New for the 2013 Sci-Fi Experience will be a series of SF Spotlight posts featuring Q&A with bloggers in the science fiction community. My greatest pleasure in hosting blog events comes from members of the community getting to know one another and forging ongoing relationships. So come along with me as I host this little mixer, I promise you will meet some really interesting people along the way and will hopefully discover kindred spirits.
To inaugurate this new feature I want to introduce you to Worlds Without End, a really first-rate site celebrating science fiction, fantasy and horror. WWE is hosting a reading challenge this year that I am very excited about, the Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge.
Dave Post graciously allowed me to conduct a last minute grilling session to kick things off.
Q: To start off, tell us a little bit about the Worlds Without End site. Who is Worlds Without End ?
A: The short answer is Worlds Without End is a genre fiction fan site created to help fans find the best science fiction, fantasy and horror books and to share their love of genre fiction. To go a little further we’ve built the site to be a virtual bookstore where you can browse our cover galleries of the top genre awards and “best of” lists or look through our authors to find something good to read. You can read synopses, excerpts and reviews and connect with other fans for recommendations and advice just like in a brick and mortar book store. We also have many member tools to help you organize and track your reading history and a whole host of resources like our lists of podcasts, magazines and author videos to name just a few. There’s really no short way to tell you about all the stuff we do. You just have to go check it out and poke around a bit.
WWEnd is maintained by a handful of guys who do the heavy lifting but we have a wonderful, dedicated and growing community of contributors that help us along the way. Many of the best features on the site are a direct result of member feedback and suggestions not to mention the over 1,000 book reviews and the great participation we get in the blog and the forums etc. It really is a community effort and we could not do it without them.
Q: WWEnd is hosting a new year-long reading challenge this year. Can you please tell us about it?
A: Sure. This year we’re hosting the 2013 Worlds Without End Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge. As the name suggests, it’s all about women authors. You choose 12 books, 1 each by 12 different women authors – who you haven’t read before including 1 completely random author pick – to read in 12 months and you write 12 reviews. We cherry pick the best reviews each month to feature in our blog and if your review is picked you’re entered into our monthly WoGF review poll. The review poll is open to all WoGF readers and WWEnd members who will vote for their favorites. The top 3 reviewers will win Amazon gift cards of $25, $15 and $10 as a thank you for the hard work that goes into the reviews.
Q: What was the inspiration behind a SFF challenge based around reading works written by women, including why the emphasis on authors one hasn’t previously read?
A: When we started to look around for a new challenge after the GMRC [ed: last year’s Grand Master Reading Challenge] we decided we needed to go bigger. We wanted to keep the focus on authors but with a larger pool to choose from and we wanted a compelling theme to attract more readers. We’re very interested in the ongoing conversation about women in genre fiction that started for us when Ian Sales created his SF Mistressworks list. We added that list to our site and it was a huge hit with our members and lead to us creating a list of Award Winning Women Authors from our awards data. Those were positive steps in the right direction but we’ve always wanted to do more to promote women authors. With the WoGF we can get directly involved in the conversation and do our part to spread the word.
As with any reading challenge you have to lay some ground rules so for the WoGF we decided to require that the authors you choose must be authors you’ve not read before. It’s too easy to go back to a tried and true favorite and we wanted our readers to branch out and try somebody new. That way we’re sure to get a wider variety of authors into the conversation. It can’t always be about Ursula K. Le Guin, C. J. Cherryh and Connie Willis. The second requirement, that one author be totally random, was thrown in to make things interesting. Most people will not stray from their comfort zone when they go to plunk down their hard-earned cash for a book so they’ll bypass the unfamiliar authors altogether. We want to encourage our readers to experiment more. How they pick their random author is totally up to the individual. You can scroll the list of authors on our site, close your eyes and poke at your screen or you and a friend can make picks for each other or run a poll on your blog and let your readers pick for you. We hope that folks will get creative and we want to hear how they arrived at their picks! You might hate your pick or you might be surprised and find a new favorite author. Either way the reviews should be interesting!
Q: Which new-to-you female author are you most excited about trying for your own challenge this year?
A: I started reading Zoo City by Lauren Beukes last year but reluctantly ended up putting it down to focus on the GMRC. I’m excited to pick that back up again as the little I read certainly made me want to read more.
