Month: December 2010

UFO in Her Eyes by Xiaolu Guo (2009)

UFO In Her Eyes cover
It probably only just meets the length requirement for a novel, but this slim, elegantly composed volume about the modernisation of a rural Chinese village has lingered with me, unpacking in my mind over time. I reviewed it a couple of years ago:

There are moments of bureaucratic absurdity, and moments when the remote fumbles of government have all too real consequences. The society presented is one in which “peasant” is a political designation, where by habit much is censored, or simply not reported. (“Disaster belongs to the West” [154], Chang cynically notes, in another unguarded moment.) If this sounds like a lot of ground to cover in a slim book (it is only a shade over 200 pages) then, well, it is. Guo is not a writer who paints her panoramas with detail; rather, she suggests much with a few strokes of the pen, and provokes much in the reader. The bulk of UFO in Her Eyes has a documentary coolness and sweep, which is occasionally counterpointed by vivid close-ups. Much that is troubling hides behind the carefully correct official answers, through reference to the past or gesture to the future; along with just enough sweetness to make eating the bitterness bearable, even as the first smog clouds the sky above Silver Hill.

Please email me with your top ten science fiction novels by women from the last ten years (2001-2010). All votes must be received by 23.59 on Sunday 5 December. Your own definition of science fiction applies.

Prelude

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, next week will be the planned follow-up to the conversation we had here in October about women, sf, and the current British market. I should have a couple of reviews of new novels, a couple of discussions about other novels (one new, one old), a bit of short fiction discussion, a round up of links to recent posts about sf by women and, of course, the results of the poll.

To recap, what I want is for you to email me with your top ten science fiction novels by women from the last ten years (2001-2010). All votes must be received by 23.59 on Sunday 5 December. Your own definition of science fiction applies.

I already reposted lists from Jo Walton and Liviu Suciu, and draft lists from Cheryl Morgan and Tansy Rayner Roberts, as prompts to remind you what’s been published in the period. Here are a couple more lists that have been posted since then. L Timmel Duchamp:

Life by Gwyneth Jones
Mindscape by Andrea Hairston
Lavinia by Ursula K Le Guin
The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson
The Mount by Carol Emshwiller
Double Vision by Tricia Sullivan
Wild Life by Molly Gloss
Time’s Child by Rebecca Ore
The Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor
In War Times by Kathleen Ann Goonan

And Marianne de Pierres posted her favourites from the last more-than-ten years, of which the eligible books are:

Maul by Tricia Sullivan
Time Future by Maxine McArthur
Fledgling by Octavia Butler
Probability Moon by Nancy Kress
City of Pearl by Karen Traviss
The Year of Our War by Steph Swainston

There’s also been a little bit more discussion here, here and here. And to sweeten the pill of constant reminders to send in your votes over the next three days, I’m going to put up a series of short posts about my own picks, in alphabetical order by author surname.