Sunday, December 10, 2006

Looking Ahead to 2007

Dragging my thoughts away, for a few moments, from my ongoing and seemingly endless reading for the Cybils, I'd like to give you an idea of what I've got planned for 2007. Once the Cybil SF&F shortlist has been handed over to the judging committee, I shall be turning my attention back to my paper on wizards in the "Tales of Einarinn" and the "Aldabreshin Compass" series by Juliet E McKenna. This paper is for the Masters of Magic: Wizards in Western Literature essay collection (feel free to ignore the dates on this webpage !), which should hopefully see the light of day late next year or in 2008. The last I heard, the deadline for papers is Spring 2007, and after that, I plan to get back to my projected book (with the projected title: From Heroine to Lady Hero) on heroines in YA fantasy and how they've developed from Damsel-in-Distress to independent women heroes. This project has been on the back burner since 2003 (in large part due to a certain lady author not finishing her 7 book series about a certain young wizard yet !) I'm currently planning to write chapters on the following authors/series: Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series, Robin McKinley's Damar series, Garth Nix's The Old Kingdom series, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series and J K Rowling's Harry Potter series.

All of which means I will be doing lots and lots of re-reading next year and probably a bit less reading of new-to-me books. I will, of course, still be reviewing for Orbit/Atom and for Write Away, and writing for The Edge of the Forest - so there will be new books from them that I will read and review, and many of the books I'll be re-reading for the book will be reviewed here, because I've mostly not re-read them since starting my Blog.

On the topic of female fantasy heroines, if any of my readers have suggestions of books to read (for comparative purposes), please do let me know. I've got a handful of titles/series/authors that I've either read or plan to read (including Tanith Lee's Unicorn series and Andre Norton), but I'm open to new suggestions, although I may not read all of them (depending on availability).

4 comments:

Lady S. said...

I had a question about the type of books you'd be looking for, which left my mind while I was writing my reply to your comment on LJ!

Not necessarily must-reads, but I thought of some possibilities it might be worth mentioning. Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest series (some/all published in UK as well, but at least one name changed - Talking to/Dealing with/Searching for/Calling on Dragons in the US) - might not be that YA, but very well-done princess-not-in-distress). And Sherwood Smith's Crown and Court Duet (two books now in one pb I could lend you) is a wonderful fantasy bildungsroman with a strong heroine and politics and a world with great depth.

More if more ideas occur to me!

Kelly said...

Sounds great, Michele!

Regarding that certain lady author...I tell you what (or her). I'm willing to take over her orphan-saving work while she's finishing #7. I have excellent language and people skills. I don't mind travel. I'd do it for the world. Call me, JK!

Really, your book idea is excellent! Keep it up :)

Michele said...

Lady S, they sound good - I've heard of Wrede but not stumbled across any of her books as yet... Sherwood Smith is a new name to me. Book loans will be gratefully received - and duly acknowledged !

Michele said...

Kelly that's just too funny !

And thanks for your encouragement...