Top Five Female Authors of Science Fiction and Fantasy
A while back, Larry over at OF Blog of the Fallen posted this list of fives. I’ve decided to turn each into its own post on my blog, with one modification: all of them will be specific to science fiction and fantasy. Hopefully nobody will have a problem with this change. First up, as the title suggests: Top Five Female Authors of Science Fiction and Fantasy Kage Baker I was saddened when Baker passed away last year. She was not only a gracious author who indulged this silly fan by answering questions for an interview, but she was also a writer of amazing works of fiction across multiple genres. The House of the Stag is still one of my favorite novels of all time and is sure to stay in my top ten for the foreseeable future. I loved the book so much that I am hesitant to read The Anvil of the World because I know it will be the last time I get to read something fresh and new from the world that sucked me in and never let go. One day I’ll read it, but when I’m done, I won’t be happy with myself. Then again, maybe I will be… (Reviews: The House of the Stag and The Empress of Mars) Elizabeth Bear One of the things that I love about Elizabeth Bear is her willingness to challenge the conventions of the genre. Her stories deal with issues of sexuality and gender in unique and intriguing ways, particularly Dust and Carnival, two of my favorite works by her (I like Dust best). I love traditional stories as much as the next guy, but I also love to see different kinds of characters put on the center stage, whether they’re gay, transgender, or somehow “non-normative” (for lack of a better term). I also appreciate that Bear does not write stereotypical takes on such characters. Not every novel with gay people in it is erotica, folks! Seriously! (Reviews: Dust and Carnival) Octavia Butler I read Butler’s “Speech Sounds” and Parable of the Sowers in an African American science fiction class at UC Santa Cruz (where I got my B.A.). We might have also read another of her short stories, but I can’t remember. In any case, that class changed everything for me. It showed me that I could pursue my interest in Science Fiction Studies without fearing that I might get shunned by the academic community and it exposed me to Octavia Butler, who still influences me as a writer and academic today. If you haven’t read Butler’s work, you must do so immediately. She is one of the greatest science fiction writers to walk the face of the Earth! Nalo Hopkinson Hopkinson is, like Butler, one of the most important writers of the 21st century, and certainly one of the most important female writers of SF/F. Her Caribbean-infused novels (such as Brown Girl in the Ring and Midnight Robber) are prime examples of the breadth of the speculative fiction genre. Not only can SF/F be about grand adventures in space or fantasy lands, but it can also about intense forays into culture, colonialism and its lingering effects, and the postmodern human condition. It’s little surprise that she is one of the two authors I focused on for my M.A. thesis (the other was Tobias S. Buckell, but he’s a boy, so he’s not a part of this list)(P.S.: the degree should arrive on my doorstep sooner or later). All I hope is that she keeps writing and influencing the genre, showing the world that SF/F does not have to deal with traditional western curiosities, but can stretch outward to talk about the world at large. Susan Beth Pfeffer Pfeffer may be somewhat new to the genre world, but her YA post-apocalypse novels are some of the best YA fiction out there. They’re emotional character journeys told in epistolary format where children have to cope with situations that force them to grow up fast, because the childlike world they once took for granted no longer exists. I’ve loved every single one, and word is that there might be a fourth in the series, which should tie up some loose ends and explain what happens to the two families (maybe). As an indicator of how much I love Pfeffer’s work, I’ve reviewed all three of her science fiction novels (Life As We Knew It, The Dead and the Gone, and This World We Live In) and interviewed her three times (here, here, and here — notice how I get better at that whole interviewing thing each time). There you have it. They’re mostly new names, I’m afraid. This has to do with the fact that I am not well read in female authors pre-1990 and most of the authors from the New Wave and the Golden Age period are simply not my favorites (Le Guin is good, but I’ve only really enjoyed one of her books — The Dispossessed). Feel free to check out my marked up SF/F Mistressworks list to see how poorly read I am; I am embarrassed… Runners up: Lauren Beukes (review: Zoo City; interview here), Karen Miller (reviews: The Innocent Mage and The Awakened Mage; interview here) and Jo Walton (reviews: Farthing and Ha’Penny). I love the work of all three of these authors, but I have to pick five. It’s hard to make these three Runners Up, but it has to be done. Who are your favorite female authors of science fiction and fantasy? Let me know in the comments! I’m always hungry for more writers to read!