Q: Please tell us about one or two of your favorite books you read in 2012.
A: 2012 was a good year for reading! With the Grand Master Reading Challenge I finally got around to reading some authors I’ve missed over the years like Poul Anderson (Tau Zero), Andre Norton (Star Born) and Jack Vance (The Languages of Pao) all of which I really enjoyed. One of my favorites would be Heinlein’s Farmer in the Sky which I wish to heaven I had read when I was 12! I was thoroughly charmed and the whole time I was reading it I felt like a kid again. For just jaw dropping hard SF I really ate up S. Andrew Swann’s Apotheosis trilogy. The first book I picked up free at WorldCon and I was hooked. Heretical technologies, galaxy spanning empires in conflict and humanity on the brink of destruction? Yes please! That’s a good example of a random author pick that came up aces!
Q: What to-be-released books in 2013 are you most looking forward to?
A: This is a hard one for me since I rarely read the latest releases. I’m playing perpetual catch-up with the stuff I’ve missed so I tend to look backwards more than forwards for my next read. If I had to pick one I’d say John Scalzi’s The Human Division piques my interest. It’s an Old Man’s War novel being released in 13 serialized eBook episodes for $.99 each. I love the series and I’m curious how the serial will work out – should be a lot of fun.
Q: And for a last random fun question, which SFF novel or series of novels would you like to see made into a film(s) or television series?
A: This one is easy. I’m desperate to see Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon made into a movie! It’s an action packed raw and gritty story that would make a fantastic SF action movie.
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Thanks Dave! I’ll save my comments for the comments section, but before we get there I wanted to encourage readers to head on over to the site and check out the challenge. It is easy to sign up and become a member on their site and you get several chances over the course of the year to win Amazon gift certificates! Free books!!! How can you beat that?
My list of 12 for the challenge (at the moment) are:
Anne McCaffrey
Philippa Ballantine
Leigh Brackett
Patricia Briggs
C.S. Friedman
Kameron Hurley
Jean Johnson
Mary Robinette Kowal
Kelly Link
Karen Maitland
Genevieve Valentine
Jane Yolan
Of course I’ll end up removing one to replace with my random author and will do something fun here to let you, the readers, pick for me.
Worlds Without End really is a great resource for not only tracking your own SF/F/H reading but also for getting ideas about various classic and contemporary works that you might want to read, reviewed by readers just like you.
I hope you’ll visit and also consider the Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge, we have a great community out there and this is going to be a fun challenge.
Great interview! I just found out about this challenge a few days ago and decided to participate. I love WWE and since my TBR is bursting with new-to-me women writers, I thought I’d give it a try.
I highly recommend Genevieve Valentine, she was one of my top reads of 2012.
My list (at the moment) looks somewhat like this:
Margo Lanagan
Laini Taylor
Kate Elliott
Stina Leicht
Franney Billingsley
Ekaterina Sedia
Karin Lowachee
Juliet Marillier
Deborah Harkness
Lisa Mantchev
Jennifer A. Nielsen
Adrienne Kress
But the shelf on my e-reader containing all the books by female genre writers that I haven’t read before is at least three times as long. So I’ll go with whatever I’m in the mood for. I look forward to this challenge (kind of missed that Grand Master one), finding new recommendations by other people participating, and I hope to see you over at WWE. 🙂
I’m looking forward to reading Valentine’s book, Mechanique. Tanya Patrice had talked about it back when The Freedom Maze won the Andre Norton, that she enjoyed Mechanique (nominated) even more so I’m looking forward to that one.
Ekaterina Sedia is a good one, I love her book The Alchemy of Stone. I’m reading an Adrienne Kress novel right now, but they don’t have her listed (that I saw) on the challenge so I guess I can’t count that one.
I’m excited about reading several new to me authors, some that I was already planning to read and others that will just be new for the challenge.
Look forward to seeing you over there as well.
I was worried about the not-liste authors as well. But they provide a link to a forum thread where you can just ask them to add your author and/or book. They’ll add it and then you can count it towards the challenge. I guess it also helps make WWE bigger and enlarge their database. Good stuff!
