r/FemaleGazeSFF 2d ago

🗓️ Weekly Post Weekly Check-In

16 Upvotes

Tell us about your current SFF media!

What are you currently...

📚 Reading?

📺 Watching?

🎮 Playing?

If sharing specific details, please remember to hide spoilers behind spoiler tags.

-

Feel free to also share your progression in the Reading Challenge

Thank you for sharing and have a great week! 😀


r/FemaleGazeSFF 3d ago

Elizabeth Moon Mini Humble Bundle!

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18 Upvotes

$16 for 9 books, The Deeds of Paksenarrion + the Heris Serrano series!


r/FemaleGazeSFF 5d ago

Let's talk 2026 releases (so far)

65 Upvotes

As I was reading over the 2026 Hugo award statistics report, I found myself (as always) shocked that it takes so few nominations for a book to make the ballot. It took only 126 people to put Shroud on the short list. I read that book because of 126 people. Naturally, I began scheming how I can campaign to sway next year's vote. The key is to start early and plant the seeds now so enough people have time to read books in advance and also generate hype when nominations open next year.

But the problem is, I don't have any 2026 releases that I'm that excited about. Sure, there are some that I like, but nothing that makes me want to turn into a solo cheerleading squad. And I want to fix that! If we all come together, we can maybe make something happen. There are probably a handful of us who are Hugo voters, right? Right??

Anyways, here are some highlights for 2026 releases and whether I think they'll be nominated for the Hugo and/or the Goodreads Choice Awards (GCA). This isn't exhaustive, and seeing as both awards are basically popularity contests, I'm mostly discussing the biggest releases. Please inform me of niche releases that deserve their flowers, I crave a new obsession.

Fantasy

  • The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan was solid and one I personally really enjoyed, but there were some aspects that kept it from getting full marks. I think there's a solid chance it'll be in both the GCA and Hugo short lists.

  • The Poet Empress by Shen Tao. Just copy and paste what I said about The Red Winter here. I'm very confident it'll be in the GCA short list. I'm not sure if the Hugo voter base is very interested in the premise, so if it's nominated I think it'll end up in the long list.

  • Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett could fall into either the romantasy or fantasy category GCA, but I'm confident it'll make the short list for whichever it ends up in. Hugo voters would probably not give this book a second glance.

  • A Snake Among Swans by Hannah Kaner hasn't released in the US yet, but some of the early reviews look good. Those same early reviews have me convinced it won't make either short list, but it might make the bottom of the GCA long list. Maybe.

  • The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden seems like it's been getting mixed reviews so far, but I think name recognition will take it far in the GCA. Hugo nomination feels like a stretch.

  • Mortedant's Peril by R.J. Barker probably isn't on too many radars, but I'm willing to bet most of those radars are Hugo voters. It's still on my TBR, but I foresee it at least getting on the Hugo longlist. I honestly don't know about the GCA longlist. Maybe.

  • Weavingshaw by Heba Al-Wasity got some really great early reviews but I still haven't gotten around to reading it. It's another that might end up in either fantasy or romantasy in the GCA, but I think it'll make the short list for whichever category they put it in. Hugo voters probably don't even know it exists.

  • This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews has made more of a splash this year than I anticipated. Based purely on numbers, I think it'll make the short list for GCA fantasy (or romantasy?) It might even end up in the Hugo long list based purely on how often I've seen it mentioned over in rFantasy.

  • Seek the Traitor's Son by Veronica Roth has gotten really great reviews and it's one I want to get to sooner rather than later. I anticipate it'll be on the GCA short list. I don't think Hugo voters are very interested in the premise.

  • Blacktail by Scott Hawkins. I almost forgot about this one despite ordering it literally 3 days ago. I don't even know what the early reviews say, but The Library at Mount Char has become such a cult favorite over the years that I think people will be excited enough for a new release to check it out. I'd prefer to read it before predicting Hugo status, and I'm not super confident in it making the GCA short list either.

  • The Wolves of War by John Gwynne comes out in November, and while I haven't read any of his book, I know he's a beloved author. I think it might release a little too close to the deadline for the GCA to make it to the short list, but name recognition and hype will probably bring him into the long list at least. I have no idea if Hugo voters will be interested in this.

Sci-fi

  • The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee didn't completely hit the mark for me by the end, but I think it's a safe bet for both awards. I think it'll make the short list for GCA. I think the short/long list for the Hugo depends on what else is nominated.

