A To Z 2026. Women In Speculative Fiction. X is for extras!

 Every year, I use X to slip in bits I didn’t have room for earlier in the A to Z posts. This is because there aren’t too many words I can think of that start with X. I did manage it once, when writing about Greek mythology, because Greek has X words in it, so I chose Xanthus and Balius, the immortal horses of Achilles. 

And guess what? I can even start this year’s X post with an X character. 

I’m thinking of Xena, Warrior Princess. Xena first appeared in an episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. I vaguely recall she was a villain that time, but not for long. She was so popular she got her own series. She was played by Kiwi actress Lucy Lawless. I remember having a hard time persuading my students that she was not American! 

In her own TV series Xena was not a villain. She was an impressive fighter who wandered ancient Greece having adventures, wearing the usual uncomfortable female armour we tend to find on the covers of heroic fantasy novels, though at least she didn’t have her boobs out where an enemy could stab them. She had a companion called Gabrielle, who didn’t wear armour, though her clothes were also short. I guess Greece is pretty warm. The show was very entertaining and often funny.

So, who else can I mention? 

The Handmaid’s Tale has become huge, especially with the current awful things happening in the world. The heroine, whose actual name isn’t mentioned in the book, is called Offred because she is the property of a man called Fred. In a dystopian future US, most women can no longer have children, so those who can are rounded up and delivered to men of importance and do the Biblical thing, being raped(monthly) on the knees of the man’s wife, to give birth to a child who will be the wife’s. When no longer of use, handmaids are sent off to do clean up labour in dangerous places. The irony is that the idea came from a woman, the wife of Offred’s master. It’s interesting how many real life women there are who make huge noises about how women should stay in the kitchen, but don’t do it themselves.

Finally I’ll share with you my favourite fairy tale Kate Crackernuts. It’s a Scottish fairy tale published by both folklorists Andrew Lang and Joseph Jacobs.

 It starts with the usual, a king marries a nasty woman who brings her own daughter, Kate, and wants to get rid of her beautiful stepdaughter, Anne, for Kate’s benefit.

But here is where it is different. The sisters love each other. Kate is not the usual evil stepsister. After the stepmother has made a number of attempts to ruin Anne’s beauty, she finally succeeds in giving her a sheep’s head. Kate wraps up her head and the sisters go off to seek their fortune together. 

They come to another kingdom, where the king’s son is very sick, and the king has offered a reward for anyone who can find a way to heal him. Kate stays up to watch him. The story has a Twelve Dancing Princesses vibe, except it’s a Prince and he is forced to dance to exhaustion. 

The second night Kate overhears fairies talking. A fairy baby is playing with a wand, which will cure Anne if she can get it. So Kate distracts the baby by rolling nuts. Anne is cured of her sheep’s head. 

The third night, she offers to heal the prince if she can marry him. The fairy baby is back, playing with a bird. Again, Kate distracts it with nuts. She cooks the bird and gives the prince three bites. He is cured. Kate marries him and Anne gets his brother. Happily ever after. I just love it as a story with a strong woman and a decent stepsister.

See you tomorrow for Jane Yolen! 

A To Z Blogging Challenge 2026. Women In Speculative Fiction. W Is For Connie Willis

 Connie Willis is an American spec fic author and a favourite of mine, though I haven’t read all her books or short fiction. It’s kind of hard to read the lot, there is so much of it. But I love everything of hers I have read. She writes both funny and serious - and the funny fiction is really funny. 

There is a series of novels about time travel by students and staff of Oxford University in the future. They are in the same universe, but not always with the same characters.

The first of her novels I read, on recommendation of a friend, was Doomsday Book. The heroine, Kivrin Engle, has worked to learn everything she can about the lifestyle, culture and language of 14th century England before time travelling there. The language is Middle English, though she also has a chip that helps her understand the language anyway, but it takes time to kick in. She is hosted by a noble family as she has pretended to have been attacked on the road. Unfortunately, the year in which she turns up is the wrong one, and the plague is raging. She comes to care deeply about the family she is with. Meanwhile, there is also a plague in modern Oxford…

There was a very funny novel in the series, To Say Nothing Of The Dog, in which the Oxford time travellers are in Victorian England. In their own time a woman called Lady Schrapnell,  wants to restore Coventry Cathedral, which was bombed in World War II, and there is an artefact, the “bishop’s bird stump”, that went missing just before the cathedral was bombed. 

Look, the story is very involved, too much to describe, but it’s hilarious. Read it.

