June = Female Fantasy/ Science Fiction Month

I'll be reading Katherine Kurtz

I'll be joining in the One Librarything read of The Penelopiad. I haven't taken part in one of these before.

I've also requested the audiobook Cinder from the library since that series seems to have quite a following here on LT.

>1 MarthaJeanne:. I've read quite a few of Kurtz's Deryni books .. I'll be interested to see what you think of her.

At the moment planning on Ancillary Justice and The Queen is Dead. I hope to add more.

>2 streamsong: I've known and loved the series for years, but just managed to pick up 5 more of the series while in the US. I've probably read them, but over a decade ago. Only missing The Harrowing of Gwynedd now!
My niece had left her collection at my sister's house, which is where I first read many of them. She and I both like liturgy, which may be why we enjoy them so much.

I think that Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness with it's Witches and vampires, right?

>4 MarthaJeanne: ahh, fun to reread a favorite! It's been longer than that since I've read them. I've wondered how they stand up.

OK, I was out thread-hopping and have also requested a copy of Raven Girl. It fits right into the challenge, and I've read less than a dozen graphic novels. I had no idea Audrey Niffenegger could draw!

I am excited about this! I have a few reads set aside:

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
A Curse As Dark As Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier
Zombies vs. Unicorns by Holly Black

I have lots more but doubt if time will permit me to fit anymore in.

I'm going to read The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

>8 kiwiflowa: - I was wracking my brain - and my LT catalog - looking for a book for this theme read and low and behold, your mention of Wecker's novel turned the light bulb on over my head! I have that one on audiobook so I should be able to squeeze it in.

>9 lkernagh: awesome! I'm really looking forward to this one too, I found a pretty copy of it amongst the crud in a 'pop-up' bookshop last month.

I plan to start the month off with Cordelia's Honor, the first omnibus in the Vorkosigan Saga which should arrive in my mailbox next week. Where I go from there depends on the time it takes me to get through that one but I do have numerous options sitting on the tbr shelves.

I'm also hoping to join in with this. I have too many possibilities to list but hoping to at least read:

The Other Wind by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold
Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy

I am planning to read nothing but SF/F by women this month, and I have 5 books picked out from the TBR: The Golem and the Jinni for book club, The Office of Mercy, The Female Man, Ammonite and China Mountain Zhang. I'm really looking forward to it!

I'd love to jump in here, but not sure what I'll be reading yet.

I have just started A Wizard of Earthsea and based on how much I like it I'm sure I'll want to read the next in the Earthsea series in June.

>15 rosalita: In my opinion, The Tombs of Atuan is (even) better than A Wizard of Earthsea. Hope you enjoy it.

I've just started Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly and will put it aside for the week for this. i have lots of library books vying for my attention in the meantime.

>16 PawsforThought: Oh, I'm glad to hear that!

I'm in! A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor will be one, maybe Second Star by Dana Stabenow another, and definitely The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold the third. If there's time and the spirit moves me, I may also pick up Scarlet by Marissa Meyer too.

I really enjoyed Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy when I read it a million years ago!

I wish I could read again for the first time either Terrorists of Irustan or The Goddess Child by Louise Marley, or The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, all three of which are in my top 10 sci-fi novels by women, but alas I've already had those pleasures.

I've been waiting all year for this event! There were so many books bullets from last year that I'll attempt to read this June. First one will be The probable future by Alice Hoffman. I'd also like to read The left hand of darkness by Le Guin. And even though there is a planned read of Doomsday book in December, I don't know if I'm going to be able to wait that long!

Eagerly looking forward to june and more reading time! I'm devoting all of june to female fantasy and sci-fi, and am hoping/planning to read at least:

Left hand of darkness by Ursula Le Guin (hi paruline!)
The Shining girls by Lauren Beukes
Parable of the talents by Octavia Butler
Vampires in the lemon grove by Karen Russell
The forest house by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Got several more stacked up, but that's where i'll start.

>21 GingerbreadMan: *waves back*!

