SF Mistressworks
Late to the party, as always. Originally posted here; I saw it here. Criteria were adult SF titles only (no fantasy or YA) published before 2000. Original instructions were to bold those I've read and italicize those I own but haven't read yet; I added underlining for authors who have written other books I've read and notes on the bold and underlined items.
1. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (1818) -- Loved this, but read it before I read critically (I think I was 12?) so I can't talk about it with people.
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) -- Apparently a man.
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) -- But this is fantasy.
13. Heroes and Villains, Angela Carter (1969)
14. Ten Thousand Light Years From Home, James Tiptree Jr (1973) -- I read Tiptree's Brightness Falls from the Air as a teenager and loved it; was delighted to discover a couple years ago that "he" was a she who was best known for absolutely brilliant short stories (that still had amazingly evocative titles). Thus far I've read about 1/3 of the way through Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, but have to wait until I'm in the proper mood to read more because Tiptree's stories always emotionally wreck me. Plus I read Julie Phillips' fascinating biography, James Tiptree, Jr.: The Secret Life of Alice B. Sheldon.
15. The Dispossessed, Ursula K Le Guin (1974) -- OMFG brilliant. Read it just last year, but I clearly should have read it long before, given that I have also read and really enjoyed the first four books of her Earthsea Cycle and absolutely adored her Gifts/Voices/Powers trilogy.
16. Walk to the End of the World, Suzy McKee Charnas (1974)
17. The Female Man, Joanna Russ (1975) -- Read How to Suppress Women's Writing a couple months ago; even wrote three blog posts about it.
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) -- Read and loved both Wild Seed and Fledgling; there are few authors whose work I enjoy discussing more than Butler's.
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) -- So much angst and melodrama, but in the best way. Would have loved it at 14, and definitely still admired it at 26, though I could no longer connect with that mindset.
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) -- The Dragonriders of Pern is the reason I read SFF; my mom made me read it as a punishment when I was ten or so and late returning some library books, and I never looked back. Read the whole Pern series up to the publication of Masterharper of Pern multiple times, plus the Tower and the Hive series through book #4, the Petaybee series, the Freedom Series through book #3, and random other titles. I can't read McCaffrey now because she's been visited by the Suck Fairy, and as you can see I always ended up getting tired of her series before she finished them, but she's definitely one of my formative writers.
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) -- Read Black Sun Rising earlier this year and was frustrated by it; probably won't read more.
46. Pennterra, Judith Moffett (1987)
47. Kairos, Gwyneth Jones (1988)
48. Cyteen , CJ Cherryh (1988) -- Cherryh is one of the authors both my parents adore, so I've read several by her: half of Downbelow Station (which I found boring, but I was about 15 and plan to try again someday), the first three Foreigner books (I plan to read the rest of the series eventually, but it's LONG and the narrative is kind of claustrophobic so far), the Gene Wars duology (yay desert planets!), Rider at the Gate, Cuckoo's Egg, Rusalka & Yvgenie. . . plus one of my favorite trilogies of all time, The Faded Sun. The central metaphor of the Game of the People, shon'ai, is the sort of thing I read SF for -- the way it worked through the denoument blew my mind, and sticks with me to this day. Plus, desert planet!
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) -- My mom has read and loved a lot of Tepper, so I asked her what she'd recommend I read by her and she gave me The Family Tree. I loved it. So I read Six Moon Dance and loved it more. Then I read The True Game, which I really liked and found fun. Then I read Beauty, and discovered why so many people are so virulently allergic to her writing. Still plan on reading more by her, and I really wish Beauty wasn't the title it seems like most people have read, because some of her other work is SO MUCH BETTER. But it's true, her politics are a little extreme.
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) -- Read the first 1 1/2 Deverry books and got fed up; probably won't read any more by her.
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) -- I read this as a teenager and liked it enough to read the rest of the trilogy, but it was before I read critically so I can't discuss it.
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) -- Loved this, because it made me cry; have loved pretty much everything by Willis because it either makes me cry or makes me laugh.
71. Ammonite, Nicola Griffith (1993) -- So. Fucking. Good. Read it just last year. I think Slow River is the more accomplished work, however, though it's emotionally devastating.
