They came from the seventies

From James Nicoll: which of these female sf/f authors who debuted in the 1970ties do you know? Italicize the authors you’ve heard of before reading this list of authors, bold the ones you’ve read at least one work by, underline the ones of whose work you own at least one example of.

  • Lynn Abbey
  • Eleanor Arnason
  • Octavia Butler
  • Moyra Caldecott
  • Jaygee Carr
  • Joy Chant
  • Suzy McKee Charnas
  • C. J. Cherryh
  • Jo Clayton
  • Candas Jane Dorsey
  • Diane Duane
  • Phyllis Eisenstein
  • Cynthia Felice
  • Sheila Finch
  • Sally Gearhart
  • Mary Gentle
  • Dian Girard
  • Eileen Gunn
  • Monica Hughes
  • Diana Wynne Jones
  • Gwyneth Jones
  • Leigh Kennedy
  • Lee Killough
  • Nancy Kress
  • Katherine Kurtz
  • Tanith Lee
  • Megan Lindholm (AKA Robin Hobb)
  • Elizabeth A. Lynn
  • Phillipa Maddern
  • Ardath Mayhar
  • Vonda McIntyre
  • Patricia A. McKillip
  • Janet Morris
  • Pat Murphy
  • Sam Nicholson (AKA Shirley Nikolaisen)
  • Rachel Pollack
  • Marta Randall
  • Anne Rice
  • Jessica Amanda Salmonson
  • Pamela Sargent
  • Sydney J. Van Scyoc
  • Susan Shwartz
  • Nancy Springer
  • Lisa Tuttle
  • Joan Vinge
  • Élisabeth Vonarburg
  • Cherry Wilder
  • Connie Willis

Lots of names I recognise but either never read or only read a few stories off in various anthologies.

Reviews up at SF Mistressworks

Dept. of self promotion: the last few weeks I’ve gotten some old and new reviews published at Ian Sales’ SF Mistressworks site, dedicated to showcasing good books by female sf writers. Thought it might be good to point y’all at them.

The Female Man — Joanna Russ: “The Female Man is a tough book, but not a hard book to read. Joanna Russ is a brilliant writer and everything in here sparkles”

Ammonite — Nicola Griffith: “Nicola Griffith’s goal was to create a world populated solely with women without falling back on clichés about what such a world would look like. No “seven-feet-tall vegetarian amazons who would never dream of killing anyone, no “aliens who are really women or women who are really aliens”, but “the entire spectrum of human behavior”. ”

The Sword of Rhiannon — Leigh Brackett: “What sets The Sword of Rhiannon a touch above other pulp adventure stories is both Brackett’s writing and that elegiac sense of loss that comes across through it.”

Sign of the Labrys — Margaret St. Clair: “The infusion of what at first seemed a fairly standard science fiction story with a dose of Wicca worked pretty well. If necessary, you can ignore all the Wicca mumbo-jumbo and just think of it as psionics.”

Books read May

May saw a slight increase in books read, with less pressure from work and other interests. But with S. back in hospital again there was still less time and desire to read than usual.

Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grille — Steven Brust
A strange book but that was just right for me when I read it, this quite cozy adventure set against a backdrop of succesive nuclear holocausts.

To Reign in Hell — Steven Brust
Brust does Paradise Lost. Another strange novel, but a good one.

Early Medieval Settlements — Helena Hamerow
A excellent archaeological/historical overview of settlements and their evolution in North-West Europe during Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. This is history on a much smaller scale than the books I have been reading about this period, but it complements them well.

Foreigner — C. J. Cherryh
The next novel I read in my Year of Reading Women project. The usual Cherryh story of a young man trust in a crisis beyond his control, with no power but a whole of responsibilities.

The Second Anglo-Dutch War — Gijs Rommelse
AKA the war in which we beat the English like a redheaded stepchild. A good overview, somewhat hampered by its origins as a ph.d thesis.

The Complaints — Ian Rankin
The first post-Rebus novel I’ve read of Rankin. The hero is younger, less cynical but the plot could’ve fitted a Rebus novel as well. This is not a complaint on my part, pun not intended.

Cheap Segars

comics bought today

The result of a day shopping for comics. Quite a lot of E. P. Jacobs’ Blake and Mortimer, several William Vance drawn Bob Morane, a Jeremiah I needed, the first album in the Comanche western series also drawn by Hermann and the two absolute toppers: Comic Arf, a collection of Craig Yoe’s comics obsessions and volume 2 of the Fantagraphics’ E.C. Segar’s Popeye series. Which only cost me ten euros at the English remaindered shop at the top of Kalverstraat. And they got a whole stack of them left, so if you’re in Amsterdam…