SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Hi guys! I'm new here, so I'm not sure if I'm doing this right-

but I'm looking for books (even comics!) with any of the following themes:

genetic modification / cloning
female knights
demigods / powers
time travel
psychic powers / magic
fae and other sorts
angels [contemporary:]

I also tend to prefer female authors/protagonists.
Any suggestions would be great!

Thanks!

Hi, Deena. Here are a few suggestions off the top of my head. I am focusing on female writers or female protagonists, simply because you mentioned that preference, and it gives me a way to limit my criteria:

genetic modification / cloning:
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress

female knights:
Tomoe Gozen / The Golden Naginata / Thousand Shrine Warrior (trilogy) by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
Tamora Pierce - Song of the Lioness series, beginning with Alanna: The First Adventure

demigods / powers:
Thirteen Orphans / Nine Gates / Five Odd Honors (series) by Jane Lindskold

psychic powers / magic:
By Ursula K. LeGuin - the Earthsea series (magic)
Air: Or, Have Not Have by Geoff Ryman (sort of psychic phenomena...also sort of a virtual reality deal...You'd have to read the description.)

time travel:
Connie Willis - To Say Nothing of the Dog (hilarious) / Doomsday Book (heavy)
Jasper Fforde - The Thursday Next series, starting with The Eyre Affair (sort of time travel + alternate reality + satire + homage to literature)

fae and other sorts:
The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff (The GR description doesn't tell much, but the comments help some. Fae are central characters.)

I don't tend to read much about angels, so I can't suggest anything there.

Angels - the Damiano series by R. A. MacAvoy - starting (I think? There were three or four books) Damiano's Lute - features Raphael.

Archangel by Sharon Shinn - I have it, but haven't read it yet so I can't say if it was good.

female knights - Sheepfarmer's Daughter - Elizabeth Moon's Paksennarien series.

Hey Deena, first of all, welcome to GoodReads. It's always nice to have new faces around here. I'm a little new here myself, having joined when I published my first book.

Anyway, please forgive my marketing, but my book I just published, Warped & Wired is about two polar opposite girls who must join together and discover the truth of their parentage while facing the ultimate evil. It is a modern sci-fi/fantasy that should at least fit your psychic powers/magic criteria if not the demigod/powers, fae/and other sorts, and even some genetic/cybernetic modifications.

You can get the ebook (all devices) from Smashwords.com for only 99 cents. If you're interested, I might be able to get you a copy for free. (I'm more concerned with exposure and reviews than profits right now:) (also, a $14 paperback version will be available on Amazon in the next few weeks)

I apologize if I sound like a salesman, but I had to throw it out there :)


www.TheWryterChronicles.com

genetic modification / cloning:
The Ophiuchi Hotline by John Varley

A Measure of Disorder and it even has a minor character by the name of Deena! I had to post when I saw your name : )

The book does fit many of your criteria above and my daughter said several kids in her math class got in trouble yesterday because they couldn't put the book down ; )

MacAvoy's series had three books Damiano, Damiano's Lute and Raphael.

Altered Carbon is a really good book but no female protagonists.

Azure Bonds by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb was an excellent sword fantasy. She is kind of a female knight.

Sasha by Joel Shepherd features a female warrior.

Also by Joel Shepherd is his Cassandrea Kresnow trilogy which features an artificial person. The first is the riviting Crossover.

Take a look at Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner where a relation of an English lord is turned into a swordswoman.

As for Psychic powers, (a personal fav of mine)

Take a look at Andre Norton books --

Hi Deena! Welcome to the group. The others had some good suggestions for you; I'll second the Archangel series by Sharon Shinn (excellent!), and add to the mix:

genetic modification / cloning:
-Darwin's Radio and Darwin's Children by Greg Bear
-also Blood Music by Bear
-Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago by Octavia E. Butler (omnibus is Lilith's Brood)
-Cloned Lives by Pamela Sargent
-Falling Free
-More Than Human
-Lethe
-Cyteen and the rest of the series by C.J. Cherryh


psychic powers / magic:
-a long series is the Darkover series by Marion Zimmer Bradley - various psychic powers come into play in 2/3 or more of the books
-Patternmaster / Wild Seed series by Octavia E. Butler
-Jumper and Reflex by Stephen Gould (much better than the movie based on them)
two series by Anne McCaffrey,
-Talents: Get Off the Unicorn, To Ride Pegasus Pegasus in Flight, Pegasus in Space
-Powers: The Rowan, Damia, Damia's Children, Lyon's Pride
-Psion, Catspaw, & Dreamfall by Joan D. Vinge
-A Fistful of Sky
-The Godmother and The Godmother's Apprentice
-Sisters of the Raven
-Nameless Magery by Delia Marshall Turner

time travel:
-Timeline Wars series by John Barnes
-The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
-Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
-the Pliocene Exile series by Julian May, beginning with The Many-Coloured Land
-The Time Traders and sequels by Andre Norton (Time Traders II: The Defiant Agents & Key Out of Time, Atlantis Endgame: A New Time Traders Adventure, Echoes in Time)
-Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century, ed by Harry Turtledove
-Household Gods by Judith Tarr
-Crosstime Traffic series by Harry Turtledove
-1632 by Eric Flint
-Cretaceous Dawn by Lisa M. Graziano

