#scifijuly

Continuing #SciFiJuLy with Time Gal, a game I legit love, and yet gets a lot of flak for being an FMV game. #scifi #timegal #sega #fanart #sketch #sketchbook #retro #retrogaming #segacd #anime #characters

Today’s #scifijuly post is Tanith Lee! Lee was a prolific writer who wrote across MANY genres, not just scifi and fantasy, but these selections here are all on the scifi side of things. . . I discovered Lee in my college Gendering class, where we read excerpts from DRINKING SAPPHIRE WINE. They made an impression, so I kept an eye out for it and I later discovered that BITING THE SUN is actually DON’T BITE THE SUN and DRINKING SAPPHIRE WINE combined in one book. As you might assume from the fact that I was assigned it in a gendering class, this book has a lot to say about gender. It takes place in a world where you are encouraged to change gender, body type, skin color, etc. on a whim. And yet on this world where everything about your body is alterable, people still hold on to all kinds of stereotypes. But the real theme of the book is: how do you rebel in a society where every indulgence is not only permitted, but encouraged? . . My other Lee favorite is not pictured here (another library checkout), it is the short story collection SPACE IS JUST A STARRY NIGHT. This collection has a little bit of it all — space travel, moon colonies, memory manipulation, vampires... I adored every minute of it. . . Common themes in Lee’s work are: gender and feminism, body alteration and design, recognizing others despite new and different bodies, the extension of life. . . And SERIOUSLY, she wrote across so many genres: science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, historical fiction, children’s literature, that’s she’s bound to have something for nearly everyone! . . Have you read Lee before? What did you think? . . #tanithlee #scifi #scificlassics #scifipaperbacks #electricforest #thesilvermetallover #bitingthesun #scifibacklist #womeninscifi #womeninsff https://www.instagram.com/p/CDPZlViAU0_/?igshid=1frl5kmi704x4

Today’s #scifijuly post feels like my first deviation from “name brand” classics — Joan Slonczewski. I can’t remember how I first discovered her, but I was instantly in love. Slonczewski writes hard biological science fiction. And I know there are ten different definitions for “hard science fiction” at least, so what I mean by that is that her books are based around and very interested in possible scientific advancements and how they would shape the way we live in the future. But in this case, rather than being focused on advances in physics and engineering (space travel, weapons systems, etc.) they are focused on biology. Modifying viruses to build space ladders, create adaptable living spaces, and cure disease. Planets where all engineering is genetic/bioengineering. Intelligent microbes that live symbiotically with their hosts. Some of it gets pretty wild, but in addition to being a writer, she is also a microbiologist, so most of it is based on very real foundations. . . My favorite of her books is DOOR INTO OCEAN, which I never own for long as I am constantly giving or loaning away copies once I find them. Feminist, environmentalist, pacifist, and anticolonialist, but also really interesting worldbuilding. I need to find another copy so I can read it again. . . My second favorite is probably her most recent — THE HIGHEST FRONTIER — which is also the only book that doesn’t exist in her DOOR INTO OCEAN universe. Rather, it takes place in our own, in 2108, on a college campus in a “spacehab” connected to Earth by a viral space elevator. The bioengineering is fascinating, but so is the college politics. . . Absolutely recommended to all biology geeks, especially micro geeks. . . #scifi #joanslonczewski #brainplague #thechildrenstar #stillformsonfoxfield #thehighestfrontier #sciencefiction https://www.instagram.com/p/CDM4s3eAh2S/?igshid=17b6fu7x440z7

