Science Fiction
Great science fiction recommendations.
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Women of Wonder by Pamela Sargent, Editor
Harcourt Brace & Company, 1995
Science fiction stories, Two volumes, 400 pages each
It is commonly believed that science fiction is written predominantly by and for men. Women, however, have been writing and distinguishing themselves in the genre since early this century. Some claim that Mary Shelley is the mother of science fiction. Editor Pamela Sargent showcases 42 of the best women science fiction writers in this two volume anthology. "The Classic Years" covers the 1940s to the 1970s, and "The Contemporary Years" the 1970s to the 1990s. These stories-in a startling range of approaches and styles-trace the preoccupations and aspirations of women from the more conventional imaginings that predate the Women's Movement to the later experimental and feminist speculations related to gender, and finally to the wide variety of responses to the post-feminist era. Sargent's informative introduction, in which she discusses the intractability of the science fiction definition and the difficulty women have had gaining status as bona fide science fiction writers, provides a context that enhances the reading of this intriguing collection. C.W.
Excerpt
More writers were coming to see that science fiction provides a unique opportunity to explore societies and characters that are not limited by our assumptions. In a world of rapidly changing technology, ethical questions raised by developments in biology and medicine and by increasingly sophisticated mass communication, serious science fiction may be better equipped than any other kind of literature to consider the dilemmas such changes present. By showing us worlds unlike our own, science fiction can help us to see our own world anew. At the core of both feminism and science fiction is a questioning of why things are as they are and how they might be different. Science fiction, with more women writing it, had a chance to become what it had claimed to be all along-a literature that embraces new possibilities.
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The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin
Avon Books, 1971
Science fiction, 175 pages
Quoting sources as diverse as Lao Tse and Victor Hugo, Ursula LeGuin begins each chapter of her science fiction novel with the thought that wisdom is knowing that we do not know. It is the year 2002. George Orr uses drugs to stave off sleep because his dreams sometimes become reality. Under the Voluntary Therapeutic Treatment program he is assigned to Dr. Haber who discovers Orr's ability to alter reality. George soon notices that after each treatment session things are not quite the same. George tries to tell the doctor that the world cannot be made a Utopia, even with the the best of intentions, because good and evil exist as part of a duality. Dr. Haber thinks of George as a simple man, "unformed as a block of wood," and ignores him. He is slow to understand the peril of trying to create a heaven without a hell. J.M.
Excerpt
"... isn't that man's very purpose on earth-to do things, change things, run things, make a better world?"
"No!"
"What is his purpose, then?"
"I don't know. Things don't have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part has a useful function. What's the function of a galaxy? I don't know if our life has a purpose and I don't see that it matters. What does matter is that we're a part. Like a thread in a cloth or a grass-blade in a field. It is and we are. What we do is like wind blowing on the grass."
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The Gate to Women's Country by Sherri S. Tepper
Doubleday, 1988
Fiction, 278 pages
The Gate to Women's Country warns of future consequences if the glorification of violence and war continues. In Tepper's post-nuclear world, women control the towns, and most men live in ignorance and violence outside the towns where they play sports and endlessly prepare for war. Stavia mourns her lost brothers and other lost men. She becomes a doctor and then explores the world beyond women's country to find the truth about the outside world. In a harrowing climax, she also learns the truth about the experiment called Women's Country. With feminist ideas akin to those that inspired A Handmaid's Tale, this strongly written novel provokes as it entertains. R.T.
Excerpt
"Don't you see, Stavia? When all the games were played, nothing had changed. If my team won or lost, nothing was better or worse. If I won, I got ribbons to wear and everybody drank to me but we still all got drunk. Either way, nothing was different. The sun came up the next day, same as always. The river went on running. The rain came down, just like always. Night came, stars came out, men went up on the armory roof courting, women made assignations, babies were born, little boys came to their warrior fathers, and nothing changed. Corny died and nothing changed. Oh, he got a hero's burial. They gave his honors to one of the boys to carry when his century paraded. The trumpets cried and people wept, the whole thing, but he was dead. It wasn't until they put me on messenger duty I really figured it all out, but once I'd figured that out, I came back to Women's Country."
