Sci-fi Women discussion

(Since no Moderator has objected to this idea I'm going ahead with it, and if the Moderators don't want to keep it then that is their right to eliminate it.)

I'm a member of a group composed mostly of male science-fiction readers, and there are several boards organized by time periods which ask the members what they are currently reading. The problem is that I've been harassed simply because I'm a woman and was figuratively shouted down just for explaining the purpose and definition of an article word of the English language to a reader whose first language is French but had begun reading an English-language novel - the title of which he found confusing. (He actually thanked me for the explanation, but others criticized me soundly.) Also, when I've tried to describe the contributions of some truly amazing female authors, these remarks have been completely ignored and left out of ongoing conversations.

Therefore, I wanted to use this group's space for women involved in science-fiction at some level to allow women to describe what they were reading and to discuss it without fear of being attacked.

So what are you reading? Try to include Title, Author, and Year of First Copyright. Please try to stick to Science-Fiction. Aside from that, I have no requests of anyone wishing to flesh this Topic out.

Right now I'm reading four novels which I've borrowed from the library at the rate of ten pages per book per day.

Amatka: If you've never read the work of Swedish speculative-fiction writer Karin Tidbeck, you're in for a treat, although you might want to read her anthology of short stories - Jagannath - first, to get a taste of what she is capable of producing. Some people think that she's nuts, but I believe she's one of the most brilliant writers currently alive in the world. Her imagination and creativity are unparalleled. I was first hooked by her short story, "Augusta Prima", which I found in The Time Traveler's Almanac. I was stunned by its conception, and immediately searched for more work by this author. I don't know if AMATKA is her only actual novel or just the only one being marketed in the United States, or even what language - Swedish or English - she initially uses for her writing, but it literally doesn't matter. To describe the premise of this book, imagine that Philip K Dick's magnum opus Ubik and Orwell's 1984 procreated and produced an evolved child. I can't even really go into detail; it wouldn't do it any justice. It isn't long, about 200 pages in a paperback copy. I'm only about mid-way through, but I'm continually amazed.

Altered Carbon: I first picked this up in 2009, but since I'm not really a cyberpunk reader and I was disturbed by the premise of teleporting a person's memories equaling teleporting a whole person, I declared it a DNF. But I've been through a job, a master's degree, and a whole lot else since then, and I found that it had been turned into an original series on Netflix, which looks REALLY good. But before I watch it, I wanted to read the book so that I had some kind of standard by which to assess the series, and upon this second attempt I was immediately hooked and entranced. This is not the kind of cyberpunk that you get from Neuromancer or another 1980's/1990's novel of that type, but an entirely different journey, full of moral questions, updated technology, and a universe that is pretty close to hard sci-fi with the exception of the inclusion of the "ansible-concept" (basically, a device which transfers communication or information faster than light). And yes, its description of teleportation can be frightening and morally ambiguous, much like the Outer Limits episode "Think Like a Dinosaur", but the last nine years have changed me so much it no longer frightens me like it did back then. I'm really enjoying it.

Future Threat: This is the sequel to the YA novel Future Shock, which you should really read first if you want to read this one. In the first novel of the trilogy, a girl just about to phase out of foster care - and become broke and homeless - is offered a large sum of money by a corporation in exchange for traveling to the future with a group of older teenagers (there is an actual reason for the age of the travelers needing to be under 20), all of whom have special abilities like her (Elena's is her idetic memory), for the purpose of taking future technology to the past so they can reverse engineer it and introduce it as their own. But things go horribly awry. I can't tell you anything about the second novel except that Elena returns to a NEW future, so read the first book! (I love time travel stories and novels that involve time traveling to the future rather than the past, and the many problems that this can create, but most time travel novels are about travelling to the past, so this trilogy is a rare find.)