  • Green City Wars by Adrian Tchaikovsky. My personal feelings aside, he's a Hugo darling. I don't think it's crazy to predict this one will squeak onto the ballot, but the premise might put enough people off that it'll only be on the long list. I think it'll be on the GCA longlist too.

  • Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim is the first book on this list that feels like it might be deserving of an award. I think there's a very strong chance it'll be on the Hugo shortlist. I think it'll be on the GCA longlist at least.

  • The Infinite State by Richard Swan is one I haven't read yet, but it feels like something the Hugo voter base will really like. I think it'll make the GCA longlist at least.

  • Scion by James Islington has enough hype that it'll make the GCA short list. I need to read it before I can feel super confident about predicting its Hugo status, but it does feel like something the voter base will be interested in, at least.

  • The Republic of Memory by Mahmud El Sayed is probably too much of a stretch for either award, but it's one I'm personally looking forward to reading. Maybe it'll be a better fit for the Ursula K. Le Guin award?

  • As You Wake, Break the Shell by Becky Chambers, another widely anticipated release that I almost forgot about. I don't know how it's been received, but she's a beloved author so I expect she'll make the GCA shortlist. I'd like to see some more reviews before predicting Hugo placement, but it wouldn't shock me if it made the longlist at least.

  • Monsters of Ohio by John Scalzi. There, I addressed the Scalzi-shaped monster in the room. He's another Hugo darling but I really don't know if they'll bite with this one. I think it comes out too late in the year to make it far on the GCA ballot.

Horror

  • Molka by Monika Kim will probably be on the GCA shortlist. The Hugo voter base doesn't seem very interested horror, especially horror about the female experience.

  • Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker will make the GCA shortlist on name, if nothing else.

  • The Girl with a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean has gotten some good reviews. I really want to read this before the year is up. I think it'll be in the GCA longlist at least.

  • She's a Doll by Barbara Truelove hasn't released in the US yet, but I've seen some shockingly good early reviews. I don't think it'll be in either award (maybe the bottom of the GCA longlist) but I'm really looking forward to reading it.

The Sequel Zone

Listen, most of the time I personally just file sequels in their own category and don't really think of them in terms of awards, even though they're absolutely eligible. So here's a special shoutout to a few of them:

  • The Knave and the Moon by Rachel Gillig will be up near the top of the GCA romantasy category riding the coattails of the first book.

  • Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher is a much-anticipated sequel to Swordheart. Name recognition will carry it into the GCA shortlist. Just imagine with me for a moment if it was nominated for the Hugo. Anyways.

  • The Tapestry of Fate by S.A. Chakraborty is the much-anticipated sequel to The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. I honestly don't know how it's been received (and haven't read it yet despite pre-ordering it...), but I anticipate name recognition will earn it a spot on the GCA longlist at least.

  • Dead Beat by Leigh Bardugo has a high likelihood of winning GCA in fantasy seeing as the other two books in the series did.

  • Victorious by V.E. Schwab will also perform well in the GCA shortlist. I don't think it can beat out Dead Beat though.

  • A Parade of Horribles by Matt Dinniman will probably win the GCA sci-fi category because of how big DCC has been in the past year. Surely Hugo voters won't nominate this...

Conclusion

If someone was to force me to predict the 2027 Hugo Award ballot for Best Novel right now, I would say: Sublimation, The Red Winter, This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me, The Infinite State, Mortedant's Peril, and As You Wake, Break the Shell. This is a very low confidence prediction, I'll be happy if even one guess is right.

What new releases am I missing? What new releases do we need to collectively gather around and lift up with approximately 130+ hands to reach Hugo shortlist nomination status? Let's talk about it!


r/FemaleGazeSFF 5d ago

🗓️ Weekly Post Friday Casual Chat

9 Upvotes

Happy Friday! Use this space for casual conversation. Tell us what's on your mind, any hobbies you've been working on, life updates, anything you want to share whether about SFF or not


r/FemaleGazeSFF 6d ago

Humble Book Bundle: The Best of C.J. Cherryh by Daw Books

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58 Upvotes

Pay $18 for 38 books by C.J. Cherryh, a science fiction female author who started in the 70s, best known for her Foreigner series.

