The New York Review of Science Fiction

200 Significant Science Fiction Books by Women, 1984–2001, by David G. Hartwell




For a separate project, I was asked to assemble a list of major books of science fiction written by women over the period 1984 to 2001. I restricted myself to works of science fiction (which eliminates certain works valued by the sf audience but published out of genre or specifically as horror or as fantasy), and novels and single author collections only, not anthologies. This list includes most of the nominees and winners of the major awards during the period but is not limited to them, nor does it include every last one. Every book here appeared on some “best of the year” or award nomination list.

American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s, edited by Gary K. Wolfe

New York: Library of America, 2012; $70.00 hc;

1750 pages in two volumes

reviewed by Arthur D. Hlavaty




The word venerable has two meanings: in the original sense it denotes the ability to inspire a feeling somewhere between admiration and worship, but it is also used to mean old, as if mere age brought worthiness. This process of automatic veneration is now overtaking the allegedly trashy amusements of my youth. In music, it had already happened; in fact, the sounds I grew up with and still love are several decades before the oxymoronic Classic Rock. Television and comics have likewise gained venerability, and the Buck Rogers stuff is joining them.

January 2013 Table of Contents

ISSUE #293 January 2013 Volume 25, No. 5 ISSN #1052-9438

ESSAYS

• Mac Rogers, Jen Gunnels, and August Schulenberg: Three Pieces on Science Fiction Theatre
• David G. Hartwell: 200 Significant Science Fiction Books by Women, 1984–2001
• Henry Wessells: At the Sign of the Fanlight Window; or, H.P. Lovecraft, Bibliopole

REVIEWS

• American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s, edited by Gary K. Wolfe, reviewed by Arthur D. Hlavaty
• Hearts Like Fists, written by Adam Szymkowicz, directed by Kelly O’Donnell, reviewed by Jen Gunnels
• H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, read by William Roberts, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula’s Guest and Other Stories, read by Rupert Degas, reviewed by Peter Rawlik
• Dan Abnett’s Pariah, reviewed by Alec Austin
• Patricia McKillip’s Wonders of the Invisible World, reviewed by Joe Milicia
• Robert Silverberg and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro’s When the Blue Shift Comes, reviewed by D. Douglas Fratz

PLUS

• Plus: A birthday reverie on Chip Delany; the secret masters of everything; a Call for Papers; Photos: Holiday Parties, New York, December 2012/January 2013; screed; and an editorial.

January 2013 Editorial: Ends of Eras




A pair of landmark events in the fantasy field have been drawing my attention back to themselves over the last month, so I thought I’d write about them here.

Lynn Willis died a week ago as I write this, midway through January. His is not a name well-enough known in the prose f&sf field, or even in his home field of hobby gaming, but he was a major figure behind the scenes. He started off in the 1970s as a wargame designer for Metagaming Concepts. Metagaming, though small and short-lived, had a disproportionate influence on the field, with a number of innovative games in inventive formats. Willis’s games there—Godsfire and the mini-games Holy War and Olympia—didn’t have the splash of Steve Jackson’s Ogre or The Fantasy Trip, but they were all clever and memorable.