Partials: This is technically a YA novel, but it's written so well and with such realized characters that it could be an adult novel involving young characters. Essentially, creating genetically engineered soldiers to fight a war with China has backfired for the U.S., since when the soldiers - known as "Partials" - returned, they released a virus which annihilated most of the human race, leaving pockets of survivors who are expected to be the final generation of homo sapiens since their babies all die within 72 hours of their birth. The protagonist, a medic in training in the maternity ward, is sick of babies dying and is chilled to think that humanity is on its last legs, and has a personal motivation for looking for a cure for the genetic virus. Unfortunately, the adults around her are far too traumatized by memories of the plague and the war with the Partials to hear the perspective of her unique research on the virus, so she gathers a group of people willing to take a chance to save humanity and goes out to procure a radical solution. There is such a frightening sense of urgency in the death of humanity that you will be compelled to keep reading even if you think the main character is a little unhinged (I don't, but you may).

That's all for me right now! I can't wait to read about what everyone else is reading!

I'm actually reading an SF novel for my M/M Romance (Josh Lanyon) book club: Gyrfalcon by Anna Butler. The author is a woman but the MCs are (obviously) male.

From goodreads: Earth's last known colony, Albion, is fighting an alien enemy. In the first of the Taking Shield series, Shield Captain Bennet is dropped behind the lines to steal priceless intelligence. A dangerous job, and Bennet doesn't need the distractions of changing relationships with his long-term partner, Joss, or with his father -- and with Flynn, the new lover who will turn his world upside-down. He expects to risk his life. He expects the data will alter the course of the war. What he doesn't expect is that it will change his life or that Flynn will be impossible to forget.

SamSpayedPI wrote: "I'm actually reading an SF novel for my M/M Romance (Josh Lanyon) book club: Gyrfalcon by Anna Butler. The author is a woman but the MCs are (obviou..."

As of late I have often found myself reading GBTL romances, though not for the love stories. I find the entire concept of MPreg - or male pregnancy - fascinating. It typically takes place within a near-human species of shapeshifters, the most popular being werewolves, though other shifting species include bears, dragons, or others. Sometimes it takes place in a universe where there is a merely a third sex among humans, though this tends to be the minority concept.

The third sex is externally male, though typically smaller and weaker than "true" males, and those in this bracket are called Omegas. Omegas are the lowest on the pecking order in any society or group, usually even ranked lower than lower ranking females. Their main purpose for existence is to be able to breed mass numbers of offspring in a relatively short amount of time.

No one gives them any respect, and sometimes they have no legal rights at all, kept as sex slaves who are abused and mistreated. I am currently finishing a series called The Stars of the Pack about a bunch of Alphas - the uber-males - who set out to form their own Pack of werewolves along with a mass-breeding Omega who is forced to have sex with all five "superior" men and bear their offspring. His outward genitalia is male, but his inward sexual characteristics are female, including a womb and eggs. He is easily lubricating - unlike most males - and feels compelled to submit to Alphas and Betas.

Omegas may be raped, traded, sold, forced to bear children, and generally seek an Alpha mate who will love and protect them, giving them a home much like an old-fashioned housewife type of person, because without that they are often forced to live in a depraved condition, even sneered at by parents, siblings, and those who were their friends before they "presented" as an Omega.

The contact between the ranks of Alphas, Betas, and Omeags and breeding details are rather interesting. To me, the romances are secondary; I'm not much of a romance reader.

You may all think that this is pretty sick but I find it fascinating. I often wish I had a PhD in Sociology so that I could write an academic article about this type of novel. Unfortunately, all I have is a B.A. in History and a Master of Social Work, not exactly the type of credentials needed for academic publishing.

I'm glad you got this started Rachel!

I have just started a police procedural but I have just finished The Blind Assassin
by Margaret Atwood who wrote
The Handmaid's Tale.

This 1930s book about two sisters, incorporates a fiction tale spun by one of the characters, which satirises the pulp fiction then for sale at newsagents. A fantasy about a tyrannical rulership and a Bronze Age religion, morphs into an invading alien scenario, with women alternately portrayed as helpless and sinister.

I read a gay male fantasy tale about a relationship between a prince and his slave. And a historical sort-of romance about a sultan and his male servant. I found it was a good way to explore the nature of a romance between unequals without the issues of typical roles for either sex or childbearing as major factors.

Dawn by Octavia Butler.

