Books read August

August has been a milestone month for me; not only did I turn forty, I also went to my first Worldcon. I had wanted to go to the Glasgow Worldcon nine years ago, but what with having been unemployed the year before and buying a house with Sandra, there just wasn’t either the money or the time to go there. Never mind eh, the 2014 Worldcon was a brilliant one to have as your first, though it did put a bit of strain on my reading. Only seven books finished as compared to nine last month, two fantasy, five science fiction, all women. Didn’t set out to read only female writers this month, but it just turned out that way.

Moving Target — Elizabeth Moon
The second installment in the Vatta’s War series, this was braincandy. I got it and read it in a day.

Sister Mine — Nalo Hopkinson
Urban fantasy about two not quite human sisters in Toronto as they struggle to come to terms with their relationship in the shadow of the voodoo-esque gods they serve.

Spin — Nina Allan
This short novel is inspired by the legend of Arachne and Athena and mixes fantasy and science fiction and is incredibly well written.

On a Red Station, Drifting — Aliette de Bodard
A disgraced magistrate in the Dai Viet Empire flees to the not quite pristene space station her distant family rules; things get complicated.

The Adventures of Alyx — Joanna Russ
I’d already read Picnic on Paradise a decade or so ago, but it was interesting to read it again in the context of the other Alyx stories, which you could call feminist fantasy parables.

The Steerswoman — Rosemary Kirstein
Bought this as an ebook on the strength of James Nicoll’s review; bought the whole series in fact. One of those books you have to lay down now and again to savour the writing and not have it end too soon.

Witch World — Andre Norton
The first novel in Norton’s best known and most successful series, about a man from our world who just after WWII is transported to another world where magic and high technology seem to exist hand in hand, to fight against an evil looming over the people who adopted him.

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