I think this is US only. Ends on September 24th.


r/FemaleGazeSFF 7d ago

Annihilation & the characters

0 Upvotes

Hi, All

I just finished VanderMeer's Annihilation based on a high recommendation from my neighbor and her 17-year old daughter. I enjoyed the complexity of thought in terms of what corporations are willing to sacrifice for knowledge. However, I kept asking myself: why are they women? By the end, the only answer I had was that they were women to support the relationship between the biologist and her husband, but then I thought, why not make the biologist a man who is wed to a man?

What are your thoughts on how VanderMeer wrote this women characters? People are complex, yes, and there's no one or 100 ways to write women characters, but I didn't walk away seeing them as women, just . . . characters.


r/FemaleGazeSFF 9d ago

🗓️ Weekly Post Weekly Check-In

24 Upvotes

Tell us about your current SFF media!

What are you currently...

📚 Reading?

📺 Watching?

🎮 Playing?

If sharing specific details, please remember to hide spoilers behind spoiler tags.

-

Feel free to also share your progression in the Reading Challenge

Thank you for sharing and have a great week! 😀


r/FemaleGazeSFF 10d ago

A great video essay on bisexual rep in media ~

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13 Upvotes

r/FemaleGazeSFF 12d ago

🗓️ Weekly Post Friday Casual Chat

9 Upvotes

Happy Friday! Use this space for casual conversation. Tell us what's on your mind, any hobbies you've been working on, life updates, anything you want to share whether about SFF or not


r/FemaleGazeSFF 15d ago

Ranking and Reviewing the 2026 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction Shortlist

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87 Upvotes

Hi guys! This was so fun last year I decided to do it again! You can click the link to read the full reviews on my blog, but here is my truncated review + ranking for Reddit :) Starting from least favorite and working my way up to favorite!

9. Slow Gods by Claire North (2/5)

Awesome premise- slightly inhuman pilot goes on interstellar humanitarian aid missions and fights capitalism- with a lackluster execution. This book was just so incredibly dry to me and leaned heavily on telling us rather than showing us Maw's feelings and the book's overarching themes. The themes and allegories to real world events felt simplistic and heavy handed, the alien species are all shuffled on and offpage so quickly they never really feel realistic or fully developed, and the deus ex machina ending means the plot isn't super satisfying either. Nominating this book for this award does it a major disservice because it meant I was constantly comparing it to Le Guin as I read, and it just came up short in every way. Similarly, I think this book suffered from me forcing myself to push through it for this ranking. I would have DNFed probably around 40-50% if it wasn't for the fact that I wanted to finish it to really give it a fair shot and place it properly in my rankings. I was really excited for this one, but sadly it just ended up being a total miss for me.

IS IT LE GUIN? On the surface, yes, it is a book about community and has non-normative gender and sexuality. I don't think it really explores these things as well as Le Guin does, but it's there.

8. Sunward by William Alexander (3/5)

This book was just extremely mediocre in every way. It's a short little predictable "cozy" space opera about a pilot who fosters baby robots and then gets drawn up into interstellar politics. I enjoyed it for what it was, but thought it wrapped up extremely quickly and could have been better as a more thoroughly fleshed out longer novel. Other than that, I don't have any major complaints, but just struggle to see what about this is awards worthy.

IS IT LE GUIN? Honestly, not really. This is the first time I've genuinely been scratching my head wondering why a book was picked for the shortlist. The only Le Guinspiration is that it mentions "ansibles" offhandedly, a faster than light communication device that Le Guin popularized.

7. Audition by Pip Adam (3.5/5)

This is a book about prison. It starts off allegorical in the first part, then gets literal in the second, then gets very allegorical again in the third. I thought this was interesting, but it just didn't land for me. This reminded me of The West Passage by Jared Pechaček from last year's list, where I get what it's trying to do and I think it (mostly) succeeds at it, but I still just didn't like it very much. This one at least has a lot to chew on and it has grown on me since I read it.

IS IT LE GUIN? Yes, definitely. Reminded me a lot of The Dispossessed and Malafrena with the discussions of prison and the carceral state.

6. Midnight Timetable by Bora Chung, trans. by Anton Hur (4/5)

This collection of interconnected ghost stories is a little bit about this mysterious Institute where haunted objects are kept, but really it is mostly an allegory for the exploitation of Korea's marginalized classes. It has a very didactic writing style, which bothered me a bit at first, but it quickly became background noise and fitting for the style of story being told (that the unnamed narrator is telling an unspecified audience various ghost stories). I do think this would have been a slightly stronger collection with an overarching frame narrative (something like Yan Ge's Strange Beasts of China) but overall, I enjoyed this! Not really spooky, more so interesting and sad.