This a good chance to read some books off my TBR mountain. Will be back after I've checked the shelves of shame. :)

just checking

>23 jolerie:
chuckle! 'shelves of shame'

I could probably add more books than I'll ever be able to read so I'll just make my list at least reasonably achievable. :)

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
The Forest House by Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
Moth and Spark by Anne Leonard

Cathy, it's funny because too many of us can relate to that in regards to our TBR mountain right?? ;)

>26 jolerie:
Absolutely, that is why I laughed; because I could sooo relate! I have over 400 books in my home that I have not read! Shameful, indeed!

Since 90% of my reading is fantasy or science fiction, I'm sure I'll be able to read a number of books in this category in June!

damn it's nearly June already, best get my ass in gear and have a look at the pile!

>5 cyderry: Hi, everyone! I am anxiously awaiting The Book of Life: A Novel (All Souls Trilogy) by Deborah Harkness, and am planning on (re)reading the first two books of the trilogy Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night) in June. I think they fit perfectly in this thread.

I've also got Wizard of Earthsea from the library, and I'll keep my eyes open as to what others are reading. It's certainly a rich theme!

Karen O.

I didn't know there was such a month, but I'll join in with Scarlet, the second of the Cinder trilogy and Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts by Emily Anthes, which is more science than science fiction, but I think it might have some speculation on the future.

ETA Also The Penelopiad to join in the big group read.

I read an ARC of frankensteins cat very enjoyable

I just realised that I, sadly, don't know that many female scifi/fantasy writers and even fewer that I'm interested in reading or have easy access to their work (have to have them at the library).

Anyone have a list or a link to one?

I'm planning to read Ancillary Justice, Cetaganda and some of the Hugo-nominated shorter fiction. I see that a few others are also planning to read Bujold. Don't forget that there is a year-long Vorkosigan Group Read going on in the 2014 Category Challenge group. We'd love to have more people participate, even if it's only for this month. If you're new to these books, the thread has suggestions on where to begin.

>33 PawsforThought: There is a list of authors on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Women_science_fiction_and_fantasy_writers

For science fiction only, you might want to check out SF Mistressworks, which reviews SF written by women before the year 2000. The list down the right side could be helpful: http://sfmistressworks.wordpress.com/

There's also a list there of women who have won SF awards: http://sfmistressworks.wordpress.com/women-and-awards/

(SF Mistressworks is run by fellow LibraryThinger iansales and I have contributed a few reviews to it.)

ETA We also have a list here of Feminist Science Fiction: http://www.librarything.com/list/234/all/Feminist-Science-Fiction

Not all of it is written by women, but most is.

>35 sturlington: Thank you!

>33 PawsforThought: Here's another resource:
https://www.worldswithoutend.com/authors_women.asp

I asked the Twittersphere (I'm @suttope) for recommendations - SF mistressworks came up

ancillary justice gets a few votes
gemsigns also gets a few votes

I'll collect the recommendations and post them end of the week

Ancillary Justice won the Nebula. I will have to put that on my reading list.

Hi- I am new here, but I just started The Wolf Gift yesterday, and then >35 sturlington: mentioned this group and here I am!

>40 vwinsloe: Welcome!

>41 sturlington:, thank you. I am a lover of SF & Fantasy, and hope to read at least one more by a woman author before the month is over.

Started The Hallowed Hunt by Bujold, third in the loosely connected trilogy that started with Curse of Chalion, which I loved. After a bit of a rocky start, I am enjoying this one too.

Finished The Office of Mercy by Ariel Djanikian, my first selection for the month. This is a quick, entertaining read but I can't decide whether it wants to be YA or adult fiction. It's a bit too slender for adult. It's set in a futuristic dystopia (with a domed underground city--love those) and takes on issues like euthanasia and genocide. Interesting first novel.

I'm off as well, reading Vampires in the lemon grove by Karen Russell. So far I'm very impressed. Feels like the promise she's shown in her earlier work is blooming here.