Others in the series, Blackout/All Clear and short story “Fire Watch”, which had time travel to World War II, are more serious. They all won Hugo Awards, and two, Doomsday Book and Blackout/All Clear also won the Nebula Award(voted on by fellow spec fic authors). 

Passage is about a scientist who is studying near-death experiences and has theories about it. She is able to reproduce them without actual near-death. When one of her test subjects can’t make it one day, she does it herself and finds herself on the Titanic… I loved this one. I have read it more than once, since discovering a copy at a second hand shop. I also bought it in e book. 

She also writes novellas and short stories, including a collection of Christmas themed stories. It has been a while since I read those, but I’m fairly sure one of the stories featured the ghost of Scrooge helping a boss who is a lot like he was before he changed.

I’m about to start reading Remake, a novel written in the 1990s in which the Hollywood film industry is creating films with long- dead actors. Sound familiar? We can do that now, but not when she wrote it.

I really do recommend anything written by Connie Willis; just about everything she writes ends up at least short listed for one award or more, and often winning. You should be able to get them in ebook or print, and some in audiobook.

See you tomorrow with X Is For Extras! 

A to Z Blogging Challenge 2026. Women in Fantasy And SF. V Is For Valkyries

 In Norse mythology the Valkyries, “choosers of the slain” go out on battlefields to bring brave dead warriors back to Valhalla, Odin’s hall where they will fight and booze and have a good time until Ragnarok, the end of the world. The Norse believed that one day they would fight to the end. They even knew which gods would be killed by whom. So Odin was collecting an army for that day. After picking up the warriors the Valkyries would become waitresses and serve mead.

They are mentioned in the Eddas - Poetic and Prose which were not written till the early Middle Ages, by Christians (the Prose by Snorri Sturluson). 

The first time I read the story of Brynhild, I was in my teens, and read it in the Volsunga Saga, a very old book found at a school fete. She was punished for sparing someone who was supposed to be killed, put to sleep and woke to be rescued by Sigurd(Siegfried in the Nibelungenlied and, of course, Wagner). They fall in love, but he travels on and forgets her, due to a potion. He marries someone else and fools Brynhild into marrying a man who isn’t impressive. At that point, she decides to kill him. 

Diana L. Paxson focused on the Germanic Nibelungenlied in a historical  fiction trilogy, starting with The Wolf And The Raven. Her heroine, Brunahild, is a relative of Attila the Hun. She is a Valkyrie, in this novel a priestess of Wotan. They are under orders to point their spears at warriors who have been chosen to be killed, only it’s not the Valkyries who get that choice. It’s all political. 

But there is plenty of fiction with fantastical Valkyries in it. They appear in two Terry Pratchett novels. In Soul Music, Susan, the granddaughter of Death, has to take over the rounds while Death leaves in hopes of learning how to forget, after his adopted daughter dies. One of the places she goes is a battlefield where Valkyries arrive and one asks her if she is a soprano and invites her to join.

In Interesting Times, a teacher gives it up to travel with the Silver Horde, led by Cohen the Barbarian. When he is killed, he is hoping for an afterlife in Valhalla, and he gets it, because usually people get the afterlife they believe in. 

In Tales Of Asgard, an animated feature, a spoiled teenage Thor loses his girlfriend Sif to the Valkyries, who are Odin’s elite female warriors. This is an MCU story; you may have seen the Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok.

My favourite Valkyrie, though, is Samirah, a Muslim girl and part time Valkyrie in Magnus Chase And The Sword Of Summer by Rick Riordan. Samirah’s mother, a doctor, fell in love with Loki when she was treating him, so Samirah is their daughter. In this novel, Valhalla is located in a five star hotel in Boston. 

What else do you expect from the author of Percy Jackson? 

All these books are available. The Volsunga Saga is free on Project Gutenberg.

A To Z Challenge 2026. Women in SF and Fantasy. U Is For Dolores Umbridge

 Dolores Umbridge is a Harry Potter villain, for very good reason. She is actually scarier than Voldemort. I can’t help wondering where the author got her from. She is very real. She doesn’t have any special powers, she hasn’t created any Horcruxes. She is just a truly horrible person. (One thing we find out about her is that she sent the Dementors that nearly got Harry expelled.)

We have probably all met a Dolores at some stage. I know I have, as a campus principal at my school. She didn’t have the power to hit or otherwise assault students, no teacher here does, but she did have the power to make her staff miserable. I remember one, a very good teacher, who was so badly treated that she had to leave the school and definitely had PTSD. And no, the kids didn’t like her either - she went on a bus tour interstate with them and some of the kids told me what she did on the bus and… Oh, dear! 