One of the main characters in my first novel The Flame in the Bowl: Unbinding the Stone is a demi-god, bringing the Universe's newest hero up to speed. The second book, A Warrior Made, doesn't have demi-gods but does have a number of strong women in major roles. One ends up becoming the master teacher of non-bladed weapons in her new home city. Another is the Lady Elemental of Life, searching for her missing mate.

for cloning and psychic powers, try Strings, by Dave Duncan, as well as his Great Game trilogy.

Ahhh!! Thank you all so much, I'm excited. I've read a few but the majority of these seem to be new authors for me.

I'll go through them and get back to you guys!!

Tolkien, of course--I read The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings when my uncle brought then over from England before they were available in this country.The Hobbit: Or There and Back AgainThe Lord of the Rings
Andre Norton, though my favorite is Storm over Warlock (my copy is a 40 cent paperback) and its sequels.Storm Over Warlock
Anne McCaffrey, though I don't like her collaborations or the continuations of the Pern series by her son as much.Anne McCaffrey
Mercedes Lackey--she certainly has some strong female characters, many of whom qualify as knights.Mercedes Lackey
And if you like them, you might like my book, Homecoming.Homecoming

genetic modification / cloning
Unwind,but the recs of Kress & Butler are also perfect here.
The Vorkosigan series is often about these topics start with Shards of Honour or The Warrior's Apprentice. Though you might find the books under these titles: Cordelia's Honor and Young Miles

female knights
Marion Zimmer Bradley edited a series of 20 plus Sword and Sorceress I of these. Often, you'll find first sales of now very popular writers here. Also check out Esther Friesner's funny series all with similar titles Chicks 'N Chained Males. Also check out Jennifer Roberson's series that starts with Sword-Dancer.

demigods / powers
Troy by Adele Geras, a novel by Esther Friesner about Helen of Troy ]Nobody's Princess. Wild Seed is a *great* book by Butler.

time travel
Connie Willis has a new and amazing time travel novel about England on the home front during World War II called Blackout. Book #2 is coming out at Thanksgiving time this year.

psychic powers / magic
Like Asimov wrote the first, most, American novels about robots that informed how others would write about robots for many years, Alfred Bester wrote the seminal book about telepaths in The Demolished Man.

fae and other sorts
The Essential Bordertown is early, early urban fantasy or mythic fiction in a shared world with many writers writing short stories and novels in it. Also look at War for the Oaks. Charles de Lint often writes about the fae from various cultures and magic. Try Moonlight & Vines (Newford, #9), Someplace to Be Flying (Newford, #8) or Forests of the Heart (Newford, #10).

angels [contemporary:] There are suddenly a lot of books about angels! My favorite series is Remy Chandler, who is a P.I. in Boston, written by Thomas Sniegoski A Kiss Before the Apocalypse


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Couple of options from female authors that I don't think I saw mentioned:

Time Travel: Kage Baker's Company novels, starting with In the Garden of Iden.

Telepathy: Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels; you can start anywhere (there is an internal chronology, but it spans thousands of years and the books weren't published in anywhere near that order; you really just have to read the smaller story arcs in order). Since you mentioned wanting female protagonists and seem to have a liking for warrior-women, start with Hawkmistress! (which can more easily be found in the omnibus The Ages of Chaos) or the three Renunciate novels, The Shattered Chain, Thendara House, and City of Sorcery (which are handily compiled in the omnibus The Saga of the Renunciates). However, Bradley focuses even more on the telepathy in The Forbidden Tower (which is handily found with its prequel of sorts, The Spell Sword, in The Forbidden Circle) but the major protagonists in that one are male. (It's my favorite of all the Darkover books, however, and a great place to start the series.)

Magic: Barbara Hambly's Sun Wolf and Starhawk trilogy, The Ladies of Mandrigyn, Witches of Wenshar, and The Dark Hand of Magic. On the surface the series focuses on the male character, Sun Wolf, but it's really about women and their place in a traditional sword-and-sorcery society; The Ladies of Mandrigyn in particular has the best cast of female characters I have ever encountered in a fantasy novel -- all of them complex and real in very different ways, entirely within the constraints of a typical Western-ish medieval-ish fantasy society.

Also magic: Spindle's End or Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley; retellings of Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast respectively, but excellent novels with strong female protagonists and plenty of magic (though it's not paint-by-numbers magic; it's magic that's wild and not well understood by humans, and there are no schools of magic). Her novel The Blue Sword has less magic, but does have a sort of female knight. ;)

Warrior - Marie Brennan ... strong female characters, one a warrior, the other a witch, magic, interesting world construction. This book was originally published under the title "Doppelganger."

The Sequel is called Witch (originally published under the title "Warrior and Witch").