I just finished The probable future which I devoured. Now The left hand of darkness has just arrived at the library and I also picked up Howl's moving castle. This is shaping up to be a very good reading month!

This is what I have planned for the first part of the month:

Steles of the Sky by Elizabeth Bear
The River Kings' Road by Liane Merciel
Dust Girl by Sarah Zettel
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
The Daemon Prism by Carol Berg
Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold*

*reread for the Vorkosigan year-long read

I've just finished Scarlet by Marissa Meyer, and while this one didn't enthrall me quite as much as the first in the series, it still was a great escape read and I can't wait to continue on with the next book later this year.

I've just started Dorothy Must Die, a take off on The Wizard of Oz. This time the main character is Amy, trailer trash daughter of an alcoholic who is transported to Oz by a tornado and it starting to find some unsettling things about Dorothy.

Finished Moth and Spark. A solid debut novel that has dragons, magic, court politics and lots and lots of romance if that is your cuppa!

>49 Citizenjoyce: There's also an ebook prequel, No Place Like Oz. I've got a Kindle, and I don't know if it's available in Nook.

>51 CurrerBell: I've seen that recommended. Is it a short story? I'm surprised at how good Dorothy Must Die is. I'm not usually interested in books that describe teaching a person to fight, but when you combine witches and magic and disappointing mothers it gets very interesting. I thought I was done with the whole teen age witch thing, but these characters seem like real people not TV stereotypes.

As the first of the Vorkosigan omnibus books hasn't yet arrived, I've made a start on Babylon Steel instead. It hasn't totally hooked me yet but still finding it interesting enough.

52> I'd call it more novella length (or maybe even short novel). I just checked it in my cloud reader and the file has a total of 2600+ positions, though the last couple hundred of them are a preview for Dorothy Must Die.

Worth it @ $1.99 assuming you're interested in the story. I mean, it's not $1.99 for just a few pages of reading.

Oh, duh, and I just noticed on the Amazon page for No Place Like Oz that it's got an estimated 132 pages.

I finished The Wolf Gift, and it was an entertaining read. I didn't think it was as good as Anne Rice's early work, but it was better than some of her later novels which had kind of turned me off from reading her.

Continuing on, I just started Vonda N. McIntyre's Enterprise; The First Adventure. I grabbed it off of my shelves of shame because I think that it will be a quick read. Unfortunately, the other book that I want to read for this thread this month is in my other shelf of shame in my office. That one is Who Fears Death and from what I've heard about it, it will fit right in with my mood right now!

Finished Vampires in the lemon grove and loved it to bits. Now moving on to The forest house. Fantasy romance is not my cuppa, and Albion is not my scene...but I give it to Bradley that she can make you turn that page.

As I am another who is anxiously awaiting the Book Of Life, I am rereading A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of the Night.

I'm amost through Scarlet, and I think it suffers from the middle book of a trilogy syndrome. It moves the action along and introduces new characters so that we can get to a finale, but in itself doesn't really engage, at least not me.
I'm also about 2/3 of the way through The Penelopiad. Amazing that Margaret Atwood thought the same thing I did at the end of the Odyssy, but she did something about it. It's very good.

30 & 57. How did you make it through Shadow of Night? I loved A Discovery of Witches and tried to read Shadow of Night 2-3 times, but hated it.

50> Book Bullet!

55> Did you hear she's coming out with Prince Lestat in October? I'm planning to "reread" the series on audiobook.

I read mostly urban fantasy, but I might try to stretch myself and read some regular fantasy or science fiction this month. I read A Shiver of Light by Laurell K. Hamilton and I'm currently reading The Minority Council by Kate Griffin.

>59 BookLizard:. Yes, I am eagerly awaiting Prince Lestat who was always my favorite Anne Rice character. From what I have read, he is hers as well.

I enjoyed Shadow of Night quite a bit for a middle book. It helps to have a passing interest in Elizabethan England, I guess.

I just started Who Fears Death.

I'm on my third SF/F book this month, and I am really enjoying it. Usually I end up reading one SF/F book every three books because I mix them up with literary fiction and non-fiction. This has been a wonderful departure from that, thanks to this Category Challenge group. Thanks!

