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- Dec 7, 2009
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How many books have you read in the past few years by female authors? I counted my list this weekend. Since 2021, I have read 71 individual books and/or series by female authors. That’s not even half of the 154 individual books I read in 2023 alone. Okay, so a handful were books I read 15 years ago and still remember, but even so.
To be fair to myself, I counted entire series as 1 item. Whether they were trilogies or quartets or larger, I only counted them as 1 item of the 71 total—so all 7 Harry Potter books are just noted as 1 item. So that number will go way, way up once I break it down to counting each and every book. Even so, I know I read a lot more books by male authors than by female authors.
I’ve decided to start this thread to note my thoughts on SFFH books by female authors I have read for fun. I did not read them for the purpose of reviewing them; rather, what I note about them will be more on the level of a reader review on Goodreads or Amazon or other platform. Maybe we can discuss them. Maybe I can get some recommendations for books I should try. Maybe you’d like to add your thoughts on an SFFH book you’ve read by a female author. Maybe we can all broaden our horizons, widen our reading habits and become as widely read as we consider ourselves to be.
At least, those are my goals for myself.
Btw, here’s a little bio on me: I’m a white American man in my late 30s. I’m straight and work from home. I read primarily fantasy, with maybe 20-25% sci-fi, which I started around the age of 13. I also write fantasy for adult, young adult and middle grade markets, though I’m currently unpublished, and mostly hangout in our site’s Writing Forum.
That’s where I’m coming from with this. I’ll summarize the book and/or series, will try not to give away spoilers, and will try to share some criticisms I have—though, the last will be focused on the book and/or series and not on their authors as individuals.
TL
R -- I'm starting this thread to discuss SFFH works by female authors, both to share my experiences of those works and to broaden my horizons to be more inclusive of female authors in my future readings and, perhaps, to broaden yours as well.
---------------------
Among Others – by Jo Walton
To start us off, I want to talk about a book that I absolutely love. Jo Walton’s Among Others is one of these.
Set in 1979 and 1980, Among Others a Contemporary SFFH standalone novel about SFFH books published up to that time. The novel is told in an epistolary fashion through the diary entries of teenage Welsh protagonist, Morwenna (Mor) Phelps. She has moved in with her long-lost father and his sisters after the death of her twin sister in an accident which left Mor gravely injured, requiring her to use a cane to walk and to enter the hospital for periods of traction. At first, her only friends are her SFFH books and, later, human friends in an SFFH book group that include classmates (she’s still in school, high school for Americans), librarians and other adult SFFH fans. The novel details her new life with her father and aunts whom she’s just getting to know, grief at the loss of her sister and old life, the SFFH novels she reads and the physical, psychological and emotional healing process she undergoes.
Admittedly, I have not read this novel recently. But I remember being absolutely in love with it. The novel was published in 2010 and, if I didn’t read it that year, then I probably read it before the end of 2012. I may have given it a reread, but I haven’t touched my paperback copy in at least a decade except to dust it and my other books. As I said above, the vast majority of my current reading is by audiobook, and I get books exclusively through my library. My library does not have an audiobook copy of Among Others and, while I’ve been eyeing it for a reread for the past few weeks, I haven’t actually picked it up yet. I probably should have done that before writing about it…
Today we have this subgenre of “cozy fantasy” which readers often describe as “a big hug in book form”. Among Others is like that, but it’s not cozy at all. Mor’s medical troubles, her grief and struggles to create a new life all prevent it from being a cozy fantasy. However, she finds strength and friendship through her book group and as readers we journey with her as she reads books published before 1980. I got excited with her as I read her thoughts and reactions to books I had read, discovered authors with male names were actually women, and recounted the discussions she had with her book group about them. Mor soon became a good friend who loved SFFH books just as much as me and, what’s more, I actually talking with her about them—even though she was (is!) a fictional character!
I’m sure there are some criticism of the book that can be made. I’d probably make some if I read it now. But it’s been too long and I haven’t read any reader reviews that I can recount to you now. If I knew any, I’d share. If you know any and would like to share a more balanced view of the book, please do! And I’ll do my best to get to the book sooner than later.
QUESTION:
I’d also like to pose a question to the forum. Mor talks about a LOT of SFFH books in the course of Among Others--more than I read last year! She enjoys and loves many, but dislikes others for all the reasons that we, real people, like some books and dislike others. So, if you could make a list of your 5 favorite SFFH books of all time, what would they be?
