Feminist Science Fiction Fans discussion

We have plowed through all the selections voted on in the poll earlier this year save for the July selection; Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century (which I am stoked for).

I thought I would get the ball rolling on nominations for the rest of the year (August-December). Please list any and all books you would like to read that fall under the femscifi umbrella and I think we should do the same thing as last time, a big huge poll where the top 5 will be our selections for the remaining months on 2014.

I'm going to throw Native Tongue back into the ring, as well as Daughter of Elysium and Sister Mine

Here are a few novels that I'd like to nominate ---

1) Defender by Mike Shepherd



SUMMARY
"Kris Longknife is back in the good graces of the brass—and to demonstrate that, they've promoted her to Admiral. Now her mission is to find the home base of the space pirates who are plaguing the fringes of the galaxy.

"But no mission is ever simple when your name is Longknife. And this time the complications range from the military to the personal, as Kris finds herself—reluctantly—having to make some command decisions about her future..."

2) Hellfire by Jean Johnson



3) Once a Hero by Elizabeth Moon



4) The Scarlet Empress by Susan Grant



SUMMARY
"Shot down over Korea, modern-day U.S.A.F. fighter pilot Cameron “Scarlet” Tucker is put in bio-stasis. She wakes 170 years later to find her best friend survived, too — the “legendary” Banzai Maguire is being held for treason in the country that was once her beloved United States. Cam has her own problems. She’s in the masterful hands of Kyber, the emperor prince whom Banzai just escaped. And he won’t get fooled again.

"With a mysterious Shadow Voice urging world revolution, and her friend in chains, Cam wants the sexy dictator on her side—and maybe even closer. But her role in the thrilling mission to save her country must come first. It’s time to give a royal butt-kicking, and Cam knows just where to start."

5) Cauldron by Jack McDevitt



SUMMARY
"When a young physicist unveils an efficient star drive capable of reaching the core of the galaxy, veteran star pilot Priscilla 'Hutch' Hutchins finds herself back in the deepest reaches of space, and on the verge of discovering the origins of the deadly omega clouds that continue to haunt her."

Thanks!!! They look great

Also, what do we think of The Girl in the Road? It seems to cross the genre lines, but has been labelled science fiction by a few reviewers and features female protagonists. Just throwing it out there. It's new so I don't know how good it will be :)

I second Girl in the Road! Also Zoo City, Tea from an Empty Cup, Earth Girl, The Dazzle of Day, Who Fears Death, The Shore of Women, Pilgrimage: The Book of the People, and Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang.

Since we'll be voting for 5 books, is there a way we can each have more than 1 vote?

Might I suggest Cyteen? There are interesting hard science elements exploring the ethics of cloning and psyche seeding. The protagonist/s is/are a brilliant and powerful woman and her clone created to replace her after she is murdered.

Cyteen looks really interesting!

Alexa, I don't know how to set that up :/ Is it possible? Last time we all voted once then I took the top 6 (?) and assigned them each a month. Does that work for everyone? Is there a better way to do this?

Stephanie wrote: "Also, what do we think of The Girl in the Road? It seems to cross the genre lines, but has been labelled science fiction by a few reviewers and features female protagonists."
We haven't been strict with the previous group reads so why wouldn't it qualify? Strictly speaking, this book ought to have more science fiction content than Butler for instance.
As to whether it's feminist, I think you're setting the bar very low indeed with "features female protagonists". But based on what people are saying about the book, I trust there's more to it than that.
From my perspective, the trouble is that the book is way too recent a release. I don't trust some of the people who're involved in promoting it. If it's truely good, I'll be able to read it later.

Stephanie wrote: "Daughter of Elysium"
Sorry to be such a square again but isn't it a sequel of Door into Ocean?
I haven't read the older book and considering how little fiction I've read lately, I doubt I'd catch up in time... unless these aren't supposed to be read sequentially of course.

Stephanie wrote: "Last time we all voted once then I took the top 6 (?) and assigned them each a month. Does that work for everyone? Is there a better way to do this?"
You've picked the top 4 last time.
We could also have a minimum number of votes and/or a second round with the runner-ups.

As to my noms, since we're nominating authors who've been selected previously I'll re-nominate UKL's Four Ways which was only included included late in the last poll.

One way to have multiple votes would be to do several polls. The first poll determines the first winner (or perhaps the first two, if they each get enough votes). Then remove the winner(s) and one or two from the bottom and hold the vote a second time (and perhaps even a third). I have no idea how much work it is to set up the polls though, but I'm thinking that way we wouldn't possibly end up reading a book that only one or two people had voted for.

Daughter of Elysium is only very loosely a sequel, it takes place hundreds (or thousands) of years later, simply on the same planet. Although we could read them as a two-book set.

OK I think what I'll do this time around is post a new poll every month, but carry over the books that have been previously nominated. If we want to add new books to the poll we can do that too, but because the pool is fairly smallish for this genre I assume the same books will come up again and again. Does that work? I'll post the first poll today because I am excited ha.

Ok so I started the poll and there are so many nominations! I think we should do the vote for August but runner up will be September group read. Maybe we can do the polls in two month intervals like that for the next while? Thoughts?

That sounds great to me!

The voting this time around is funny - almost everyone wants to read something different. I'm trying to decide which one of the front-runners I might want to change my vote to - or maybe there might be more folks who want to vote?

More people need to vote! It only takes a second!

Trouble is, I see such a vote as declaring an intent to read. And reading a book takes a whole lot more than a second.
And not only am I not planning to read a whole lot of fiction right now, to be honest none of the candidates seem hugely appealing to me for some reason. The most appealing one doesn't even look like it's SF.

I'm thinking about nominating Tiptree award winners I haven't read next time. This way I'll be able both to nominate something I want to read and to pass the blame if it turns out to be a stinker. ;-)

Well, I just voted and made the situation worse.....=(

Haha. We will work it all out eventually!! Thanks for voting!

Hi all, I voted, but as a complete newbie I found it very hard to find the poll.

I see it like Outis, a vote as a declaration of intent, so it was a tough decision.