Rachel, I read somewhere recently--I have *got* to start jotting this stuff down--that in some Oceania countries (maybe Samoa, Tahiti?) that a "3rd sex" of "feminine" males has been accepted & considered normal by most of their societies for years. (Of course, "masculine" females aren't considered at all, but I guess it's a start away from puritanity-insanity.)

I've temporarily put Partials aside and have added three library books for a total of six, all of which I'm reading at a pace of ten pages per book per day.

Nothing Human

The Forever Watch

Census

I've just started them. They're all sci-fi but I'm not far along enough to really describe them.

I'm espec. curious about Census; do share about it if you get a chance.

Rachel Adiyah wrote: "As of late I have often found myself reading GBTL romances, though not for the love stories. I find the entire concept of MPreg - or male pregnancy - fascinating. "

You might enjoy the Mountain Shifters series by L.C. Davis. The first book is His Unclaimed Omega but the second, His Reluctant Omega, begins to delineate the forced breeding program.

I enjoyed the first few novels but as it wore on (especially into the next generation), the sociological issues sort of overwhelmed the romance, so I lost interest a bit, but from your post, I thought you might find it increasingly interesting.

(I'm not sure whether L.C. Davis is a female author, though, but it's very likely given the genre).

SamSpayedPI wrote: "Rachel Adiyah wrote: "As of late I have often found myself reading GBTL romances, though not for the love stories. I find the entire concept of MPreg - or male pregnancy - fascinating. "

You might..."

Thank you for the tip! I'll definitely check that one out!

Lynn wrote: "I'm espec. curious about Census; do share about it if you get a chance."

I'm sorry Lynn, but I just can't continue with Census. Please forgive me, but I have the attention span of a gnat, and this book just is not as exciting as, let's say, Altered Carbon. I read for entertainment these days, having burned out on edifying readings towards the end of earning my Master's degree, and I just can't keep reading something that is slow and plodding. It might be a terrific book in its own way, but I can't make it past page 17, so for me it's a DNF.

Don't worry... a friend tried to read Twilight but by page 100 nothing had happened, so she dropped it. I continued because I could see what the author was doing, which was building atmosphere. I have just finished The Blind Assassin and the reviews say many people dropped it. Different folks enjoy different books and, as you mention, at different times of life.

As Clare said, don't worry, Rachel, thanks anyway.

Rereading Connie Willis' BLACKOUT, will finish with ALL CLEAR. And TIME'S CONVERT by Deborah Harkness (though that is more fantasy than science fiction).

Also rereading THE SCIENCE FICTION HALL OF FAME, VOLUME ONE, 1929 - 1964, which I originally read way back in 1971 as it was the textbook for my English requirement class, "Science Fiction." Includes Judith Merril's THAT ONLY A MOTHER.

I'm still reading Altered Carbon and Future Threat. I've added Aurora, which is a hard sci-fi generation ship novel, really good so far. Additionally, I'm still working on Nothing Human and The Forever Watch.

I've finished AMATKA by Karin Tidbeck. She is one incredible speculative fiction author. Still reading her anthology book Jagannath. I've been reading off and on for the last two years, even though it's not particularly thick. I just read a story from it called, "Arvid Pekon", about an overwhelmed civil servant who has to take phone calls from Ms. Sicorax, the caller from hell who has the power to alter reality on a whim. I couldn't stop laughing because the story is a clever satire of what it is like to work as a civil servant; when I was an Income Maintenance Caseworker from the PA Dept. of Public Welfare, I had my fair share of callers AND clients from hell. If you've ever worked for the government before in a position in which you dealt constantly with the public, this story will make you laugh until your ribs crack.

I imagine anyone in a call centre has tales to tell.

I have abandoned "The Forever Watch": it's not that it was bad, I just have a very short attention span and it wasn't particularly exciting.

I am still reading: "Altered Carbon", "Future Threat", "Aurora" and "Nothing Human" at the rate of ten pages per book per day. I have added the sci-fi environmental nightmare tales: Splinterlands, and America Pacifica. I saw the film "No Blade of Grass" on Amazon Prime - an adaptation of the novel The Death of Grass - which was a British film from 1970 that was incredibly violent and horrific but extremely well done - and even though the film scared the living daylights out of me (it is very realistic, unfortunately) I am now craving environmental disaster readings.