I've just started Laini Taylor's Dreams of Gods & Monsters (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #3) which I've been looking forward to. I have to admit to only having vague memories of book #2, so hopefully I'll start remembering vital plot points before too long.
I'm also still reading Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly, I had it put aside for a couple of weeks while I finished other books.

>62 avatiakh: I did like Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I wonder if I can get to the next of the series this month.

Finished The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. This is a historical fantasy set in turn-of-the-20th century New York City about a golem and a jinni. Fabulous sense of place, a bit slow-moving and perhaps could have used some judicious editing. I tend to read more science fiction than fantasy, so this was a different kind of read for me.

I'm about to start While Beauty Slept, a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story. I recently saw Malifecent and am up for even more versions of the fairy tale.

>65 Citizenjoyce: Another one you might like to try is The Sleeping Beauty. Lackey's Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms Series (http://www.librarything.com/series/Tales+of+the+Five+Hundred+Kingdoms) is great fun, with the Fairy Godmother run ragged trying to stop Tradition from forcing people into bad ends.

>66 MarthaJeanne: Thanks, I was able to get the 1st of the series as an e-book from my library. Now, let's see if I have time to read it this month.

>65 Citizenjoyce: Try Thornspell by Helen Lowe. It's told from the pov of the prince, I really liked it.

>68 avatiakh: Thanks, my library has that one too.

That sounds like fun, but unfortunately isn't available any more.

Correction: I could buy the e-book, but I try not to pay for e-books. They aren't the same as having real books.

I just finished the short story collection, Zombies vs. Unicorns. Of the twelve stories offered, 10 are by women. I really had fun with this book and I now have a list of authors that I need to investigate further!

>71 DeltaQueen50: That looks so good I not only had to request it from the library, I remembered how much I like Holly Black so also had to request Tithe. There's no month like the present.

I just started Born of Night, it's my first Sherrilynn Kenyon, and it feels good to be reading science fiction by a woman that is not YA.

Put the review up for my first read of the month with Babylon Steel.

I finished The Golem and the Jinni and really enjoyed Wecker's wonderful tale!

>72 Citizenjoyce: Have fun with Zombies vs. Unicorns, Joyce.

I have now moved on to A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin.

Still waddling along in The forest house. Ugh. Hope to finish it today.

Well, let me tell you, Born of Night is the first of, I think, a long line of assassin books that I'm not feeling any desire to read. This first one sets up the characters, poor damaged yet powerful men, sympathetic and vulnerable woman, everyone killing and threatening everyone else with references to, but fortunately not descriptions of torture. Can't figure out why there would be a need for more than one book.
Digging through my bookshelves I found From the Legend of Biel by Mary Staton which I know nothing about except some references to alien childbirth. Sounds like a must read for me. Has anyone heard of it?

So far this month I've read

Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper
The Runaways by Elizabeth Goudge (aka Linnets and Valerians)

Two children's books with at least a hint of fantasy/magic in them

Ethan of Athos and Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold - continuing the Vorkosigan series

The Golem and the Djinni by Helen Wecker

Currently reading Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy, Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold (another Vorkosigan) and I'm about to start Briar Rose by Jane Yolen

>64 sturlington: You've nailed why I liked rather than loved The Golem and the Djinni.

I thought this might be of interest to those joining in with this theme. I just found out that Lightspeed science fiction magazine has done a special Kickstarter-funded June issue where the whole magazine was written and edited solely by women (named Women Destroy Science Fiction).

You can read about the Kickstarter campaign here.

You can read more about the special issue on the Lightspeed website here. On the left is the list of contents for the special issue and it looks like some of the stories are available to read free online (I think the ones marked with stars are)

>80 souloftherose:, Thanks. The collection is only $3.99, so I had to get it.

Finished The forest house yesterday. Don't think I need to revisit druid Britannia anytime soon. Picking up Parable of the talents, hoping it lives up to it's rather amazing precendent.