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). -- LOVE the Vorkosigan Saga, and this is undoubtedly the best book in that saga. It's also now my favorite, surpassing A Civil Campaign now that I've read Dorothy Sayers' Gaudy Night and sadly can see how completely wrong ACC is.
81. Remnant Population, Elizabeth Moon (1996) -- Read The Speed of Dark a couple years ago and was disappointed by it; I thought the entire book should have been written from Lou's perspective, like Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon was, because all the stuff from other perspectives' just undercut the really subtle and brilliant stuff she was doing with Lou. Then, of course, there was MoonFail, and I haven't really had any desire to read further in her catalog.
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) -- Really enjoyed this, and plan to read more by Hopkinson, but I don't think she'll become one fo my favorite authors. Her characters are a little too realistically flawed for me -- I *do* read SFF partly for the heroes.
90. Dreaming in Smoke, Tricia Sullivan (1999)
91. Ash: A Secret History, Mary Gentle (2000) -- I read Ilario several years ago and found it frustrating; I loved what Gentle was doing with gender, and was particularly impressed by subtle way that she depicted Ilario's changes between "he" and "she", but really bounced off the prose sentence-by-sentence, so I've been waffling on whether or not I'll read Gentle's more famous work.
So I've only read 8 of the 91, and I've read different books by ten more of the authors. Pretty sad, and even sadder to me is that there are 23 authors listed that I've never even heard of. This *may* be because the list was put together by a Brit and so a few of them might not be readily available here in the U.S., but. . . twenty - three. *Shudder* I have some reading to do!
There are also some authors that I think should have been included: Marion Zimmer Bradley deserves something on this list, probably The Heritage of Hastur because it's one of the stronger Darkover novels and explicitly SF (unlike Hawkmistress! which is the Darkover novel that probably holds up best but looks like fantasy). Kage Baker's In the Garden of Iden should be here as the first of the Company series. Sharon Shinn's Archangel is excellent, though the series gets weaker as it gets more SFnal and of course it's tainted by those icky romance cooties. Patricia McKillip's Moon-Flash is amazing, but I'll admit it might be disqualified as YA. And Kate Elliott's Jaran is great epic science fantasy actually very much in the mode of Nicola Griffith's Ammonite, though again there are icky romance cooties to beware. But half the fun of lists is debating what was missed, right?
1. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (1818) -- Loved this, but read it before I read critically (I think I was 12?) so I can't talk about it with people.
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) -- Apparently a man.
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) -- But this is fantasy.
13. Heroes and Villains, Angela Carter (1969)
14. Ten Thousand Light Years From Home, James Tiptree Jr (1973) -- I read Tiptree's Brightness Falls from the Air as a teenager and loved it; was delighted to discover a couple years ago that "he" was a she who was best known for absolutely brilliant short stories (that still had amazingly evocative titles). Thus far I've read about 1/3 of the way through Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, but have to wait until I'm in the proper mood to read more because Tiptree's stories always emotionally wreck me. Plus I read Julie Phillips' fascinating biography, James Tiptree, Jr.: The Secret Life of Alice B. Sheldon.
15. The Dispossessed, Ursula K Le Guin (1974) -- OMFG brilliant. Read it just last year, but I clearly should have read it long before, given that I have also read and really enjoyed the first four books of her Earthsea Cycle and absolutely adored her Gifts/Voices/Powers trilogy.
16. Walk to the End of the World, Suzy McKee Charnas (1974)
17. The Female Man, Joanna Russ (1975) -- Read How to Suppress Women's Writing a couple months ago; even wrote three blog posts about it.
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) -- Read and loved both Wild Seed and Fledgling; there are few authors whose work I enjoy discussing more than Butler's.
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) -- So much angst and melodrama, but in the best way. Would have loved it at 14, and definitely still admired it at 26, though I could no longer connect with that mindset.
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) -- The Dragonriders of Pern is the reason I read SFF; my mom made me read it as a punishment when I was ten or so and late returning some library books, and I never looked back. Read the whole Pern series up to the publication of Masterharper of Pern multiple times, plus the Tower and the Hive series through book #4, the Petaybee series, the Freedom Series through book #3, and random other titles. I can't read McCaffrey now because she's been visited by the Suck Fairy, and as you can see I always ended up getting tired of her series before she finished them, but she's definitely one of my formative writers.