Dolores Umbridge first appears in Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, the fifth book in the series. She wears pink and has pictures and plates with kittens in her office. She might be mistaken for someone nice, but Hermione picks up just what she is at the first feast of the term. 

Dolores was sent by the truly idiotic Minister of Magic, who refuses to believe that Voldemort is back. She makes sure that she does what she was sent to do, including not actually teaching Defence against the dark arts, tortures students, including Harry, and sacks staff she doesn’t like. She replaces Dumbledore as principal, so Harry and his friends get together to learn DADA as a hidden group they call Dumbledore’s Army. Harry is very good at the subject, so is able to teach the others what he knows, including how to summon a protective Patronus which usually comes in the form of an animal. Oddly, as you are supposed to start with a very happy memory, Dolores has one herself, a cat - scary to think what her happy memory is!

When she catches up with them, she wants Snape to give her a truth serum, but he lies and claims to have run out and not have the time to produce more. He is, after all, a good guy.

After all this, Hermione persuades her that there is something she is after in the Forbidden Forest and lures her there, where she is carried off by a herd of angry centaurs. They don’t kill her, because she turns up again in the last book, working for the Death Eater government. But she isn’t as smart as she thinks she is, is she? 

She is one of the nastiest villains I have encountered, and scary because she is just human. 

Have you ever met a Dolores Umbridge? 

No need to tell you the books are all in print, because of course they are. But if you want an audiobook, there are many on YouTube as well as for sale on Apple Books and Kindle, and all of the ebooks have an enhanced edition which have some interesting features.

A To Z Blogging Challenge 2026. Women in SF and Fantasy. T Is for Tiffany Aching

 Today’s female character was created by a man, Terry Pratchett. But Terry Pratchett wrote wonderful women, from witches Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, to Susan Sto Helit, Death’s granddaughter, from Angua the werewolf police officer to the evil  Queen of the elves. 

Tiffany Aching is the heroine of a number of children’s novels which show her growing up and training as a witch. The first novel is The Wee Free Men. She is discovered by Miss Tick, who travels around looking for girls who have a talent for witchcraft. 

Tiffany lives in the Chalk country, on a sheep property. Her family have been shepherds for generations, like her grandmother, who was much admired, though she has passed away before the novel begins. Tiffany suspects that she was a witch herself. 

The Chalk is based on the area of England that is made up of chalk and has the White Horse of Uffington(which appears in these novels). When Miss Tick first finds Tiffany she is surprised because chalk country is considered too soft for witches, but Tiffany feels a connection with the land.

The wee free men of the title, the Nac Mac Feegle, are small beings who love fighting and booze. They were kicked out of Faerie for being drunk. They think they are dead, living in a fabulous afterlife because how else to explain so many things to fight, and so much great booze to drink?

They help Tiffany when her little brother, Wentworth, is kidnapped by the Queen of the fairies(who are not remotely nice). They are all men except their Kelda, who is mother of them all. Tiffany becomes Kelda for a time, for convenience. Once they get one who is small enough to actually do the job, they still revere Tiffany and continue to help her throughout the series. 

After the first book, she travels to Lancre(the home of Granny and Nanny) to start her training. 

In Wintersmith, she unintentionally attracts the romantic attentions of the Wintersmith when she joins in with the dance called the Dark Morris, slotting herself in to a space meant for a spring goddess. He creates snowflakes with Tiffany’s face and icebergs also Tiffany-shaped.

By the second last book, I Shall Wear Midnight, the teenage Tiffany is the village’s witch, and a leader. I haven’t yet read the final book in the series, The Shepherd’s Crown, because it was Terry Pratchett’s last book and … you know. I have decided to reread all the Discworld books first. 

Just a brief bit of amusement. Terry Pratchett’s fandom is huge. Once, when he was on tour, a bunch of fans turned up, danced a Dark Morris in complete silence, as in the book, and left.

All of Terry’s books are easily available. It is unlikely any of them will be out of print in the near future, so if you haven’t yet discovered Discworld, what are you waiting for? 

A To Z Blogging Challenge 2026. Women in Fantasy And SF. S Is For Snow White.

Today’s post is about Snow White in fiction. She does appear quite a number of times in novels and short fiction. 

