Author Spotlight: SF and Fantasy Writer Lois McMaster Bujold

In this Author Spotlight series, I’m talking about other SF&F writers. The aim is to showcase authors who may not be the most famous, and to give you enough information to decide whether you might enjoy their work.

Today’s featured author is Lois McMaster Bujold. She’s a multi-award-winning American writer best known for her science fiction, namely the long-running Vorkosigan series, and she has also written some very thoughtful off-world (secondary-world) fantasy…

Women in A Game of Thrones

One of the strengths of George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire, is its gritty realism. His writing doesn’t pull its punches. Among other things, that sensibility extends to his society-level worldbuilding. Today we’re looking at his treatment of women through that lens.

(Note: I’ve read the first two books, A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings, and haven’t yet watched the HBO series. There will be spoilers for both books. If you’d like to chime in, you’re most welcome, but please limit your discussion to the first two books/seasons.)

Cersei Lannister. Image credit: http://www.hbocanada.com/gameofthrones/

Martin’s world is a classic medieval fantasy world, based on a feudal society where women are bargaining chips and their possible futures are severely limited. Many fantasy writers working in similar worlds take some liberties here to allow their female characters more autonomy and a greater range of options. Martin has chosen to stick with historical realism. This isn’t a bad thing in itself — science fiction and fantasy author Lois McMaster Bujold wrote an extremely strong noblewoman in Paladin of Souls under the same constraints. Let’s look at how well Martin does.

Books: Exploring Science Fantasy

As a reader, I’m all over the spectrum of speculative fiction. I’ve been known to enjoy everything from hard science fiction, like Peter Watts‘s Blindsight, to epic fantasy, like George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones. (I’ve written a pretty big variety of stuff, too. I also read and occasionally write outside speculative fiction, but that’s beyond the scope of this post.)

One thing that has always fascinated me is the way subgenres nudge up against one another, how the lines are drawn, where they grow fuzzy. Is a zombie story science fiction or horror? What about a time travel story or a superhero story? How about things like Star Wars, whose genre classification depends on whether you prioritize scientific accuracy over the presence of spaceships? Today I’m looking at one of my favourite areas of genre-bending — science fantasy and variations thereof.

If You Liked… A Game of Thrones

So you liked A Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire and you want more of the same. Certain online retail giants can give you some ideas for other books. But there are a lot of facets to the story and the world that George R. R. Martin has built. Different facets appeal to different people, and that means there’s no “one size fits all” when it comes to recommendations. For this edition of “If You Liked…”, I’m going to concentrate on character preferences.

If your favourite character is…

• Tyrion Lannister. Clever, quick-tongued, shameless rogue who never lets his disability slow him down? Try the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold (science fiction) or Queen’s Man by K.D. Sarge (science fiction).

Author Spotlight: China Mieville

Mieville's next book is out May 15, 2012.

In this Author Spotlight series, I’m talking about other writers you might not be familiar with, or you may have heard of but not read. The aim is to give you enough information to decide whether you might enjoy their work.

Today’s featured author is China Miéville. He’s a British speculative fiction writer whose novel Embassytown is up for a Hugo Award this year. That’s nothing new for him — almost all his novels have been nominated for, and often won, multiple genre awards. My thoughts below the cut…

Weekly Roundup

As we head into the weekend, here’s what I found on the Interwebs for your reading pleasure…

Book News

I’m not sure how I feel about this, but A Wrinkle in Time is being made into a graphic novel (via The Mary Sue).

Geekery

For those who are watching Game of Thrones or are interested in conlanging, here’s an interview with the guy who created the Dothraki language (via Juliette Wade’s worldbuilding blog).

Inspiration

If you’ve ever beaten yourself up (as I do, all the time), you might need to read this:

My inner dialogue sounded like “come on, you idiot. You were stupid enough to say you could do this, so you effing well do it. Now. No, you’re not going to bed till you freaking get it done.” Now it’s more “come on, girl. You can do this. You’re smart and awesome, and you can do this.” Guess which works better to get things done?

Sing it, sistah! Read the rest at KD Sarge’s blog.

 

That’s it for the week. Go forth and be merry! Me, I’ll be dancing all weekend.

Weekly Roundup

Happy Easter long weekend to those of you who are lucky enough to have one! Here’s the best of what I found online this week…

Book News

Toronto writer Leah Bobet is celebrating the release of her debut novel, Above, featured as a Big Idea piece on John Scalzi’s blog.

General Geekery

The Mary Sue has found art of dapper dinosaurs in top hats.

For the aspiring Companions among us, Doctor Who sticky notes (also via The Mary Sue).

Inspiration

If Narnia is more your style, go forth and ogle this Dawn Treader concept art.

For Writers (and Interested Third Parties)

Adam Roberts has a fascinating post about the importance of monsters as myth and how bigger is not always better (via Juliette Wade).

John Scalzi points out that the identity of the bad guys in science fiction movies often depends on one’s point of view.

 

That’s all for this round. Have a wonderful long weekend!

Weekly Roundup

Happy Friday to the blogosphere! Here are the best links I found on the Interwebs this week, for your reading pleasure…

Book News

Have I geeked out at you yet about SF&F writer Elizabeth Bear? No? I’ll have to do that, because she’s awesome. In the meantime, she has a new book out this week, Range of Ghosts. It’s epic fantasy inspired by Genghis Khan, and you can read about it in a Big Idea piece on John Scalzi’s blog.