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) -- Read Black Sun Rising earlier this year and was frustrated by it; probably won't read more.
46. Pennterra, Judith Moffett (1987)
47. Kairos, Gwyneth Jones (1988)
48. Cyteen , CJ Cherryh (1988) -- Cherryh is one of the authors both my parents adore, so I've read several by her: half of Downbelow Station (which I found boring, but I was about 15 and plan to try again someday), the first three Foreigner books (I plan to read the rest of the series eventually, but it's LONG and the narrative is kind of claustrophobic so far), the Gene Wars duology (yay desert planets!), Rider at the Gate, Cuckoo's Egg, Rusalka & Yvgenie. . . plus one of my favorite trilogies of all time, The Faded Sun. The central metaphor of the Game of the People, shon'ai, is the sort of thing I read SF for -- the way it worked through the denoument blew my mind, and sticks with me to this day. Plus, desert planet!
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) -- My mom has read and loved a lot of Tepper, so I asked her what she'd recommend I read by her and she gave me The Family Tree. I loved it. So I read Six Moon Dance and loved it more. Then I read The True Game, which I really liked and found fun. Then I read Beauty, and discovered why so many people are so virulently allergic to her writing. Still plan on reading more by her, and I really wish Beauty wasn't the title it seems like most people have read, because some of her other work is SO MUCH BETTER. But it's true, her politics are a little extreme.
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) -- Read the first 1 1/2 Deverry books and got fed up; probably won't read any more by her.
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) -- I read this as a teenager and liked it enough to read the rest of the trilogy, but it was before I read critically so I can't discuss it.
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) -- Loved this, because it made me cry; have loved pretty much everything by Willis because it either makes me cry or makes me laugh.
71. Ammonite, Nicola Griffith (1993) -- So. Fucking. Good. Read it just last year. I think Slow River is the more accomplished work, however, though it's emotionally devastating.
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). -- LOVE the Vorkosigan Saga, and this is undoubtedly the best book in that saga. It's also now my favorite, surpassing A Civil Campaign now that I've read Dorothy Sayers' Gaudy Night and sadly can see how completely wrong ACC is.
81. Remnant Population, Elizabeth Moon (1996) -- Read The Speed of Dark a couple years ago and was disappointed by it; I thought the entire book should have been written from Lou's perspective, like Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon was, because all the stuff from other perspectives' just undercut the really subtle and brilliant stuff she was doing with Lou. Then, of course, there was MoonFail, and I haven't really had any desire to read further in her catalog.
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) -- Really enjoyed this, and plan to read more by Hopkinson, but I don't think she'll become one fo my favorite authors. Her characters are a little too realistically flawed for me -- I *do* read SFF partly for the heroes.
90. Dreaming in Smoke, Tricia Sullivan (1999)
91. Ash: A Secret History, Mary Gentle (2000) -- I read Ilario several years ago and found it frustrating; I loved what Gentle was doing with gender, and was particularly impressed by subtle way that she depicted Ilario's changes between "he" and "she", but really bounced off the prose sentence-by-sentence, so I've been waffling on whether or not I'll read Gentle's more famous work.
So I've only read 8 of the 91, and I've read different books by ten more of the authors. Pretty sad, and even sadder to me is that there are 23 authors listed that I've never even heard of. This *may* be because the list was put together by a Brit and so a few of them might not be readily available here in the U.S., but. . . twenty - three. *Shudder* I have some reading to do!
There are also some authors that I think should have been included: Marion Zimmer Bradley deserves something on this list, probably The Heritage of Hastur because it's one of the stronger Darkover novels and explicitly SF (unlike Hawkmistress! which is the Darkover novel that probably holds up best but looks like fantasy). Kage Baker's In the Garden of Iden should be here as the first of the Company series. Sharon Shinn's Archangel is excellent, though the series gets weaker as it gets more SFnal and of course it's tainted by those icky romance cooties. Patricia McKillip's Moon-Flash is amazing, but I'll admit it might be disqualified as YA. And Kate Elliott's Jaran is great epic science fantasy actually very much in the mode of Nicola Griffith's Ammonite, though again there are icky romance cooties to beware. But half the fun of lists is debating what was missed, right?