I really enjoyed A Wizard of Earthsea finding the lyrical, moralizing tale very soothing and entertaining. This was my first Ursula Le Guin but now that I have found her, I will be reading more of her works.

I've read some Ursula Le Guin over the years (The Lathe of Heaven and others) but never in a really systematic way, so I just got hold of Three Hainish Novels, finished Roncannon's World, and am now starting on Planet of Exile. I'm going to read the Hainish cycle (a couple of which I've read years ago), including the short stories, straight through in chronological order of authorship and then go on to the Earthsea cycle, which I've never read at all.

> 84 Have fun with Ursula! I am planning on finishing the Earthsea books and then move on to the three Hainish Novels!

>Book Lizard - As much as I liked Discovery of Witches I actually liked Shadow of the Night even more.
I loved the use of real Elizabetheans - Kit Marlowe, Shakespeare, Phillip and Mary Sydney and of course, Queen Elizabeth. So, like vwinsloe my interest in the age may have helped.

But, I liked the development of the story as well. A lot happens in TSOTN and you learn a lot of both Matthew and Diana's backstory as well. There is more meat than the average middle book and you are missing quite a lot.

I'm continuing my way through Dragonsbane and Dreams of Gods and Monsters but have also made headway in a library book, Half Bad by Sally Green, which is a great witch story so far. There are White witches and fains (non-witches), but Nathan's father was one of the few remaining Black witches, which makes Nathan only a half-White. This is not good.

Reading these comments about Ursula K. Le Guin makes me waffle now - should my next book be the next Vokosigan omnibus or should I read The Dispossessed, both of which are on my shelf waiting??

I just finished a fairly ho-hum fantasy that was based on the Little Mermaid fairytale. The book was called Midnight Pearls by Debbie Viguie, but unfortunately it just didn't draw me in.

I stayed up late reading Half Bad and finished it this morning before getting up - really enjoyed it, the next one, Half Wild comes out next year.

I finished The Female Man. Never read it before, and I am glad to have it under my belt. I wouldn't classify it as science fiction exactly, more like speculative stream-of-consciousness. I'm still formulating my opinion about it, but it's a very interesting work of feminist literature.

I just finished L'Engle's A Ring of endless Light. I don't think I would classify this as science fiction, exactly. Certainly not fantasy. But very moving.

I finished The Dispossessed by Le Guin. Very thought-provoking!

>93 leslie.98: I think I read The Dispossessed years ago. Having just finished the first three Hainish novels, my next LeGuin will be The Left Hand of Darkness (which I definitely read years ago), followed by The Dispossessed, in my current project of reading/rereading the Hainish Cycle straight through in chronological order of publication.

I've got a book club edition of The Lathe of Heaven, the Dispossessed, the Wind's Twelve Quarters on order through Abe since I'm planning on reading the stories as well, and I've got The Lathe of Heaven on Abe order as well. Hope they're here soon.

I also (reading Wikipedia) stumbled across Ursula K. Le Guin's the Left Hand of Darkness (Modern Critical Interpretations). Considering it was edited by Harold Bloom, it could be interesting, but it also seems to be a little pricey, at least unless you settle for an ex-library.

I read The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed years ago and years apart and didn't realize they were part of a series. I should go back and read the earlier novels.

We have several of these, and I should read them again.

BTW, the title for The Word for World is Forest works even better in German: Das Wort für Welt ist Wald.

'Left Hand of Darkness' is high on my list of best books I've ever read.

86> Maybe I'll give Shadow of Night a third chance. I just HATED Kit Marlowe in the book. Maybe if I reread A Discovery of Witches first, it will put me in the right state of mind.

We read A Discovery of Witches for my RL book club, and I was one of the few members who hated the book. The readers who liked romance liked it, but for me it was so sexist I barely made it through. The big bad male was in complete control of his obedient women. As I recall, he even told them when they were tired or hungry since they couldn't figure that out for themselves. While many of the group went on to read sequels, I certainly won't.

