow Queen Cycle/ Cat
 Tanith Lee – Tales from the Flat Earth/The Silver Metal Lover/Drinking Sapphire Wine
 Robin Hobb – The Tawny Man trilogy/The Liveship Traders series
 Patricia McKillip – The Riddle Master Trilogy/ Fool’s Run
 R. A. MacAvoy – The Lens of the World series/ Tea with the Black Dragon
 Michelle West – The Sacred Hunt and The Sun Sword series
 Elizabeth Haydon – Rhapsody series
 Andre Norton – Witch World series/Red Hart Magic
 Mercedes Lackey – The Last Herald Mage trilogy
 Sheri S Tepper - The Gate to Women's Country/The Margarets/Beauty.
 Mary Doria Russell - The Sparrow/Children of God
 Lois McMaster Bujold  -  Vorkosigan saga
 Robin McKinely - The Blue Sword/The Hero and the Crown
 Barbara Hambly -  Darwath/Dragonsbane
 Naomi Novik - Temerarie series
Katherine Kerr - Palace series/Deverry series
James Tiptree - Writes SF short stories, all of them are recommended.
Gwyneth Jones - The Aleutian Series
Trudi Cannavan - The Black Magician series
Felicity Savage - Humility Garden/Delta City
Julian May - Saga of the Exiles
Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

The Hard Pile

I love reading and this year I have resolved to do less aimless internet surfing and more reading. This has gone very well so far and I have managed to read 36 books since the start of the year. However I am very well aware that none of those books are classics or classified as even remotely challenging. Like most readers I have a hard pile. A pile of classics and other books which sit and look at me and make me feel guilty about reading something more lightweight. Now I am back in slightly better habits I am working on the hard pile.

The rules of the hard pile are:

1. The book is complicated, the ideas and language are more difficult than the average pulp fantasy novel e.g. anything pre-twentieth century.

2. The language and are ideas are easier but are emotionally or intellectually challenging – such that when I get home from a long day at work I don’t feel I want to tackle them e.g. anything with sustained emotional violence or prison rape.

3. The genre of the book isn’t something I usually read – meaning that it is far less appealing to me than my usual SF/fantasy/detective fiction. Several popular novels fall into this category but I do want to read them because I like to have a foothold in general pop culture. I think it is important to understand some of the themes and trends of the time I am living in.

So my current hard list:

Gabriel Garcia Marquez – One Hundred Years of Solitude

Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Love in the Time of Cholera

Toni Morrison – Beloved

Guy Deutscher – the Unfolding of Language

Zoe Heller – Notes on a Scandal

Franz Kafka – Contemplation

Rousseau – Reveries of the Solitary Walker

Leonardo Padura – Havana Red

Donna Tartt – The Secret History

Lily Hyde – Dreamland

Gaston Leroux – The Phantom of the Opera

Fyodor Dostoyevsky – Crime and Punishment

So to the reading pile, lets try and cross all these off by this time next year!