After having only a partially
successful year with Challenges
in 2013, I have decided to be a little more flexible in my approach this year
and set myself targets that I have a better chance of fulfilling. I am also
determined to try to include as many titles as possible from the list of female
authors that I have compiled from the
recommendations give during the Women in SF&F Month at Fantasy Cafe, which has run in April
for the last two years. I have added a page
to the blog, which lists these authors and my progress working through the
list.
Last year I took part in the Women of
Genre Fiction Reading Challenge over at Worlds Without End and this year they
are repeating that challenge and offering several more. At the moment I have
signed up to two that will allow me to cross more lady writers of my list,
although I have had to sneak George R. R. Martin into one of them to fulfill
the criteria of the challenge: that is my excuse and I am sticking to it!
2014 Women
of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge
For more information about this
Challenge, you can check out this page.
The rules are relatively
straightforward: read twelve female authors from their list that are new to
you. Write reviews for each of those twelve books.
The books I propose to read are:
Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
Bold As Love by Gwyneth Jones
Miserere by Teresa Frohock
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer
Bradley
My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due
Of Blood and Honey by Stina Lecht
Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
Tinker by Wen Spencer
Transformation by Carol Berg
Warchild by Karin Lowachee
2014
Masterworks Reading Challenge
For more information about this
Challenge, you can check out this page.
Again, the rules are simple: read
twelve titles from three lists, including two from each (hence my need to
include dear George). Write reviews for six of the books.
The books I propose to read are:
Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress
The Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia
A. McKillip
Cold Magic by Kate Elliott
Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet
Marilier
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin
Grimspace by Ann Aguirre
In Conquest Born by C.S. Friedman
Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey
Slow River by Nicola Griffith
The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge
There are some really good books on your lists! Warchild and Transformation are both excellent and I found both of them really easy to pick up and wanting to keep reading right from the beginning. I've enjoyed the others I've read that are on these lists as well, though a couple of them are series starters that aren't as good as later books in the series. Hope you find some books you love from these lists!
ReplyDeleteThe recommendations that I have already read from your event have been excellent, so I am happy to try some more. I just wish I had more time!
DeleteI know that series often start slowly, but I will take that chance and keep it in mind as I read. Some of these authors are really prolific, so I have to assume that they are doing something right! :)
Some very interesting choices here, you should have a lot of fun with this. I would have thought you'd have read The Mists of Avalon ages ago, so I look forward to hearing your take on it. I also hope to hear how you like Warchild and The Snow Queen, since Kristen's reviews have made me want to read them. I've wanted to read some other series by Carol Berg, but the one that begins with Transformation hasn't yet called my name, so I'm curious to hear what you think. And I'm strangely gratified to see Daughter of the Blood and Kushiel's Dart listed here. Incidentally, there's a book that's part of Anne Bishop's series, The Invisible Ring, that was published after the initial trilogy but which is actually a prequel to it, so you may opt to begin with that one, if you can fit another in. Not to worry if you can't, I believe many people have happily read the series first and then gone back to the prequel.
ReplyDeleteAnd just for fun, I'll mention that one title on your list is a book that I had to grit my teeth in order to finish, and I have since rid myself of my copy (which is something I almost never do). But of course, I'm not going to tell you which one it is!
Isn't it too bad there isn't a "Fantasy Mistressworks" subheading in the "Masterworks Challenge"?
Enjoy your challenges!