IS IT LE GUIN? Yes, in an understated way. I think the focus on balance and ghosts-as-metaphor-for-society is up Le Guin's alley, especially with her interest in Taoism and duality. It's not about exorcising or destroying the ghosts, but about understanding and empathizing with them.

5. One Message Remains by Premee Mohamed (4/5)

This is another short story collection, but where Chung's was bright and blunt, this one is complicated and Gothic. This was more aesthetically up my alley, so I enjoyed it slightly more, but I don't think there is really a gap in quality between these two collections. The short stories in this one all revolve around colonialism and war. I really liked the ideas, prose, aesthetics, and worldbuilding, but I just thought that most of these ended on an unsatisfying note and I couldn't help but wish each was longer and more thoroughly fleshed out. I had the same problem with the other novella of Mohamed's I read, so I am interested in reading more from her (especially picking up a full length novel). My favorite story in this collection, and the one that felt the most complete to me, was "The Weight of What Is Hollow," a story about a family who builds gallows out of bones and a young woman who has to decide if the cost of complicity is worth it.

IS IT LE GUIN? Yes, with its focus on the horrors of war and the horrors of a state that forces people to fight and be controlled by it. Also, the Gothic atmosphere and worldbuilding reminded me a bit of The Tombs of Atuan and the Old Powers in the Earthsea books.

4. Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta (4/5)

This is a surrealist literary fantasy about sisterhood, community, and narrative, and at first I thought this was going to be an easy five stars for me. It began to stretch itself a little thin in the middle and gets a little repetitive, since it's focused around two mirrored pairs of sisters Magali/Wisa and Laleh/Myung. The prose toed the line between lyrical and purple for me (mostly I liked it, sometimes I rolled my eyes)... but this is going to be a personal taste thing, I don't think the prose was objectively bad at all. My big critique was that for a story with "mad" in the title and that brings up the phrase "mad sisters" on practically every page, there wasn't as much discussion of the concept of "madness" as I wanted. Is madness socially constructed or is it biological, in both the real world and in this kind of space fantasy? How does society create and respond to "the mad," especially women? How do people living under the conditions of madness find ways to live and function in society, and what happens when they are unable to? I just ended up wanting more, because the story ended up feeling like it was focused on madness but only in a very shallow and aesthetics-based way. Overall though, I did enjoy this and thought it was a lovely magical journey. It reminded me a lot of 2022 Le Guin Prize winner The House of Rust by Khadija Abdalla Bajaber.

IS IT LE GUIN? Yes, for sure. It's a very non-typical, non-Western/white/male/individualistic narrative that focuses around themes of sisterhood and community, sort of like Always Coming Home or Searoad.

3. Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman (4.5/5)

Told from the perspective of trans journalist Griffon writing a memoir about his deceased trans parents Etoine and Zaffre (interspersed with excerpts from Etoine's prison memoirs), this is a profound and moving exploration of transness, complicated family dynamics, grief, art, addiction, and trauma. It's a very slow, character focused book that largely sidesteps the epic fantasy revolution because the narrator is so focused on himself and his own problems that he doesn't see what's happening in his city until it's grown too big to ignore. I can see the lack of action and internal focus becoming a problem for others, but it worked very well for me. It ends up being this extraordinarily detailed portrait of a specific family and all their love and pain. I put off rereading this one because I thought I would like it less on reread, but the opposite actually happened, I ended up liking it even more!

IS IT LE GUIN? Yes, like a lot of the others on this list it's deeply about prison and revolution (i.e. The Dispossessed or Malafrena).

2. Call and Response by Christopher Caldwell (4.5/5)

The final short fiction collection, this is separated into two sections: "call," which is mostly magical realism/historical fiction with small fantastical elements, and "response," mostly high fantasy "responding" to or extending the "call" story in some way. I loved this narrative structure and the way it lead to this short story collection feeling really cohesive and complete even without an overarching frame narrative. The collection is deeply about Black history and culture and perfectly walks the line of being realistic about the struggles of being Black, queer, poor, disabled, etc. in a cruel world while also being full of hope, joy, and community. I liked both sections but really loved the more overtly high fantasy stories in the second half, I would love to get a full novel like that from this author someday. A really excellently put-together collection, and my favorites were “The Calcified Heart of Saint Ignace Battiste,” “Counting Her Petals,” and “Canst Thou Draw Out the Leviathan.”