Today’s #scifijuly post is the legendary Octavia Butler! This mismatched pile actually represents my favorites of her books (so far), even though there are books I have read from the library that I don’t own and books I own and haven’t read yet (I keep finding used copies from her series out of order!) . . PARABLE OF THE SOWER, despite its limited fantastic elements, is such a believable and depressing near future that it sometimes makes me embarrassed to to hear people heaping the same praise on THE HANDMAID’S TALE. (Listen, I have loved many an Atwood book in my day and loved Handmaid the first time I read it, but in my mind, this book blows that one out of the water.) People have called this book prescient for a number of reasons and it just seems more relevant as time goes on. . . Given how much I love the PARABLES duology, the unattractiveness of my remaindered library copy of PARABLE OF THE TALENTS frequently makes me sad, and I often resolve to buy myself a matching set. But then it reminds me of how I discovered both of these books, and Butler at a Pima library booksale, and I can’t bear to part with it. In some ways even more harrowing than SOWER, it is also a conclusion that allows for hope, promise, and change. With a powerful vision for our future as a species. . . BLOODCHILD was a book I resisted for a long time because I tend to be excessively picky about short stories, but every story in this collection was amazing. Some stomach-turning, most disturbing, but all amazing. Would easily be in my top ten short-story collections of all time, were I ever to make such a list. I especially love that this collection includes afterwords for each story, by Butler, giving a little insight into what she was thinking when she wrote them. . . What’s your favorite Butler? . . #scificlassics #octaviaebutler #octaviabutler #scifi #bloodchild #parableofthesower #parableofthetalents #earthseed https://www.instagram.com/p/CDKNGkDACmb/?igshid=1acfg83nffy3n

Today’s #scifijuly post is Ursula K. LeGuin! And wow, before this moment I really was convinced that I had more LeGuin on my shelves! I wasn’t aware how many of the books I has read had been from the library. It makes sense in retrospect, though. LeGuin had something of a resurgence in the last few years of her life, and it was harder to find nice vintage copies in the used bookstores. Not that I exclusively buy scifi used (though my last several posts do suggest that), but if a book is more than ten years old, I prefer a used paperback. It just gives a little gravitas to the book, in my mind. . . ANYWAY — I still have read such a small percentage of LeGuin’s work, but so my favorites are all from the Hainish Cycle: ❄️ THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS was the first LeGuin novel I read, and probably her most famous. And I mean, it did win both the Nebula and the Hugo. If you are into scifi at all, you have probably heard of it. It has incredible worldbuilding and is the first scifi I read that fucked with gender in an interesting way and I will always love it for that. . . 🌳 THE WORD FOR WORLD IS FOREST was a book I stumbled upon at the library. It invented the ansible, dealt with racism and environmental destruction in a way that felt heavily influenced by Vietnam and felt like an ancestor to later stories like Avatar. (But, you know, better.) . . 🌒 THE DISPOSSESSED is about two different societies — one on a moon, the other on the planet it orbits, that are nearly as different from each other as they could be in terms of economies and governance. You might expect such a book to be a polemic in favor of one system or another, but LeGuin exposes problems in both, implying that systems tend toward greater control, and that freedom must be carefully guarded. . . LeGuin is one giant of classic scifi that I don’t feel worried to go back and read now. Indeed, I intend to keep adding to this collection! . #ursulakleguin #scificlassics #scifipaperbacks #thelefthandofdarkness #awizardofearthsea #thelatheofheaven #scifi #scifibooks https://www.instagram.com/p/CDHyhRGAlxM/?igshid=1o1ts0nhhkwln

Today’s #scifijuly post is Robert Heinlein. Yeah, I know. Listen, Heinlein’s writing is obsessed with three things: immortality, polyamory/“free love,” and libertarianism. And it isn’t in all the books, but just, waaaay more incest than there needs to be. Because if you are hundreds of years old and sex can now be entirely separated from procreation, why NOT get in a hot tub with your twin daughters (or granddaughters? I forget), because being your own progeny they are OBVIOUSLY going to be the hottest people in the universe. . . Okay, problems aside, I obviously went through a big Heinlein phase (twenty years ago) and maintain some level of fondness — this is my paired down collection. . . I don’t actually like STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND all that much — my favorite is THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS. As in most Heinlein, he pedestals women here — pretending to revere them but really only insofar as they serve as sexual objects for men, but still he “lets” women be revolutionaries and do more interesting things than most well-known scifi writers of his time. . . To be honest, I am a little afraid to reread these books, but they are definitely part of what built me as a reader. So I will probably keep at least a few of these as a part of my library forever. . . #scificlassics #robertheinlein #scifipaperbacks #friday #thecatwhowalksthroughwalls #timeforthestars #themoonissharshmistress #tosailbeyondthesunset https://www.instagram.com/p/CDEpgJigkEJ/?igshid=wtq78raa9vtn