I'm 2/3 of the way through The Blue Sword and I will say that it gripped me from the very first. This is only the second Robin McKinley book I've read and I liked the other one Sunshine even if I'm not all that crazy about vampire books. Thankfully this one isn't one.

>98 Citizenjoyce: Wow! So glad I abandoned that book a few pages in. It's tough when the book club pick is a book you hate. I'm always tempted to skip the next meeting in that case so I won't have to finish the book.

>98 Citizenjoyce: and >100 sturlington:
I was surprised to see you found The Discovery of Witches sexist.

As I remember it, Diana seems weak and somewhat submissive to start with but that is a symptom of her suppressed power. And Matthew is not selectively dominant with females, he is a dominant character regardless of what sex he is dealing with.

The stronger and surer Dianna gets with her powers, the more equality in her relationship with Matthew.

I am rereading right now to get ready for the final book and will keep an open mind to see it from your point of you.

>97 BookLizard: Feel free to hate Kit Marlowe, he is a detestable character! :)

>98 Citizenjoyce: I couldn't even finish A Discovery of Witches. Here's my 1 star review.

98> I do read romance, so I guess I didn't find his dominant attitude too disturbing in the first one, but the second book is really sexist. I mean, I guess it's supposed to be because it's set in Elizabethan times, but it was just a big turnoff.

>98 Citizenjoyce:, >100 sturlington:, >101 bg853:, >102 CurrerBell:, & >103 BookLizard: I don't like romance novels at all, and I enjoyed reading A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night. They are light, enjoyable reading with somewhat stereotypical characterizations. If I was to be bothered by that, I guess the "earthy crunchy," lesbian witches portrayal would bother me more than the dominant predator vampire. The traits of these stereotypical characters are quite conscious, and accompanied by figurative eye rolls by the other characters (and undoubtedly the author.)

I don't mind if one or two characters in a book have sexist attitudes (that are called out.) The converse would be a utopian world in which sexism does not exist, which, while lovely, is harder to relate to and doesn't say anything about reality. What I despise is insidious sexism, that is accepted as the norm and/or portrayed as acceptable or even positive attitudes in novels. These books don't do that. And there are other non-stereotypical characters in the mix, which keep it from being too cartoonish. Not great literature, for sure, but fun read.

I just started reading the trilogy The True Game by Sheri S. Tepper. I love her books and for some reason, I have never read this trilogy so I am a happy camper!

>105 leslie.98: Hmm, I have Jinian Footseer around here somewhere, bought at a used-book store in the 80s but never read. I wonder if you need to read the books in order...

Weighing in on The Discovery of Witches, I didn't mind the sexism (which was necessary to the story and wasn't, as far as I could tell, gratuitous or presented approvingly) as much as what I perceived as mundane and somewhat laborious writing that could have used a good editor. OTOH, I read the second in the trilogy and will (probably) read the third, just to see how it all turns out.

So far this month I've read

Soulless: the Manga, Vol. 1
The Hallowed Hunt
The Vor Game
Cetaganda
Brothers in Arms

and I'm currently working on Tropic of Serpents.

On tap are Scarlet and Lilith's Brood and am hoping to get to

Symphony of Echoes
Mirror Dance
Borders of Infinity
World After

Well, it certain does appear that I'm on a Vorkosigan marathon.

>106 Storeetllr: Jinian Footseer is #7 in this True Game series - I haven't read it (yet). I would recommend her The Gate to Women's Country or The Family Tree as good places to start with Tepper (both stand-alone fantasies).

I hope to squeeze in at least one Vorkosigan book before the end of the month but I haven't gotten as far as you. Cetaganda is my next one up...

Oh! I love Gate to Women's Country! Grass and Beauty are also favorites of mine. I don't remember Family Tree, though I know I must have read it as I've read all of her more recent stuff. (And by "more recent" I mean anything she's written in the 80s and later.)

A lot of people have said that Cetaganda is one of the best in the series, and I really liked it too. Enjoy!