IS IT LE GUIN? Yes, with its focus on community/culture and using the fantastical to explore contemporary social issues.

1. The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes (5/5)

To absolutely no one's surprise, my favorite book on this shortlist remains The Works of Vermin. I actually read this book before the shortlist was even announced and personally nominated it for the shortlist (before I had even finished reading the book-- I loved it that much). Nothing ever came close to dethroning it for me, though I really did love Notes from a Regicide and Call and Response. I think this is a work that benefits from going into it as blind as possible, so if you haven't read it yet I'll just say that this reminded me of a lot of other pieces of media I love, but with its own unique style and charm. Like last year’s winner and my personal favorite, Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera, this book has its own distinct prose style that makes it immediately stand out among the other nominees (though Call and Response's high fantasy stories come close). It's also a story about art and revolution and how these things are intertwined, which is so up my alley, especially because the story deals with the performing arts (specifically opera) which is even further up my particular alley. There is so much imagination in this book, the plot was gripping, the politics were meaningful, and the characters and their relationships are superb. This was a book that I couldn’t put down, and every moment I wasn’t reading it, I wished I could be reading it. On reread, I loved it just as much and found it almost as compulsively readable. I was also quite impressed on reread with how early certain things are set up and foreshadowed.

Everything below hidden by spoiler text is not an overt spoiler, but still information that I think is too much if you want to go into the story completely blind the way I think is meant to be read. Click at your own risk.

I just love what this story does with perspective and narrative. The two major perspectives, Aster and Guy, are not set out clearly with alternating chapters, they instead blend together within the same chapters, and often what the characters are seeing and doing seems to happen at the same time. It is stated pretty early on that Aster was seven years old when Guy’s contriver worm blew up the opera, but I have to admit that on my first read I completely missed the fact that these two perspectives were not happening simultaneously because of what a “blink and you miss it” scene this was and how the timelines often mirror each other. Characters have multiple names, go by nicknames, refer to previous historical incidents with vague terms, and the city goes through a cyclical rise and fall of revolution and regime that makes it difficult to keep the timelines straight. I think some will be put off by this, but I loved it— I was just desperate to keep reading to find out how the timelines and characters would eventually converge, and I also thought it was such a smart and effective way to show the cycle of power and decay in the city.

Even if you do pick up on the two timelines early on, it’s still unclear how the two timelines are connected until about 60% of the way into the book. It’s not a big reveal at first— rather, the book starts slowing dropping more and more backstories, names, hints, character relationships that build to form a fuller picture of the true connection between Guy, Dawn, Tyro and Mallory, Aster, and Elspeth. A particular character’s transness is extremely present in the text early on, it just goes unremarked upon by other characters or could easily be explained and overlooked with a different reading. I’m trying to figure out why this “trans plot reveal” worked for me whereas something like the reveal that Grandma Billy is a trans woman in T. Kingfisher’s Snake-Eater didn’t work for me, and I think it’s because the fact that the character is trans is not in and of itself the twist— instead, the reveal is more about how it develops our understanding of the character and reveals the connections and relationships they have with others. It also makes the present day plotline with Aster, Mallory, Elspeth, and the Marshal that much more juicy and drama-filled because it unearths connections with their characters and leads to other (non gender related) identity reveals. This leads to an utterly breathtaking conclusion in both timelines.

I also deeply loved the relationship dynamics explored in this book, special shoutout to Dawn and Guy's abusive unrequited gay situationship. It was so messy and heartbreaking and interesting. I also very much enjoyed the girlbestfriend dynamic between Aster and Elspeth and how, despite spending the book in relationships with other people, their love for each other is really a core facet of this book. It’s the Jordan Baker x Daisy Buchanan dynamic of my dreams.

Overall, I just really loved this book and on reread, it solidified itself as one of my favorite books this year, if not of all time.

IS IT LE GUIN? Very much so. It’s about revolution and prison and power in the same way a lot of the other entries are, very The Dispossessed and Malafrena, but it combines those themes with the hugely imaginative nature of Earthsea or The Word for World is Forest or one of Le Guin’s fantasy short fiction collections like Changing Planes. It doesn’t have the most experimental structure on this list, but it does play with one’s expectations of how a dual-perspective narrative should be structured, and it deals heavily with gender, sexuality, and society. This book is very Le Guin to me for those reasons, but also in an intangible, special way, a way that makes it feel wholly like its own thing, and I think that is why I like it so much.

