Did I, in skimming that list, miss any mention of Diana Duane? Pamela Dean? Emma Bull? Tanith Lee? Jane Gaskell? Tanya Huff? and a whole load of others who seem to have fallen into the mists of history, from which a few lone pillars such as Le Guin (and LHOD is sf, not fantasy!) stand out? (Kenneth Williams voice: INFAMY! INFAMY!)
Seriously though, this list would have been better off leaving off Arrows of the Queen and just doing 50 recent fantasy novels by women hooray. Because that is a valid thing to do and apparently the list author's focus and expertise. And it does no one any favors when we constantly, for at least the last 41 years because THAT IS WHEN I SHOWED UP, keep pretending that having women to read is NEW.
Yes, 50 fantasy books from the 21st century would be a much better list.
Also, providing only Amazon's descriptions strikes me as cheating. If the book is so great, haven't you read it yourself and are able to offer a few words?
They put "Arrows of the queen" on a must-read list of anything? That's not even the Misty Lackey book I'd pick and I don't think I'd pick her over quite a few of the eminences mentioned as missing above.
I thought it was fantasy rather than sf, and looking again it mostly is, but I see there's a certain fuzziness of definition (I'd put Russ, Randall, and Henderson as - mostly - sf, along with Vonda McIntyre and Suzy McKee Charnas). No Kate Elliott, either... But it's a rabbithole I could plunge down.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2019-07-26 10:27 am (UTC)(Kenneth Williams voice: INFAMY! INFAMY!)
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Date: 2019-07-26 11:01 am (UTC)Seriously though, this list would have been better off leaving off Arrows of the Queen and just doing 50 recent fantasy novels by women hooray. Because that is a valid thing to do and apparently the list author's focus and expertise. And it does no one any favors when we constantly, for at least the last 41 years because THAT IS WHEN I SHOWED UP, keep pretending that having women to read is NEW.
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Date: 2019-07-26 03:53 pm (UTC)Also, providing only Amazon's descriptions strikes me as cheating. If the book is so great, haven't you read it yourself and are able to offer a few words?
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Date: 2019-07-26 03:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-26 03:53 pm (UTC)I might also mention Marta Randall, Elizabeth A. Lynn, and Zenna Henderson - though I believe she never wrote a novel, so, that's fair.
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Date: 2019-07-26 04:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-26 07:12 pm (UTC)