Today’s #scifijuly post is also appropriate for this month’s #readtheworld21 challenge — as Stanislaw Lem was Polish. . . As it says on the cover of PEACE ON EARTH, Lem is most well-known for SOLARIS, which was adapted into two movies. But he wrote A LOT of books — both novels and collections of short stories. Again, those pictured here represent only those I both own and have read. Though this time, all of my favorites are in the picture. . . SOLARIS is his most famous for a reason, a classic in the vein of exploring the furthest reaches of the universe only to be confronted with having to deal with your own mind. . . In PEACE ON EARTH, Lem’s unlucky cosmonaut Ijon Tichy, who appears in many of his books, has his corpus callosum severed, and his right and left brains can no longer talk to each other. This results in some amusing slapstick as the two sides of his brain literally fight each other while agents from East and West also fight to find out what only he knows but can’t remember about a possible threat on the moon. . . MEMOIRS OF A SPACE TRAVELER is my favorite collection(so far!) of Ijon Tichy stories. There are many such collections, some heavier on quantum physics and higher math humor, some exploring the line between reality and hallucination. In this one Tichy observes (and sometimes participates in) experiments in intelligence and consciousness — both organic and artificial. Some of the Tichy stories I find quite dry, but this collection has an enjoyable blend of the satirical, philosophical, and the absurd. . . So if you are into scifi and/or translated fiction, I think any of the three above would be good jumping in points. If you have read Lem before, what did you think? What were your faves? . . #scificlassics #stanislawlem #translatedscifi #thecyberiad #memoirsofaspacetraveler #peaceonearth #solaris #thefuturologicalcongress #ijontichy #scifi #sciencefiction https://www.instagram.com/p/CDAFbL3ggDv/?igshid=13pof2msqadt2

Today for #scifijuly I wanted to feature one of my longest-running favorite authors — Philip K. Dick. For this proclivity I blame my father, who raised me to believe that scifi was the One True Genre, and anything with fantasy elements was crap (something I have since grown out of), and who used to write me letters in college featuring quotes and references to VALIS. . . This stack represents only what I both own and have read — I have a few vintage paperbacks I am hoping to get to this summer. Also, since PKD is obviously one of my father’s favorite authors as well, I have borrowed many of his books from either my dad or the library over the years. I have read MANY of his books and stories in my life, but obviously not all. For clarity’s sake: COUNTERFEIT UNREALITIES here is an omnibus containing the four complete novels THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH, DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP, UBIK, and A SCANNER DARKLY. . . Listen, PKD wrote A LOT, and was famous/infamous for not having the most secure grip on reality all the time. Some of his books are... not great. For instance, in this stack, COUNTER-CLOCK WORLD has a really cool concept at the center (what if time/entropy’s arrow could run backward?) that gets stretched VERY thin by the end of the novel. BUT — many of his novels and stories are AMAZING, and have left a massive imprint on the world of modern scifi. Not just inspiring other writers, but being adapted into movies like BLADE RUNNER, MINORITY REPORT, A SCANNER DARKLY, TOTAL RECALL, etc. . . My favorite PKD books are: 💊A SCANNER DARKLY 🐑DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? 🎆VALIS 🌁THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE . . Any one of those (except maybe VALIS?) would be a good first book if you are new to PKD, as would one of his short story collections. Like many early white male scifi giants, PKD wasn’t always great at writing women or including diversity of any kind — there is a reason the star of any PKD movie tends to be a white, middle-aged everyman — but I think he holds up pretty well compared to some of his contemporaries. #philipkdick #scifigreats #scificlassics https://www.instagram.com/p/CC9J-qqAS8p/?igshid=7zaawax5pkem