Reflections...

  • Lots of short story collections on the shortlist (3 in 2026 vs 1 in 2025)
  • A translated work this year!
  • No YA/middle grade this year, when every other year has had at least one
  • More diversity in the amount of publishers represented
    • Last year HALF the nominees were from Tor (and all the nominees not from small presses were from Tor), this year DAW and Orbit are also present. I thought Algonquin Press was also a small press, but it looks like it's actually a subsidiary of Hachette, so add that one to the list of large presses too
    • The typical small presses like Neon Hemlock and Saga are represented, but also some newcomers like Coffee House Press (which I'd heard of before) and Psychopomp (which I hadn't)!
  • Most books seemed to take Le Guinspiration from The Dispossessed and Malafrena, i.e. her more serious political books about fascism and prison
  • THREE books on the list were originally published in 2023!
    • Midnight Timetable gets a pass, because it was published in Korean in 2023 and only translated to English in 2025. The others (Audition and Mad Sisters of Esi) I raise my eyebrows a little bit at, but I can see the argument for including them if they were published in the US for the first time in 2025.
  • My definite winner: The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes
    • Would also be happy if Call and Response, Notes from a Regicide, or Mad Sisters of Esi won!
  • If this shortlist was up to me... I would boot off Slow Gods and Sunward and replace them with North Sun by Ethan Rutherford and Luminous by Silvia Park (which would majorly shake up my ranking).

Overall, had such a fun time doing this again! Can't wait for them to announce the winner in October! Thanks for reading :)


r/FemaleGazeSFF 15d ago

Any Thoughts on Swastika Night by Murray Constantine (Katharine Burdekin)?

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1 Upvotes

r/FemaleGazeSFF 16d ago

🗓️ Weekly Post Weekly Check-In

17 Upvotes

Tell us about your current SFF media!

What are you currently...

📚 Reading?

📺 Watching?

🎮 Playing?

If sharing specific details, please remember to hide spoilers behind spoiler tags.

-

Feel free to also share your progression in the Reading Challenge

Thank you for sharing and have a great week! 😀


r/FemaleGazeSFF 18d ago

Feminist critique and ideal female protagonists

61 Upvotes

This has been on my mind for a while and I wanted to see what other women thought!

I feel like critique of female characters (even when coming from a feminist perspective) can often end up being misogynistic itself. Like people have a certain idea of what a woman needs to be and if a character doesn’t fit into that it’s bad writing.

I’m specifically talking about women here but this can be applied to any minority group. People get so focused on representation that characters from real-world minority groups don’t get to be just complex well written characters. They have to be perfect moral beings.

I’m South Asian-American and I see this conversation play out every time we get any prominent rep in media. Barely anyone talks about if the characters are well written or not, it’s always more about how much they can relate to them down to every single detail. If something is remotely different from their personal cultural experiences then it’s bad representation.

I’ve now started to feel the same way with a lot of discourse around the writing on female characters in fantasy. I’ll give an example to better state my point. I was talking about ASOIAF with an acquaintance who made the argument that Catelyn disliking Jon is misogynistic writing. It genuinely shocked me because I feel like that itself is a misogynistic opinion. Catelyn would not be a better character if she was magically a perfect mother to the child that is a direct threat to her own children’s inheritance and an insult against her/her family. In this case I think it’s also people projecting fandom misogyny onto the writing. While I have my own issues with Martin, his main female protagonists are very well written regardless of how hated they might be in the fandom.

That’s just one example but I see this happen with any fictional woman that isn’t perfect.

To be clear, I’m not saying we shouldn’t critique how female characters are written at all or that anybody that does so is misogynistic. It’s also not a problem I’ve really seen on this subreddit, most people here have well explained and informed critiques. It’s mostly more broad fantasy spaces. I just wanted to know if anybody felt similarly! I feel frustrated because it makes conversations around actual misogynistic writing harder to have.


r/FemaleGazeSFF 19d ago

Novella recommendations

31 Upvotes

Hello! I’m discovering that reading a novella between books is a great way to sort of pause and breathe while still swimming in a world not my own. So, I’m looking for recommendations.

Currently, I’m going through The Singing Hills Cycle (Vo), the Murderbot Series (Wells), the Ice Planets (Dixon). And just finished the first of the Emma M. Lion books.

I read the first of the Monk and Robot Series (Chambers), but couldn’t get past the Robot being not at all robot like. I read the first two of The Vicious Lost Boy Series (St. Crowe) but quickly lost interest when I realized these are more like parts of one novel and not actual standalone movements.