I am reading another fairy-tale based fantasy, A Curse As Dark As Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce is based on Rumpelstiltskin and so far, is much better than my last fairy-tale based fantasy, Midnight Pearls.

I finished up my last book of the month for this challenge, also my favorite read of all my choices: China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh. It is set in a near-future where China is the dominant superpower and the US has become a socialist country. I enjoyed this book a lot because it was really a book about people, how they craft their lives and form their communities, despite its SF setting, and it had a broad geographic scope, with sections taking place in New York City, the Arctic, China, and even Mars.

This month I managed to get in a post-apocalyptic dystopia The Office of Mercy, a historical fantasy The Golem and the Jinni, a feminist SF classic The Female Man, and a near-future story China Mountain Zhang. I really enjoyed this challenge, the diversity of my selections all linked under this theme.

>110 sturlington:. I'm glad that you liked China Mountain Zhang. I read it many years ago, and although I don't remember much about it now, I do recall that it was very atmospheric, and that it stuck with me for quite a while after I had read it.

I started in May, having been able to buy most of the books in the series that I was missing. So far I have read/reread seven of them. I'm still missing The Harrowing of Gwynedd, so I had to skip that one.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/160391#4573246

I understand that the novel that follows Childe Morgan (that I just finished) is due out in December. No, I won't buy the hardback, but I'll look forward to reading it once it gets into paperback.

I finished one more book for this month's group read. When Autumn Leaves is a debut novel by Amy S. Foster. I started out with high expectations of another Sarah Addison Allen and her approach to magical realism. Sadly, not up to Allen's wonderful, enchanting standards but still an okay read.

Right now I've just started The Bees and am as charmed as I'm supposed to be. This is a novel written from the perspective of a worker bee with higher aspirations. I started to read a review of it that said it was a combination of A Handmaids Tale and... but I stopped there because I wanted to find out for myself.
Also I'm about 1/2 way through Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson which appears to be 2 tales combined in one book. The first is about a future earth devastated by environmental degredation, the discovery of a new planet that can support life and the deterioration of human potential due to reliance on technology. Of course, knowing Winterson, there's also a love story. The second part of the book is about Easter Island, but I don't know where that one is headed, something to do with religion and, again, the environment.
This has been such a great reading month I think I'm going to have to continue it with plans to finish the last two of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series, Cress and a Catherine Asaro, Sunrise Alley

This thread seems like a good place to post a link to a recent story on NPR: "Women Are Destroying Science Fiction! (That's OK, They Created It)".

One quote from the article:

The latter half of the magazine is given over to articles and interviews that continue the conversation begun in the fiction. Here again, the idea that women have been integral to the genre is reinforced — but there's also a big emphasis on the future and how women SF writers imagine it differently. "The stories we read and the stories we tell shape who we are," Pat Murphy writes. They also shape the culture they're born into. Thus, if women keep writing the kind of science fiction they want to see more of, and keep calling it science fiction, the room for that kind of science fiction expands within the genre. Not destroying, just displacing other kinds of SF (the universe is ever-expanding, you know), and existing more prominently beside it.

>115 rosalita: That link leads to something about Mark Twain.

Here you go, the correct link: http://www.npr.org/2014/06/28/322544552/women-are-destroying-science-fiction-tha...

>117 Storeetllr: thanks for the great article.

>118 Citizenjoyce: Julia's the one who brought the article to our attention. I just supplied the correct link.

Question: Do women destroy science fiction when they buy books from science fiction publishers?

Or does having both male and female writers encourage a variety of readers, both male and female, to keep reading science fiction and help keep those publishers alive?

>117 Storeetllr: Thanks, Mary! I don't know how I managed to do that. I've fixed the link in the original post now.

Oops! Forgot to post here that I'd read and reviewed the 2nd book in the Temeraire series, Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik

>121 rosalita: My pleasure, Julia!

I finished the audio of Tropic of Serpents, the second in the Lady Trent series. Excellent fare!

