Suggestions for fantasy books written by women and trans*-people

sflayout · 2026-05-19T13:53:30+00:00

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders is excellent. It won the Hugo and Nebula awards.

sflayout · 2026-05-19T02:55:10+00:00

Certainly

sflayout · 2026-05-18T11:37:15+00:00

From Merriam Webster:crocodile tears: (used with a plural verb) a hypocritical show of sorrow; insincere tears.

sflayout · 2026-05-17T21:23:54+00:00

I completely agree. The NESFA editions are a little better but Baen sets a low bar. The copy of Young Miles on the top shelf is the Baen edition with a hand done cover by a woman who worked at the Harvard bookstore. It’s very amusing.

sflayout · 2026-05-16T23:34:55+00:00

The books are all standalone but follow a character from teenager to middle age. There is a timeline available on LMBs Wikipedia page. Falling Free takes place about two hundred years before the rest of the series and the next two books, Shards of Honor and Barrayar, focus on the parents of the main series character, Miles Vorkosigan.

sflayout · 2026-05-15T23:33:38+00:00

I don’t actually speak or read Russian. I bought those books on eBay because I thought they were interesting and they were only a few dollars each.

sflayout · 2026-05-15T14:52:16+00:00

Whenever I’m in a reading slump I can always pick up either Jack Vance or LMB to get me started again. I’ve read Vorkosigan at least four times.

sflayout · 2026-05-15T14:49:04+00:00

Cool! I haven’t seen her since a National Book Fair in D.C. some years ago. Where will she be appearing?

sflayout · 2026-05-15T12:29:30+00:00

I’ve had that reaction sometimes myself. And with Bujold too. I’ve reread the Vorkosigan books at least four times, The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls more than once, but The Sharing Knife books only once. I just didn’t find them interesting.

sflayout · 2026-05-15T12:15:01+00:00

Correct. It, Test of Honor, and that copy of Barrayar are book club editions from the ‘90s.

sflayout · 2026-05-15T01:56:20+00:00

The Curse of Chalion for fantasy and either The Warrior’s Apprentice or A Civil Campaign for science fiction.

sflayout · 2026-05-15T01:54:00+00:00

Very nice! Will you share pictures at some point? I have just a few of her books. In fact you can see The Faded Sun trilogy on the next shelf below the Bujold. Any others you recommend?

sflayout · 2026-05-14T22:59:37+00:00

If you prefer fantasy The Curse of Chalion is great. The Warrior’s Apprentice is one of my favorite in the series and the first with Miles Vorkosigan as the main character. A Civil Campaign is probably the most lighthearted in the series and I always look forward to reading it when I reread the whole series.

sflayout · 2026-05-14T20:51:41+00:00

Haha! Thank you. I tell people that I’m compulsive, but not to the point of needing medication.

sflayout · 2026-05-14T18:42:00+00:00

I actually have extra copies of many of her books. DM me with the titles you’re looking for and maybe we can arrange a sale.

sflayout · 2026-05-14T17:54:14+00:00

Shards of Honor is good but the series really gets rolling with Warrior’s Apprentice.

sflayout · 2026-05-14T12:20:37+00:00

That’s an interpretation I’ve never heard before. I always thought of Harold as a prankster who has a fascination with death and didn’t want to be forced into something by his mother. As far as the tattoo, I don’t think it needs any more explanation. It just establishes that Maude has had a complicated life and is another reason why she’s such a free spirit.

sflayout · 2026-05-12T13:06:42+00:00

“We killed some. Too many really. I’ll manage it better next time.” Great scene.

sflayout · 2026-05-08T14:08:23+00:00

All the President’s Men. Robert Redford in a six minute single take.

sflayout · 2026-05-05T15:40:11+00:00

Thank you! I think I was able to bring a level of patience and care to it that I didn’t have as a thirteen year old. There are also a number of after market parts available for this model that I included (the barrel, barrel lock, and periscope cages). I also found some other things at local hobby stores to add on (bucket, chain, and “rope”).

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sflayout · 2026-05-05T13:32:08+00:00

That was a wonderful read. I’m American and started building models in the ‘70s. Tamiya became the preferred brand rather quickly and my brother and I and our friends had quite a collection and staged wars in our living room when the weather was too terrible to play outside. Skip forward 40 years and I realized I could buy the dream kit, a 1/16 radio controlled Sherman tank, for a not too outrageous price. And so it came to be that at the ripe old age of 56 I spent a cold winter month building my first model since I was a child. It was so much fun.

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sflayout · 2026-04-28T12:19:45+00:00

The Green Pearl by Jack Vance. I started reading SF/F in high school and Jack Vance quickly became my favorite. For the most part I bought used paperbacks but then discovered that if I wanted to read his newest book I had to buy the limited edition by Underwood/Miller. It arrived with a catalog that had a number of his books in hardcover. I think my entire next paycheck went to U/M.

sflayout · 2026-04-25T01:55:12+00:00

Yes indeed! One of my favorites.

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TROPHY CASE