Book Review: Serial Killers Inc. by Andy Remic
Callaghan is a scallywag, divvying up his time between bedding married women, exploiting the vulnerable and dead to make a living at a tabloid magazine, and consuming enough alcohol and hardcore drugs to send him to an early grave. And things are going well for him on this destructive path. But Callaghan has an admirer, someone who has taken a keen interest in his lifestyle and transgressions. Soon Callaghan discovers that his admirer may have a hand in a string of murders in the area, and that he is somehow connected to them. Worst of all, this new killer has an idea to make Callaghan a part of the games. When the walls start to crumble around him and people start to die, Callaghan has to make a decision: continue with his careless lifestyle or finally take responsibility for his actions. But doing so might mean making allies with disreputable characters who have their own twisted sense of morality… Serial Killers Inc. is a disturbingly violent book which demonstrates once more why Remic is both a terrifying human being and a literary dynamo. When I reviewed Kell’s Legend, I said he was “the Tarantino of fantasy,” but having read Serial Killers Inc. I think it’s fair to say that he’s in a league all on his own, touched not by Tarantino’s cult sensibilities, but by the wicked recesses of the human mind. Serial Killers Inc. is a book that questions the morality of immoral people, challenging their limitations in what could be called an exaggerated allegory of “normal” human existence. It’s precisely Remic’s treatment of morality in Serial Killers Inc that makes the book more than a romp into vulgarity. Dragging Callaghan into a game of serial killers and monstrous people means finding a challenge fit for the character, but it also offers challenges to the reader, who might consider how the moral games played in the book reflect upon our world of grays. Remic’s work, however, is not for the faint of heart. It’s violent, crude, and sometimes even vulgar, pushing buttons even I find difficult to stomach. But such things don’t exist in Remic’s work without reason. Serial Killers Inc. is about characters who live in a world where vulgarity and perversion are regularities, and Remic has to find clever ways to make us care about these characters. After all, we would not normally identify with someone who is sleeping with a woman married to a murderer, nor someone who thinks of women as sex objects. And, in fact, it’s because Callaghan is these things that we begin to understand why Remic has chosen to torture him in this novel. Callaghan must be saved, not just from the evils of the world, but also from the evil in himself. This doesn’t mean that Callaghan will come out of the novel’s events a saint; rather, it means he has to acknowledge that his life of disconnection from consequence is unsustainable. Serial Killers Inc. may be a difficult book for some readers to swallow because of its language and themes, but if one can move past these to the heart of the tale (which seems to masquerade as a gory cult horror story, but is, in fact, much more), there’s a compelling story to be had. Serial Killers Inc. does have one major flaw. Most of the plot is straightforward and develops effectively, but where Remic falters is in the introduction of subplots. One of the major subplots is actually a whodunnit mystery narrative with a near-mystical resolution. I thought the way the story turned out was fantastic, but it came too suddenly and with too little foreshadowing to have the impact it needed. Remic does insert clues, but they are often too vague or too short, sometimes even difficult to disentangle from the insanity of the characters who present them (perhaps this is his intention). The novel might have benefited from a linear development of Callaghan’s investigations into the mysteries surrounding the murders of which he has unwittingly become a part. Remic’s novel clearly deals with detective tropes alongside its deconstructions of contemporary morality and cult horror elements. I simply would have liked to see the detective bits expanded as well as the others. As a novel in a new genre for Remic (he traditionally writes science fiction and fantasy), Serial Killers Inc. is a brilliant addition to the man’s oeuvre, encapsulating the rushed, heavy-voiced writing style and cult horror tropes we’ve come to expect of him. This is a novel to entice genre fans with its horror sensibilities, but also one to challenge readers beyond the genre with its no-holds-barred hyperrealism. Though heavy handed, Serial Killers Inc. is a title well worth reading if you can handle Remic’s unrelenting and unrepentant exploitation of the worst aspects of the human condition. Call it a man fantasy or violence porn or whatever you like; if Remic keeps doing what he’s doing, I’ll keep coming back for more. If you’d like to learn more about the book, check out the publisher’s page or the author’s website. Serial Killers Inc. is available on Amazon and anywhere else books are sold.