I thought about trying to finish Nature's End, but when I tried reading it again I felt very distracted from the main parts of the story by the primary antagonist's attacks on the family trying to stop an ill-advised figure pressing for mass euthanasia all over the world. (I read about fifty percent of it two years ago). It will remain a DNF for me, I suppose.

Also going to begin reading a Kurt Vonnegut anthology, Welcome to the Monkey House.

Clare wrote: "I imagine anyone in a call centre has tales to tell."

Before I was a civil servant I had a part-time job at a call center calling people who had gone to amusement parks in the past year and interviewing them. This was a tough job because nobody really wants to talk about this; but we were pushed on by a cruel manager who put the names of the three most successful callers on a bulletin board every week and fired the three least successful callers at the same time - this is why they were always hiring. We had beat, used computers and beat, used work phones probably circa 1995.

Oddly enough, I managed to get many people - some who were at work, even - to talk to me about their amusement park experiences, even to work with me on a rating system of 1 - 5! To my great amusement, I was always one of the three most successful callers listed on the bulletin board! (My ability to sell and elicit BS is probably why I was good in dealing with the public for the government.)

But one night I just felt like I would rather plop out my eye with a spoon than go back to that nightmare place. I was sick of hearing people complain about the restrooms (even though this convinced me to never go to an amusement park in the summer), sick of the pressure, and sick of the old, dirty phones and computers. So I quit. (I also quit a job at Burger King that same summer - I will never eat at any of them again! And if you'll take my advice, you wouldn't either - at least get something fried instead of beef burgers.)

My brother trained as a chef... so it would not just be fast food places that are less than ideal behind the scenes.

Well done to you Rachel, sticking out a grotty job for long enough to get it on your CV. This must have helped you get to be a civil servant and it will still be on your CV if you decide to change.
I am sure you know this, so I'm saying it really for the benefit of any younger readers.

I read mainly fantasy but I do have a few good sci-fi books to recommend.
1. Sleeping giants by Sylvain Neuvel he is a Canadian Author and this needs to be read by audio book. They did an amazing job on this. Every character has a different person reading for them. There is even background noises. It starts out with a young girl falling down a hole and landing in a giant yellow hand. It then jumps ahead to her as an adult and finding the rest of the parts of this giants body that is buried across the world. Best sci-fi series ever listened to!
2. Star Nomad by Lindsay Buroker this is a female author. It is set after a Great War. It’s the chaos that happens when the empire falls. It reminds me of fire fly. If the brown coats won the war. It has cyborgs and star seers and laughs.
3. Starflight by Melissa Landers. This is a fun read. This girl ends up knocking a rich guy out and he has amnesia he doesn’t know who he is and she uses his money to by passage on a space ship. It grows from there. Space pirates are invoked at some point.

I am reading a poetry collection now. It's lovely. Pablo Neruda at his best

I read From the Earth to the moon from Jules Verne. Ah its fantastic!

I'm on the final quarter of Altered Carbon; damn, but it's a good book. I'm also reading Aurora, a contemporary hard sci-fi take on generational colony ships, and very engaging. Also a novella about a dystopian future that is sadly all too probable - Splinterlands. And still plugging away at Nothing Human.

Ekin wrote: "I read From the Earth to the moon from Jules Verne. Ah its fantastic!"

You know, I'm beginning to reverse my opinion about older science-fiction. I read The Time Machine, and quite to my surprise I found it amazing! (Though I still think that the film adaptation of 1960 is more likely to occur now that we have nuclear weapons piled up.)

I am reading Morning Star, the 3rd book of the series Red Rising from Pierce Brown.
Also reading The Pale Horseman, the 2nd book of The Saxon Stories by Bernard Cornwell.
And also reading the complete tales from the Brothers Grimm.

I'm also reading America Pacifica, a dystopian, ecological nightmare novel. I'm not sure if I'm going to see it through.

Hi Rachel! I didnt watch Time Machine's film but the book is really good. Did you read The War of the Worlds from the same author Wells? You must really read this book too. Older science fiction are the best ı think(more imagination) Sorry for my bad english.