To be fair to myself, I counted entire series as 1 item. Whether they were trilogies or quartets or larger, I only counted them as 1 item of the 71 total—so all 7 Harry Potter books are just noted as 1 item. So that number will go way, way up once I break it down to counting each and every book. Even so, I know I read a lot more books by male authors than by female authors.
I’ve decided to start this thread to note my thoughts on SFFH books by female authors I have read for fun. I did not read them for the purpose of reviewing them; rather, what I note about them will be more on the level of a reader review on Goodreads or Amazon or other platform. Maybe we can discuss them. Maybe I can get some recommendations for books I should try. Maybe you’d like to add your thoughts on an SFFH book you’ve read by a female author. Maybe we can all broaden our horizons, widen our reading habits and become as widely read as we consider ourselves to be.
At least, those are my goals for myself.Btw, here’s a little bio on me: I’m a white American man in my late 30s. I’m straight and work from home. I read primarily fantasy, with maybe 20-25% sci-fi, which I started around the age of 13. I also write fantasy for adult, young adult and middle grade markets, though I’m currently unpublished, and mostly hangout in our site’s Writing Forum.
That’s where I’m coming from with this. I’ll summarize the book and/or series, will try not to give away spoilers, and will try to share some criticisms I have—though, the last will be focused on the book and/or series and not on their authors as individuals.
TL
R -- I'm starting this thread to discuss SFFH works by female authors, both to share my experiences of those works and to broaden my horizons to be more inclusive of female authors in my future readings and, perhaps, to broaden yours as well. ---------------------
Among Others – by Jo Walton
To start us off, I want to talk about a book that I absolutely love. Jo Walton’s Among Others is one of these.
Set in 1979 and 1980, Among Others a Contemporary SFFH standalone novel about SFFH books published up to that time. The novel is told in an epistolary fashion through the diary entries of teenage Welsh protagonist, Morwenna (Mor) Phelps. She has moved in with her long-lost father and his sisters after the death of her twin sister in an accident which left Mor gravely injured, requiring her to use a cane to walk and to enter the hospital for periods of traction. At first, her only friends are her SFFH books and, later, human friends in an SFFH book group that include classmates (she’s still in school, high school for Americans), librarians and other adult SFFH fans. The novel details her new life with her father and aunts whom she’s just getting to know, grief at the loss of her sister and old life, the SFFH novels she reads and the physical, psychological and emotional healing process she undergoes.
Admittedly, I have not read this novel recently. But I remember being absolutely in love with it. The novel was published in 2010 and, if I didn’t read it that year, then I probably read it before the end of 2012. I may have given it a reread, but I haven’t touched my paperback copy in at least a decade except to dust it and my other books. As I said above, the vast majority of my current reading is by audiobook, and I get books exclusively through my library. My library does not have an audiobook copy of Among Others and, while I’ve been eyeing it for a reread for the past few weeks, I haven’t actually picked it up yet. I probably should have done that before writing about it…
Today we have this subgenre of “cozy fantasy” which readers often describe as “a big hug in book form”. Among Others is like that, but it’s not cozy at all. Mor’s medical troubles, her grief and struggles to create a new life all prevent it from being a cozy fantasy. However, she finds strength and friendship through her book group and as readers we journey with her as she reads books published before 1980. I got excited with her as I read her thoughts and reactions to books I had read, discovered authors with male names were actually women, and recounted the discussions she had with her book group about them. Mor soon became a good friend who loved SFFH books just as much as me and, what’s more, I actually talking with her about them—even though she was (is!) a fictional character!
I’m sure there are some criticism of the book that can be made. I’d probably make some if I read it now. But it’s been too long and I haven’t read any reader reviews that I can recount to you now. If I knew any, I’d share. If you know any and would like to share a more balanced view of the book, please do! And I’ll do my best to get to the book sooner than later.
QUESTION:
I’d also like to pose a question to the forum. Mor talks about a LOT of SFFH books in the course of Among Others--more than I read last year! She enjoys and loves many, but dislikes others for all the reasons that we, real people, like some books and dislike others. So, if you could make a list of your 5 favorite SFFH books of all time, what would they be?
But yes very difficult/almost impossible to pick a top 5.