General Geekery and Science

Somebody has re-created what Shakespeare’s works sounded like in the original pronunciation.

Scientists have figured out how to make cyborg snails (aka the mollusc militia).

The New York Times interviews scientist Rachel Graham,  the Jane Goodall of sharks.

Inspiration

Offbeat Home finds a Belgian B&B that belongs in a fantasy novel.

For Writers (and Interested Third Parties)

If you’re writing fantasy or science fiction, Juliette Wade offers some ways to approach measurements in your worldbuilding.

Deborah Biancotti points out that we are all running our own race.

Hope to see you back here on Monday, when I’ll be talking about Queen’s Man, the new science fiction release from KD Sarge at Turtleduck Press. Until then, happy weekend!

Defining Steampunk: Books

This week, we’re returning to the topic of steampunk. (See my post Defining Steampunk. For more, see the transcript of this week’s #steampunkchat on Twitter, available here.) I wanted to delve a little deeper into the part I know best — steampunk as a literary genre — and talk about where it begins and ends.

The cover of one of the Girl Genius books.

I’ll start with a rough, working definition: speculative fiction based roughly on the nineteenth century but written much later, often with the purpose of re-examining the assumptions and imbalances of the time — hence the “punk” part of the name. In practice, this often includes such visual tropes as steam or clockwork technology, airships/dirigibles/blimps, goggles, and corsets (in a Europe- or Western-based world). To see what this looks like, I highly recommend Girl Genius, a graphic novel series by Phil and Kaja Foglio (more about this below).

Some of the earliest steampunk writers are K. W. Jeter — who is credited with coining the term — and Michael Moorcock, writing in the ’70s and ’80s. One of the early defining works of the genre is The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. They posit an alternate timeline in which punch-card computers and steam-powered carriages have been adopted into general use, with political and social changes to match. Because Gibson and Sterling are/were cyberpunk writers, the scientific underpinnings are strong enough that I would call their book science fiction.

Other steampunk novels based on a somewhat recognizable Earth, both science fiction and fantasy-leaning, include:

• Gail Carriger‘s Parasol Protectorate, where Victorian England includes werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and mad science
• S. M. Peters‘s Whitechapel Gods, where a chunk of London has been cut off and evolved into its own miniature steam-powered society controlled by all-powerful beings
• Philip Pullman‘s The Golden Compass (or Northern Lights, if you’re not in North America) where scientists at Oxford study things that don’t exist in our version of the world
• Scott Westerfeld‘s Leviathan series, where World War I is re-imagined as a battle between those who use mechanical weapons and those who use biology-based weapons

On the flip side are novels set on other worlds that resemble nineteenth-century Earth in some ways, but whose geography is unrecognizable. I would call these fantasy rather than science fiction. For example:

• Phil and Kaja Foglio‘s Girl Genius (link above), where England exists, but isn’t the focus, which enables the authors to include everything from giant robots to ice maidens to constructed “people” to lots and lots of airships
• China Miéville‘s Perdido Street Station, which involves a fantasy city that is chock-full of fantastical races, but also has rudimentary computers, airships, and cable cars

You can probably see by now that there are no clear lines around steampunk literature as it bleeds into other subgenres. (In other words, it’s a fuzzy set.) The Golden Compass and Perdido Street Station are solidly in the fantasy corner, and arguably not steampunk at all. Gail Carriger’s series is also paranormal romance. Whitechapel Gods and Perdido Street Station involve powerful, unknowable beings that could pass for Lovecraftian Elder Gods.

Further from the epicentre (if steampunk has such a thing), you might find alternate-history novels such as:

• Ian R. MacLeod‘s The Light Ages, which is set in an alternate version of Britain’s Industrial Age in which everything is driven by a substance called “aether”
• Naomi Novik‘s Temeraire series, which features the Napoleonic Wars with the addition of dragons
• Patricia Wrede‘s Mairelon the Magician and Magician’s Ward, which feature a Regency-era London where magic is real

What do you think? If you’re not familiar with steampunk, which part sounds like it might tickle your fancy? If you are familiar, what corners of it am I missing? (For starters, I haven’t mentioned anything based in other parts of the world.) Where do you see steampunk ending and other subgenres beginning?

Weekly Roundup

We survived another week! (Almost. I am writing this on Thursday night.) Here’s what I’ve got for you this week…

books

What’s the difference between high fantasy and epic fantasy? Here’s one well-reasoned argument. And here’s another one based on the level of the stakes.

general geekery

Ever wondered what Harry Potter would look like as a girl? Now you can find out: Genderswapped Harry Potter characters.

inspiration

When I am 101 years old, I want to be like this paragliding great-grandmother.

Domythic Bliss had a wonderful series last week looking at mobile houses: Roma-inspired wagons, trucks, boats, and buses.

For writers (and interested third parties)

Kristen Lamb debunks the myth that Real Writers never struggle.

Ollin Morales writes about how chasing your writing dreams may not be enough — you also have to chase your other dreams.

If you’ve been reading too many blogs or books on writing craft and tearing your hair out because you don’t write like that, Tahereh Mafi has an awesome post on how there is no right way to write. She also talks with beautiful openness about being a debut novelist (a.k.a. a Real Writer), how it changes you and how it doesn’t.

(Can you tell the space I’m in with my writing this week?)

That’s all for now, folks. Happy Friday!