I'm reading Tapestry of War

which is a review book, not SF I am afraid. I just read
Captured & Seduced

which is about horses, but not as you know them. Also about alien abduction, a shapeshifter cat-alien man, adult romance, space travel.

Well, I'm currently reading a number of books off and on. I've decided that I've collected so many books that it's high time I stopped using the library and read a few of my own.

The Castle Keeps - This is a kind of typical 1970's dystopian novel about the horrors of overpopulation and environmental misuse. But it is highly disturbing. I do not recommend it for people who have triggers, because many horrible things occur and I'm only on page 47!

The Sheep Look Up: Yes, this is another 1970's dystopian novel about a world with an environment damaged practically beyond repair, and the horrors of war and racism. But from what I understand, this is like the most horrific of all such novels, and the best well known. This was written by British author John Brunner; he wrote Stand on Zanzibar - which everyone but me loved, I couldn't stand it - and a lot of other novels of varying quality. (I tried to read it a few years back but couldn't get into it. About a month ago I watched the British nightmare environmental disaster film, "No Blade of Grass", which required me to take anti-anxiety medication to get through, no kidding, it's well done - if the scariest thing you've ever seen - but for some reason never got a theatrical release in 1970, and is based on the novel, "The Death of Grass" by John Christopher. So afterwards I picked up "The Sheep Looked Up" and now I'm into it.)

The Seclusion: This is a book about what might happen if certain Americans keep on going toward along the path of stupidity. As an American, this book absolutely is breaking my heart. Still in the beginning phase, but the protagonist doesn't realize that the country she calls "America" has lost everything about it that America once represented, and she's so conditioned to accept the Orwellian State in which she lives that it kills me. Without the Constitution, with no tripartite government, and without the freedom that Americans currently have to disagree with everyone and everything and to elect our own leaders, there is NO America.

One World United: This is kind of like "The Seclusion", but affecting the entire world. Once again we have a protagonist who is very intelligent, but thinks that the controlling government under which she labors is the best thing for human beings. I'd rather stick my jugular vein with a pair of scissors than have a husband matched up for me by a damn computer!

Quota: When Life Is Just a Number..Who Counts?: This is the stuff of which nightmares are made. Taking place in a severely overpopulated future England, a Ministry devoted to population control determines who lives or dies, AND FOR HOW LONG. The protagonist angers me because she is so naive! And she has some very fierce enemies who are lining up against her. Including HER OWN SON.

The Third: In an overpopulated, environmentally depleted future America, people are only permitted to have two children. If they want to have more they must purchase a "credit" from someone else, usually for an extraordinarily high price. And of course, the protagonist has just discovered that his wife - who works at a population control clinic - is pregnant with their third, and they can barely buy food. It has a highly claustrophobic feel.

334: This is actually a short anthology of related short stories and a longer novella with the common theme being that the characters of each story live in a building project in NYC of the 2020's known as 334. It takes place in what I would call "The Old Future"; having been written in the 1970's, it is no longer a realistic portrayal of what life in the next decade will probably be like. Also, it is all highly offensive; it offends every group of person. If you are easily offended, don't read this.

The Breaking Light: On a human colony planet in the indeterminate future, humanity is divided between the ordinary people who live on this planet's surface, the unfortunate who live underground, and the very fortunate who live in high towers. This third group is
known as the Solizen. The protagonist is a girl who lives underground and tries to ameliorate her miserable life through membership in her brother's vicious gang, which includes dealing drugs and fighting to the death. But then she meets a member of the Solizen who is kind of like a future Robin Hood, and they fall in love. This is YA, of course!

Imaginations: The cover of the paperback edition available through Amazon.com has a completely different cover, just FYI. It is a about a girl, about to graduate from school, who lives in: "The Last City of Man". She is very intelligent, but like everyone else in her city they have their short term memory erased every night while they sleep. But there is one boy whom she sort of remembers, while he definitely remembers her! It's really interesting and I'm enjoying it. I just went crazy looking for it this past week. It's YA.

And finally: Grey. I am not entirely certain what this book is about, other than the main character is a fortunate corporate son who has his notions of reality smashed into pieces.

Well, I apologize for my really long-winded book update. I hope to hear from everyone about what you're all reading!

