Most Remembered Books of 2021
by Margaret McBride
I read a lot and usually prefer science fiction over fantasy, so I was somewhat surprised as I scanned my reading list to realize that several fantasy books were most memorable and that the SF books that I could recall the best were rereads.
Eleanor Arnason A Woman of the Iron People--chosen by a member of my book group. Even after having done multiple rereads previously, I was impressed by the clever, complex environmental and cultural world building--not only of the planet visited by Earth explorers but also of a future Earth. Put this novel on the top of your to-be-read list if you haven't read it.
Becky Chambers A Closed and Common Orbit. Near the end of November I was stressing out at news, Facebook, etc. and decided to reread a book with some hope and warmth. This novel does have horrible depictions of environmental problems and child abuse; but humans, AIs and sentient aliens of multiple genders and sexualities manage to form communities and families.
Kathleen Goonan Queen City Jazz, Mississippi Blues, Crescent Rhapsody I decided to reread this series after hearing of Goonan's death. I had enjoyed hearing her read and talk on panels at several conferences and had read most of her novels. Nevertheless I found myself wondering what was going on in the first volume, but the characters and invented details of the future world were enough to keep me reading. Things become clearer in the later volumes with interesting comments on the real life. If you are intrigued by the idea of a virus that makes people, including a young girl, behave and think like Mark Twain and thus able to steer a steamboat down the Mississippi, this is a book for you. I have not yet reread the fourth book Light Music.
Alix E. Harrow The Once and Future Witches This novel is an alternate history of women seeking the vote in the U. S. at the same time as witches are still being burned. Fairy tales and children's rhymes are clues to spells (the Sisters Grimm compiled them). Characters are poor, rich, women of color, lesbians who are in hiding, women who go along with the power-hungry men...lots of variety and references to real historic events.
T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon) A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking Listed as a middle reader or YA novel and quite funny in spots, this book includes interesting comments on how women with and without power are treated, how people come together to help one another. I loved the gingerbread warriors and a carnivorous sourdough starter.
Ursula K. Le Guin Conversations on Writing and Out Here I found two unusual and Oregon-based books to fulfill my promise to myself to read or reread something by Le Guin every year. The first one is three radio interviews with Le Guin and David Naimon (and his introductions) on Science Fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. I so enjoyed reading and remembering her intelligence, self-awareness, humor, and opinions on other writers, publishing, politics, etc. She talks about pronoun use, tense, and point of view in fiction, problems of cultural appropriation, why people are ignoring science, and other interesting things. Here's one example from pp. 96-97: "When I can use prose as I do in writing stories as a direct means or form of thinking, not as a way of saying something I know or believe, not as a vehicle for a message, but as an exploration, a voyage of discovery resulting in something I didn't know before I wrote it, then I feel that I am using it properly." The second book is photography by Roger Dorband of Steens Mountain Country in Oregon with poetry and drawings by Le Guin...great fun to see another aspect of Le Guin's art. From "McCoy Creek Reflection": "Let me be quiet and my mind reflect/the shadow of a willow leaf on water." I love the ending of "An Incident at the Field Station:" "Then that old woman/ CLAPPED!/her hands/turned round/and followed whirling,/shouting, dancing,/dust with the dust of the whirlwind,/whirling up taller and thinner/way up over the Field Station,/shouting louder and louder/and vanished."
L. E. Modesitt Jr. The Saga of Recluce series begins with The Magic of Recluce; I read the first four last year and five through nine this year. I usually don't like long series but I'm not tired of this one. I started it because I heard Modesitt talk at the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts about his desire to rectify what he saw as a weakness in fantasy world building: little attention paid to economics. How does food get from the farms to cities? Who makes the clothing and mends the wagons? How do the wizard schools get the means to survive? etc. His novels cover those issues in interesting ways and do a lot more. The women characters are warriors, traders, manipulative sorcerers, and important in many ways not always subservient to the main male characters. The books raise interesting points about finding balance between environmental health and human needs/wishes, balance between those with power (or wanting power) and those willing to live a simple life, balance between Chaos and Order (and neither is completely good or bad). One volume does bring in SF aspects when the survivors of a crashed space ship interact with the planetary citizens, but it is essentially a fantasy series.
Kim Stanley Robinson The Ministry for the Future The plot structure of this novel was a bit difficult for me, but the details about climate/environmental problems with the notes of hope that we might be able to keep plant, animal, and human species alive kept me reading.
Isabel Wilkerson Caste This book does not have the narrative structure of The Warmth of Other Suns, but I think it may be a book that every person in the U. S. should read. With much research and examples, Wilkerson examines the destructiveness of the caste systems in India, Nazi Germany, and the United States. Many of the historic and current examples are disturbing to read but an awareness of such continuing problems seems necessary in this time of book banning, confusion over critical race theory, etc. The book has many statements that need to be read by all: "Without an enlightened recognition of the price we all pay for a caste system, the hierarchy will likely shape-shift as it has in the past to ensure that the structure remains intact" (p. 382). "Our era calls for a public accounting of what caste has cost us, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, so that every American can know the full history of our country, wrenching though it may be....'We must make every effort [to ensure] that the past injustice, violence and economic discrimination will be made known to the people,' Einstein said in an address to the National Urban League" (p. 395).
**For my most memorable, I recommend a PBS series Craft in America (especially the one subtitled "Threads"). Terese Agnew makes quilts with a political theme including one that looks like a black and white photo of a woman sewing in a sweatshop that is made of thousands of clothing labels sewn together (available on line).
Margaret McBride is retired from the University of Oregon where Gender and Sexuality in Science Fiction and Fantasy was her favorite class to teach. She is the editor of the tenth volume of the WisCon Chronicles, Social Justice (Redux). She has been the chair of the Tiptree/Otherwise Award two times, has participated on over forty panels at WisCon and hopes to do so again.
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