It’s the same with me. I am ashamed to say that I had to put Margaret Atwood on my list as well. I noticed I had never read any of her books, The Handmaid’s Tale has been on my TBR for years and years, and this seems like a good time to remedy that.
Thanks Nadine. I went over last night and put in a request and a long list by another forum poster prompted another add for me this morning. This database is going to get crazy huge, but that is a good thing.
I picked up Mechanique for free at WorldCon in 2011 and read it on a whim. I was surprised how much enjoyed it. It’s completely out of my comfort zone, but was a good read non-the-less.
That makes it even cooler that you connected with it and got it for free! It isn’t wildly outside my comfort zone but is a subgenre I rarely read and I am looking forward to it.
Thanks again for doing this interview Dave and thanks especially because of how little time I gave you to get it done.
I read my first Norton this past year, Star Born, and was very impressed. I enjoyed that novel so much and am diving into Norton again this month with The Time Traders. Read my first Poul Anderson too, as you know since I read it for the GRMC and posted over there.
So glad you had such a great experience with Farmer in the Sky. I consider that among my favorites of the Heinlein juveniles. I too wish I had read all of these books of his when I was 12. But as an adult they still spark a sense of wonder in me, wrapped up in feelings of nostalgia.
Not long until the first episode of The Human Division comes out. Really can’t wait. Have already ordered the first one and will be diving into it the day it is released.
WoGF is going to be great fun Dave!
Carl, it was my pleasure. I should be thanking you for the very nice plug for the WoGF! I didn’t know you were kicking off a new feature with this interview. I’m honored and I’m looking forward to future installments.
I picked up Star Born based on your GMRC review and loved it. Also my first Andre Norton book but not my last though I’ll have to skip her for the WoGF. Stupid rules. Who the hell came up with that rule?! Oh… well, never mind.
I think the new challenge is going to be a ton of fun too. There seems to be a nice buzz building around it that makes it very exciting! We’re growing much faster than last year with 78 readers already signed up. At this pace I’m predicting we’ll have around 500 WoGF reviews which will be a nice contribution to the genre on behalf of our readers. Fingers crossed we’ll get there. Thanks so much for your support!
No kidding! I seem to recall suggesting that you NOT make that a rule, purely for selfish reasons, of course! 🙂
I’m very excited about the idea and am very happy to share that excitement here. Wow, the challenge is exploding already, that is so great.
I’ll certainly do my part on the review front, as I’m sure many of the rest of the readers will too.
Very happy that you enjoyed Star Born as much as I did. It was a great first foray into Norton’s imagination.
Thanks for reintroducing me to Worlds Without End, Carl. I will be joining in on the Women of Genre Fiction reading challenge(so much for my plan to limit challenges this year)!
I’m happy you’ll be joining, and you are welcome. Hopefully this one won’t be much of a “challenge” anyway and will result in reading stuff that you would want to read anyway.
I was really pleased when going over the list that there were so many authors that I had already planned to read and several where I actually have books on my shelves waiting to read.
I didn’t know about this but I’m definitely going to join this challenge. It’s a spectacular idea. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
You are very welcome Lee, happy to do it. I really enjoyed the challenge they hosted last year and it is a well run site so there was no way I was going to hold off sharing this with everyone.
This is a great idea. I usually don’t pay attention to who’s writing the books I read based on gender, but summing up this last year has shown me that I’m really really really biased toward one gender and that’s when you find out it’s time to change things up.
I don’t generally either Bryce, I just read what I’m interested in reading. But this will be fun as it sort of ties into me doing that anyway.
Hey Carl, this sounds really good so I’m going to head on over and take a look. I wasn’t really thinking about getting involved in too many things because I do tend to overestimate what I can really achieve! But, I figure 1 a month is quite a nice pace – and, as I’ve already got a couple of books for January that will fit the bill I think I’d like to join in – even if I don’t stick to it it will be interesting to check out other people’s comments. Thanks for sharing this.
Lynn 😀
I understand the worry about committing to too many things. If it is any consolation I managed 7 out of the 12 reads only in last year’s GMRC and still had a lot of fun participating. I think you’ll enjoy the site.