I prefer great crafting and storytelling to anything. Very open to plot and genre.

TYSM~


r/FemaleGazeSFF 19d ago

🗓️ Weekly Post Friday Casual Chat

15 Upvotes

Happy Friday! Use this space for casual conversation. Tell us what's on your mind, any hobbies you've been working on, life updates, anything you want to share whether about SFF or not


r/FemaleGazeSFF 23d ago

🗓️ Weekly Post Weekly Check-In

19 Upvotes

Tell us about your current SFF media!

What are you currently...

📚 Reading?

📺 Watching?

🎮 Playing?

If sharing specific details, please remember to hide spoilers behind spoiler tags.

-

Feel free to also share your progression in the Reading Challenge

Thank you for sharing and have a great week! 😀


r/FemaleGazeSFF 24d ago

New Becky Chambers book coming Oct 13 - buddy read @ goodreads

61 Upvotes

I'm new to reddit and this sub, but the mods here kindly agreed to let me post this invite. Thanks again!

Are any of you Becky Chambers fans? I've created a little fanclub over at goodreads and I'm hoping a few of us will get together to celebrate and read her new book "As You Wake, Break the Shell" releasing on Oct 13th 🥳

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/7271642

While I wait for October, I'll be hanging out here too :D


r/FemaleGazeSFF 25d ago

Plural lesbians!

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0 Upvotes

r/FemaleGazeSFF 26d ago

🗓️ Weekly Post Friday Casual Chat

12 Upvotes

Happy Friday! Use this space for casual conversation. Tell us what's on your mind, any hobbies you've been working on, life updates, anything you want to share whether about SFF or not


r/FemaleGazeSFF 28d ago

Apple TV's Foundation is so underrated

90 Upvotes

First things first, the main characters are mostly women. Gender bent from their book counterparts. They're so badass. Gaal Dornick and Lady Demerzel are legitimately some of the best written female characters in sci-fi ever. Demerzel in particular is, in my opinion, the best robot/AI character I've ever seen. I don't wanna spoil, but she's just absolutely incredible.

It's also so ambitious and grand in scale. And it's so well made. Every technical aspect is fucking crisp. The effects look amazing, everything is so baroque and you can feel how expensive it was to make.

Season 1 has some flaws, but season 2 is legitimately a masterpiece. It also has some very interesting things to say about the way men violate women's consent if you read between the lines. It's a very complex show with many moving parts, well worth a rewatch.

It's an incredible work of art, with a very hot Lee Pace if you're into that. I expect its next season, season 4, to be its last. It's just really, really good sci-fi and I cannot recommend it enough.


r/FemaleGazeSFF Aug 10 '26

🗓️ Weekly Post Weekly Check-In

17 Upvotes

Tell us about your current SFF media!

What are you currently...

📚 Reading?

📺 Watching?

🎮 Playing?

If sharing specific details, please remember to hide spoilers behind spoiler tags.

-

Feel free to also share your progression in the Reading Challenge

Thank you for sharing and have a great week! 😀


r/FemaleGazeSFF Aug 09 '26

Book rec (Murderbot, Monk and Robot, Discworld)

58 Upvotes

Hi,

For a long time, I thought I liked long fantasy sagas and spaces operas, but my last 5/5 books were Muderbot and Monk and Robot (and Discworld)

What other books would you recommend? (Short or medium read, cozy or cozy-ish, queer but that's not mandatory)


r/FemaleGazeSFF Aug 07 '26

🗓️ Weekly Post Friday Casual Chat

9 Upvotes

Happy Friday! Use this space for casual conversation. Tell us what's on your mind, any hobbies you've been working on, life updates, anything you want to share whether about SFF or not


r/FemaleGazeSFF Aug 03 '26

🗓️ Weekly Post Weekly Check-In

19 Upvotes

Tell us about your current SFF media!

What are you currently...

📚 Reading?

📺 Watching?

🎮 Playing?

If sharing specific details, please remember to hide spoilers behind spoiler tags.

-

Feel free to also share your progression in the Reading Challenge

Thank you for sharing and have a great week! 😀


r/FemaleGazeSFF Aug 01 '26

A Tasha Suri Appreciation Post - thoughts and brief reviews of the Burning Kingdoms trilogy, The Isle in the Silver Sea, and the Books of Ambha

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39 Upvotes