Thanks! I can't get into Brunner either.

Currently reading Icefire

which is supposed to be about dragons but is actually about ceramic dragons and witchcraft and icebears, all cosily set in an English Nanny McPhee type story. Odd.

Clare wrote: "Thanks! I can't get into Brunner either."

In my opinion, Brunner is overrated. James Blish said that "Stand on Zanzibar" was unreadable because a. none of the characters are likable, and b. the writing "style" (ha!) - which was based on a book titled "U.S.A." - was fundamentally flawed and that any writer should have known that. Its main flaw - just my opinion - was being written in a fake "future" slang that was confusing and sickening to read, and I couldn't see the supposed main issue of overpopulation through the story. After so many pages of "shiggies" and "codders", I wanted to use the book as bonfire kindling. (But it was the library's copy so that was out of the question.)

Nothing else that Brunner wrote could ever hold my attention. I put him on my red list of authors, which includes Heinlein (don't get me started!), William Gibson, and Asimov (except for a very few books, I find his misogyny intolerable). I don't care how famous "Stranger in a Strange Land" is supposed to be, it really did nothing for me. "The Sheep Look Up" is the exception, not the rule.

Clifford D. Simak is also someone whose books should just be left on the shelves to decompose themselves; his female characters suffer because they do "unfeminine things", and he once had the character of a female mathematician castigating herself because she knew more mathematics than was necessary "for keeping the house". Also, he had a female lawyer feel that she might not have the right to defend a MAN because the jury was an electronic logic box. Most female lawyers I know are articulate, logical, and VERY CAPABLE. (Jerk! Simak was a jerk!)

Rachel Adiyah wrote: "Clifford D. Simak is also someone whose books should just be left on the shelves to decompose themselves . . . "

I loved City, though; how can a book about dogs, robots and ants be bad?

SamSpayedPI wrote: "Rachel Adiyah wrote: "Clifford D. Simak is also someone whose books should just be left on the shelves to decompose themselves . . . "

I loved City, though; how can a book about dogs..."

I'm not criticizing anyone else's opinions, likes, or dislikes. I should probably start my posts by saying that everything I write is solely my opinion and holds no real judgmental weight.

I do apologize if I offended you.

We have to remember that these men were products of their time, and reflected society around them which, especially in the sciences or army, was largely a male society. Even then we found women writers of great quality, and today we have much better writers to read, so I don't worry about past books.

Star Trek had a female nurse and communication receptionist, when you think about it. These roles could have been played by men but if women were going to be in space, they were slotted into the same kind of roles they occupied at the time in America. At least they were important jobs for the crew.

Clare wrote: "We have to remember that these men were products of their time, and reflected society around them which, especially in the sciences or army, was largely a male society. Even then we found women wri..."

Well said Clare. Men are products of their time!

Clare wrote: "We have to remember that these men were products of their time, and reflected society around them which, especially in the sciences or army, was largely a male society. Even then we found women wri..."

That is so true about Star Trek! Not only were the roles that of a communication receptionist and a nurse - typical female occupations - but they exhibited "typical female traits". For example, Nurse Chapel was supposed to be a hopelessly in love with Spock, a man who really could not have cared less for her, and tried to make him soup when he was "sick" (cough). Even when Spock showed total disdain for Nurse Chapel, she kept on pursuing him.

Then in the episode "Mirror, Mirror", Kirk asks Uhura to go to the mirror bridge and run the day's communications for the evil Starfleet Command, and she starts trembling and gets halfway to saying that she's frightened, before Kirk says, "You're the only one who can do it," and that seems to give her strength (?). When she's on the bridge of the evil Enterprise, the men tell her that if they're going to carry out Scotty's alterations on the transporter, they need Uhura to perform a diversion, so her move is to sexually proposition the alternate Sulu.

And this was considered ahead of its time!

The Next Generation did not start out any better. Beverly Crusher was a doctor, which was becoming socially acceptable for women by the late 1980's, Deanna Troy was a therapist and an EMPATH - NOT a telepath, because that would have made her too powerful - and Tasha Yar, the first and, only female tactical officer, was killed off in the middle of the first season.