I can start off with a short story of my own, “Brothers”, published in an anthology of fairy tale themed stories called Mythic Resonance, which is available in ebook. It’s seen from the viewpoint of the Seven Dwarfs, and the Princess, Blanche, is a lot more intelligent than the girl in the fairy tale. They have to protect her until she is able to return to the palace, where the Queen is about to take over. She does fall under a spell, but no glass coffin, not even an apple, just a spell. 

Sophie Masson’s novel Hunter’s Moon does have a glass coffin, no spoilers, but it’s not a kingdom. It’s a chain of department stores in a 19th century setting somewhere in Europe. The heroine actually admires he beautiful, elegant stepmother until she tries to kill her. A fabulous novel, very cleverly done so you can see the fairy tale it comes from. 

Jim C Hines wrote a number of fairy tale novels featuring fairy tale heroines, including Snow White, who have to repair problems that happen afterwards. The first one is The Stepsister Scheme in which Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White get together to rescue the kidnapped Prince, Cinderella’s husband. Snow White wears a choker made of glass that forms the basis of her magic. Trust me, these are terrific books! 

The late Tanith Lee, a British fantasy writer, wrote a collection called Red As Blood, which featured a story of the same name. All the stories in that collection twist fairy tales around, and this is no exception. Princess Bianca is a born vampire. She doesn’t have seven dwarfs but seven dwarf trees, twisted ones. The Queen, her stepmother, is not harming her but trying to save her soul. I first read it in the magazine it appeared in, but it’s worth finding the collection just for this story. The other stories are also good. 

Finally in this post is a book by Neil Gaiman, with beautiful illustrations, and an audiobook/radio play of it. It’s called The Sleeper And The Spindle.  It doesn’t name her, but the young queen is obviously Snow White, about to marry her prince. On the eve of her wedding, she is visited by some of the dwarfs. They tell her that weird things are happening elsewhere in the kingdom. People are falling asleep and not waking. It’s spreading and if something isn’t done, the entire kingdom is likely to sleep. They aren’t human, so not affected.

The queen kisses her prince, puts on armour, then goes with them. The sleep is connected with the story of Sleeping Beauty. I won’t tell you too much more, because spoilers, but there is a twist you might not expect. I do recommend it. In print if you can get it, because the illustrations are exquisite. But you should be able to find it in ebook. The audiobook is a play. 

There is plenty more in the way of fiction based on the fairy tale, but I’ll leave it to you to find them. 

There is even a list on Goodreads. Here it is.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/25937.Snow_White_Retellings

A To Z blogging Challenge 2026. Women In Speculative Fiction. R Is for Gillian Rubinstein

 Gillian Rubinstein is a children’s/YA author who was born in England, but moved to Australia in the 1970s. She has written quite a few books, including a children’s picture book, Prue Theroux, The Cool Librarian, about a really cool school librarian. I read it with my two oldest nephews, David and Mark, when they were children. They loved it and read it to their own children. They told me that as far as they were concerned, I was Prue Theroux. Sweet!

But the first novel of hers that I read was Space Demons, in which some children find themselves trapped in a computer game which was brought back from Japan. Some dreadful things happen in the game, as they are angry with each other. There are two sequels, Skymaze and Shinkei. It turns out that it was never meant to be negative; they were getting it all wrong. It was their own behaviour that made the game scary. Space Demons won several awards, including an Australian Children’s Book Council Award.

Galax-Arena featured children who are kidnapped by aliens and taken to another world where they are forced to perform acrobatics for the aliens. 

There is a long list of her books in Wikipedia, too long to list them all here, so I will put in a link at the end of this post.

These were books for children, but the Tales Of The Otori series are YA. They are written under the pen name Lian Hearn. 

The first of the series, Across The Nightingale Floor, came out in 2002. The main series is made up of five books, but there are other Otori stories, including a free short story in ebook, His Kikuta Hands, which I have just downloaded from Apple Books. You can also get her books on Amazon, including Kindle. 

They are set in an alternative universe Japan in the Sengoku era, which was in the fifteenth/sixteenth century. The hero, Takeo, has lost his family, members of a clan known as the Hidden, whom we would think of as ninjas. The premise is that, in this universe, ninja assassins actually do have magical powers. In our world, of course, they were only thought to have magic, because they were very, very good at what they did. 

This book is also a prize winner. 

Her books have sold in the millions and been translated into forty languages. 

They are available in print, ebook and audiobook.

Here is a link to Gillian’s Wikipedia entry, where you can find her full list of publications.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gillian_Rubinstein