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Dawn by Octavia E. Butler
Warner Books, 1987
Science fiction, 264 pages
Lilith Iyapo awakens aboard a vast spaceship orbiting Earth. 250 years earlier the Oankali, an alien race of gene traders, had rescued Lilith along with several hundred other survivors of the first phase of Earth's nuclear holocaust and placed many of them in suspended animation. Lilith has been chosen to awaken, then train and lead the first group of humans back to Earth, now healed enough to once again support life. Life, however, can never be the same again because the Oankali, intent on creating a new race, have made "adjustments" to Earth and the returning humans. In her exploration of both genetic and social engineering, Octavia Butler has invented a world-an environment, a race of creatures, and a philosophy of being-that is most ingenious and very complete. Her novel is sure to stimulate lively discussion and the reader will not rest until she as has read all three books in this trilogy. C.W
Except
Her mind slipped into the familiar track: There was no escape from the ship. None at all. The Oankali controlled the ship with their own body chemistry. There were no controls that could be memorized or subverted. Even the shuttles that traveled between Earth and the ship were like extensions of Oankali bodies. No human could do anything aboard the ship except make trouble and be put back into suspended animation-or be killed. Therefore, the only hope was Earth. Once they were on Earth-somewhere in the Amazon basin, she had been told-they would at least have a chance. That meant they must control themselves, learn all she could teach them, all the Oankali could teach them, then use what they had learned to escape and keep themselves alive.
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Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin
DAW Books, Inc., 1984
Science fiction, 301 pages
Sometime in the distant future, a manuscript was found: written by the women of the Lines- linguists who had lived in the first quarter of the 23rd century-it chronicles their history and the way their knowledge of language ultimately liberated them. Since the 1991 passage of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, women had not been able to be doctors, lawyers, or to hold public office. By the year 2205, women linguists were held in especially low esteem, even though multilingualism had become critical to interplanetary trade and negotiations. As in all repressed societies, however, these women of the Lines developed a plan for their salvation. Author Suzette Haden, a linguistics professor, has written a highly-charged and complex novel with very provocative ideas. It is also a great read. N.P.
Excerpt
We cannot tell you who actually wrote Native Tongue. It was signed simply "the women of Chornyak Barren House." It must have been written in scraps of time, at odd stolen moments, at the cost of sacrificing much-needed sleep, for the women of the Lines had no leisure. If anyone has evidence that might shed light on the mystery of its authorship, no matter how fragmentary, we ask that you share it with us; we promise you that it will be treated with the utmost discretion and respect.
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The Ragged World by Judith Moffett
A Del Rey Book, 1991
Science fiction, 276 pages
In 2006 an alien race of hairy, gnome-like humanoids, the Hefn, return to Earth to find some of their kind left behind centuries before. The abandoned Hefn have survived by passing as Hobs or Hobbits in the Yorkshire Moors of England, and as tomten in Sweden. Though their occasional accidental encounters with humans have been handled by their ability to "mind-wipe," or erase memory, they have become inexorably bonded with these humans. The returning Hefn, appalled by the disintegrating state of the planet, order corrections be made or they will eliminate human life in nine years. Moffett's story is a timely parable for a world currently flirting with ecological destruction. J.G.
Excerpt
"The Hefn say their time window wasn't working right in 2006, and that's why the message didn't get through," Jenny said. "But what if it had? Do you suppose you'd have gone with the ship?"
"If we'd been certain of rescue through all the long years of waiting, d'you mean? It's possible. O, aye, it's possible."
"Then it's hard to say whether the story has a sad ending or a happy one," she mused "Something of both, really."
"A good deal of both, I believe, and the story's not over. But," and he held Jenny's gaze, "for myself, I've no regrets."
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The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge
The Dial Press, 1980
Science fiction, 536 pages
The Snow Queen, a sprawling, science fiction version of the Hans Christian Anderson tale, takes place on Tiamat, the planet of the twin suns, as the end of the 150 year Winter approaches. Arienrhod's rule and her artificially prolonged life are slated to end as well. She has a plan, however, to continue her rule beyond her death: she intends to install her clone, Moon Dawntreader, as the new Queen. Unaware she is the Queen's clone, Moon travels to the land of Winter-with many detours, including one to the planet Kharemough. She must find and rescue her beloved Sparks, who, believing Moon is lost to him forever, is in thrall to the Queen. She also must thwart Arienrhod's plan to perpetuate Winter's rule. Nothing less is required of her than to complete the Hero's Journey. C.W
Excerpt
Here on Tiamat, where there is more water than land, the sharp edge between ocean and sky is blurred; the two merge into one. Water is drawn up from the shining plate of the sea and showers down again in petulant squalls. Clouds pass like emotion across the fiery red faces of the Twins, and are shaken off, splintering into rainbows: dozens of rainbows every day, until the people cease to be amazed by them. Until no one stops to wonder, no one looks up.
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