But Tasha was replaced by the "evil" half-Romulan Commander Sela, who was the daughter of an abducted Tasha Yar from the timeline where she was alive and went back in time to stop the Klingon war.

(At the same time, I would like to qualify this post by saying that I still am and will always be a Trekkie, hopelessly devoted to the original series, the movies of the original series, and Star Trek: Enterprise.)

Just finished by Christina Dalcher; excellent.

Lynn wrote: "Just finished by Christina Dalcher; excellent."

Is this the book where women are given less and less opportunity to speak? Could you tell us about it? I'm very curious what your thoughts are on this novel.

Yes, it is that book. (They--even little girls--have to wear an electronic wrist band--that the most slimy of the men call a "bracelet", ugh--that shocks them if they go over their limit of 100 words a day.)

I liked it a lot. I recently read Naomi Alderman's The Power and liked it a lot too but The Power featured mostly younger gals. Vox featured a middle-aged gal, so it's at least a little closer to my age group.

A good PA SF book called After the Pretty Pox: The Attic by August Ansel had featured an even older gal, a cool one who takes great care of herself & whoops a$$ too. Yay for us old gals sometimes! (Sorry...I'm back, lol...I've managed to strand myself in my old age in a conservative, traditional, bible belt area & the internet is about the only place I can let my hair down...thanks for listening ;-)

I enjoyed Star Trek The Undiscovered Country. And we did get a female captain later in Janeaway. Progress takes time.

I hadn't seen much about Vox so thanks, I'll look out for it.

I tend to juggle my books. I finally finished Altered Carbon. I've just added The Rift Uprising, a novel about teens guarding wormhole-type passageways to various quantum universes - not really sure whether it's YA or just adult sci-fi with young characters, as my library system has labeled this as adult science-fiction.

I've started to read Configured, which is definitely a YA book about a future dystopia where emotions are suppressed.

I've also begun reading Terminal Regression, a strange novel about a future society in which you have to have a reason to exist, and the protagonist feels that she has no purpose in life so she's applied to be sent to the Final Terminal, which is where people are sent when they have no purpose. She thinks that she's going to her death, but I do not believe that this is the case.

For the time being I have stopped reading The Seclusion. As an American, it is truly an agonizing read. I lost it when the novel's heroine finds an old van and discovers a cache of physical books, all of which are banned by the Board because they cannot be altered. Then she starts reading the books: Siddhartha, A Tale of Two Cities, War of the Worlds, and others. (I had tears streaming down my cheeks at this point.) When she goes back to her apartment she creates a steamy bubblebath so that her actions cannot be watched by the people who watch everyone in their apartments, and she starts to read Les Miserables, and after reading the first page, she starts silently crying into the book. She's realizing for the first time what has been lost in the turn to this Orwellian state. (G-d I can't even think about this; I'm crying. I cried when I read Fahrenheit 451, too. I couldn't live in a society without freedom or books.) So I'm putting this one on the shelf until I can handle it.

Many of my books are nonfiction for college at this point, but I have just bought Have Sword, Will Travel

by a pair of Aussie authors I met at Octocon. This is autographed to my nephew and niece for Christmas, so I have to read it first.

Also reading nonfic Feasible Planet - A guide to more sustainable living

and SF Moonshine
which is great fun.

I bought a book for a friend and now i'm bummed I didn't get myself a copy. Anyone read New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson?

Now reading Independent Study

which is about going to university in a paranoid dystopia.

Haven't read that KSR yet but it will be in the library.

Naomi FoyleAstra: The Gaia Chronicles Book 1The Blood of the Hoopoe: The Gaia Chronicles Book 3 Hallo everybody, what a great post, I am suffering a bit of reading drop as I type. I read in the last 6 weeks all 4 books of the Gaia Chronicles, by Naomi Foyle. The first book Astra already sucked me totally into that world. While reading all 4 books, I was disturbed, disgusted, shocked, happy, sad, revolted, intrigued, terrified, entertained and even poetically challenged. When the last sentence was read at 2 in the morning i felt totally exhausted. So now what? What can I read is going to turn me inside out like Astra's Story? Going to check out some above recommendations, thanks.