Hey Carl, Visited the site. Definitely signed up. You know what I figured, last year I read quite a few books and looking back at my list about 13/14 of those were ‘new to me’ female authors’ so, I figured it only amounts to 1 a month. Already reading Anne McCaffrey for January, Teresa Frohock for February and then I’ve bookmarked some others and even ordered a couple at the library. I’m quite looking forward to that so thanks for the heads up.
BTW – I could have spent hours on that site looking around! It’s like falling into a black hole (but in a good way) I didn’t think i’d ever get out.
Lynn 😀
It is a fantastic site, is it not? Lots of eye-candy for book cover lovers and lots of intriguing books.
I’m glad you signed up. I felt the same way given we were reading McCaffrey for the group read and I had bought books from a couple of the authors just last month and have others I’ve been planning to read this year. Felt like I was cheating almost to sign up, lol!
Hey Carl!! I wanted to stop by and wish you a very Happy Holidays!! I’ve missed you! Hopefully, 2013 will be a great year for all of us!
Thank you Stephanie, good to see you on the blog. You’ve been missed in the community. I wish you a wonderful 2013, and don’t be a stranger. 🙂
may borrow heavily from your list as I’ve only read the first and last listed. but going to check out the SF Mistressworks link as well.
I like the spotlight idea, and it started off strong.
Make sure you check out the Authors list on the WoGF link as there is a long list but those are the authors that “count” towards the challenge. I’m sure Dave would not be averse to anyone suggesting authors that may have been left out.
And thanks!
Yes, indeed, if you’ve got an author you want to read for the challenge we’re always open to adding them to the site! We’ve got a thread in the forum for requests and we’re committed to adding 100 new women authors to the site this year in support of the challenge.
That is perfect! Thanks Dave, and thanks again for the interview.
FYI L, I have requested the addition of Adrienne Kress on the forums page.
Thank you for this, Carl. I just posted about it too, and I will be joining again over at Worlds Without End this year 🙂 This is such an easy challenge!!! lol the authors included are so varied and so many – the real challenge is to read the books now 🙂 I hope we both do better with this one, Carl 🙂
You are welcome, I’ll head over later and check out your post. It really should be an easy, and incredibly fun, challenge. I’m with you on hoping we both nail this one!
This is such a cool idea. Not sure I can participate myself, but I look forward to following your progress. I think it’s wonderful that the whole year is dedicated to female writers. I didn’t recognize a lot of the names on your list so I’m excited to see what you think of them. Have fun Carl!
I think it is a cool idea as well. I like that it is a less confrontational way to promote female genre authors than I’ve seen of late. The very real controversy over the way male and female genre authors are treated in comparison to one another spawns some really good ideas and discussions and some very guilt-ridden and in my mind counter-productive discussions as well. I like that this is embracing the optimism of reading and community-building.
Okay, haven’t had much time to look around yet, but Worlds Without Ends looks and sounds awesome! And I really love their challenge!!! Though I’m not going to officially participate (because I totally suck at actually getting reviews written, and need to just accept my weaknesses 😛 ), I am going to try to do it for myself unofficially. I’m embarrassed to admit how few of those authors I’ve read. 🙁
It is a really fun one, and you are not alone in that embarrassment. It was surprisingly easy when the list was much shorter for me to find authors I wanted to read that I hadn’t read before, and that list is growing moment by moment. 🙂
Oh, man… So tempting! I am just failing at reading and not sure I want commitments. I will have to think about it! I am very happy that it exists, though. 🙂
You should head over and check out the very long author list to see if it in any way coincides with books/authors you plan on reading this year. Then maybe it will all synch up. I think for me I had already planned to read 6-7 of the authors I ended up picking and because of that it didn’t seem like a big commitment.
I can totally do this! thanks for pointing it out to me. I already have 10 authors on my shelves right now!
You are very welcome Mel, glad you’ll be joining us over there.
I went through a huge Anne McCaffrey phase several years ago and devoured all the dragons of Pern books I could get my hands on! I think you’re going to enjoy her work. And Jane Yolen is just plain awesome 🙂
I have actually been reading through the second half of Dragonflight tonight and am really enjoying it. I’m sucked right in like I was during the first half and can’t wait to talk about it during the group discussion on Thursday.