I only managed to finish one Fantasy Female read:

Second Sight by Amanda Quick (3)

As I said above, the majority of my reading falls in these genres, so all but two books this month qualify for this challenge. And I met all my goals in >47 ronincats:.

June
68. Arabian Nights II translated by Husain Haddawy (266 pp.)
69. Steles of the Sky by Elizabeth Bear (429 pp.)
70. Dust Girl by Saray Zettel (290 pp.)
71. The River Kings' Road by Liane Merciel (431 pp.)
72. The Daemon Prism by Carol Berg (498 pp.)
75. The Martian by Andy Weir (369 pp.)
76. My Real Children by Jo Walton (320 pp.)
77. The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (446 pp.)
78. Moth and Spark by Anne Leonard (348 pp.)
79. Spirits That Walk in Shadow by Nina Kiriki Hoffman (306 pp.)
80. Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold (392 pp.)

The last two were rereads, but all the rest were new reads for me, with 6 of them from the library. The other three were ROOTS. books read off my own shelves which I've had more than a year.

Especially recommended, The Martian. The Bear, the Hoffman and the Bujold are all series books where the earlier books should be read first and are also quite good.

I'm still only about fifty pages into The left hand of darkness, so my FSFF june will spill into july :)

So I tried to go through some of the BB from last year's Female Sci-Fi and Fantasy month. Many good reads:

- The probable future - Some magical realism in this story in which each woman in a family line discovers she possesses a "gift" on her 13th birthday;
- Life as we knew it and The dead and the gone - The moon goes out of its orbit, changing the tides and the climate. No need to read those in order as the characters don't overlap until the third book in the series.
- Howl's moving castle - Different from the movie, very enjoyable.
- The left hand of darkness - Very good and original story about a planet whose inhabitants are hermaphrodite and how that affects their society.
- Ella Enchanted - Still reading this, but I'm kicking myself for not having read it when I was younger.

Yesterday I finished The Bees, what a wonderful novel. Not only do you get to find out everything you ever wanted to know about bees, there's also a good Fight-the-Power 1984ish story to go with it.
And just now I finished Zombies vs. Unicorns. Having always been extremely anti zombie, I wasn't sure I'd like it. As Justine Larbalestier, one of the editors says, zombies represent the unremitting inevitability of death, a story about which is as entertaining as that statement. Which means, some people will think it very interesting while I think that as long as one is living one should either enjoy life or try to find out how to do so - putting me squarely in Holly Black's unicorn camp. To my surprise all the zombie stories except one were as entertaining as all the unicorn stories - very. I especially liked the humor, the fluidity of gender and the fresh take on both ideas.

I finished Ancillary Justice which I have to think about for awhile.

I'm almost done with Cress, the last of the Cinder trilogy, and it's so very YA it makes me wonder why I read these things full of romantic yearnings, guilt and self doubt. I loved the first book because it thrilled me to see Cinderella portrayed as the best mechanic in New Beijing, but all the teen-age angst gets tiresome.

>130 Citizenjoyce: That's why I can't read YA very often. It gets too much for me. I have no problem with the genre in itself, I enjoy reading YA, but I can't have more than one or two before I have to read something else for a while.

As it happens Cress is even worse than I thought. The ending of the book is just a teaser for what I assume will be a whole new trilogy. Lord o' mercy, no way on earth am I reading that one.
>131 PawsforThought: I so agree. I feel like I've just finished a giant chocolate bar. No more for me for a long time.

>129 majkia: I also finished Ancillary Justice recently and like you, I too need to think about it for a while. It is certainly different. The main character's inability to distinguish gender made the novel particularly interesting, as I had to keep revising my mental images of the characters, and I suppose that was the author's intention.

I also finished a Hugo-nominated novellette from Mary Robinette Kowal, The Lady Astronaut of Mars. I started Cetaganda from the Vorkosigan series but haven't gotten very far yet.

Chiming in with the praise for The left hand of darkness. A worthy classic, well worth it's renown. I must read more LeGuin - this book and the first two Earthsea books in a distant childhood are my only expereinces so far.