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

A To Z Blogging Challenge 2026. Women in Speculative Fiction. Q Is For Elli Quinn

 Today we are going back to a character from Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga, Elli Quinn.

The Vorkosigan saga is a space opera series, centred around Miles Vorkosigan, son of Count Aral  Vorkosigan and his wife Cordelia, on the planet Barrayar. The Vor are a military caste, as Miles has to keep explaining to people who think they are the aristocracy. Early on in the series, Miles founds the Dendarii Free Mercenaries, or, rather, he takes over an existing mercenary corps, by bullshitting them into believing he is an Admiral, Admiral Naismith. All this while he is only seventeen years old!

Elli Quinn is Miles Vorkosigan’s second in command when he is with the Dendarii.

In one novel, Ethan of Athos, he has sent her on a mission to Kline Station, a space station where she was born and grew up. There, she meets Dr Ethan Urquhart, who is from Athos, a planet whose population is only men. They have ovarian cultures to produce children(all boys) in uterine replicators, but their ovaries need replacement. Ethan has never met a woman before and Elli needs to look after him while carrying out her mission. Miles is not in this novel at all. In fact, this takes place while he and his cousin Ivan are on the planet Cetaganda, at an Empress’s funeral, in another novel, Cetaganda.

Elli is one of Miles’s romantic interests over the series, and he proposes marriage to her before he leaves the Dendarii. She loves him, but is not interested in leaving the fleet and moving to Barrayar. For one thing, she has been living in space all her life. Living on a planet doesn’t appeal to her. For another thing, if she was willing to settle down on a planet, Barrayar wouldn’t be it. It’s improving in many ways, but it’s still behind where its treatment of women is concerned. She couldn’t join its military. It’s ironic, because Miles’s mother was a spaceship captain in her time, but fell in love with Aral, and had to flee her own world, Beta Colony for her own reasons. She had saved Barrayar during a civil war.

Elli tells Miles she might consider marrying him if he wasn’t leaving the fleet, but he can’t stay. (Check out the novel Memory to find out why).

When he leaves, Miles appoints her as the new Admiral, something for which he feels she is more than ready.

Elli is only mentioned in “Winterfair Gifts”, a novella in which Miles finally gets married, but she can’t get to the wedding. But she plays an important role without being there.

I must admit, Elli is one of my favourite characters. 

All the books in this series are easily available, in print, ebook and audiobook. 

A To Z Blogging Challenge 2026. Women In Speculative Fiction. P Is For Tamora Pierce

 Tamora Pierce is an American YA novelist. She has written several series, but her best known series is The Song Of The Lioness. Oddly, it began as one long novel, aimed at adults, but her agent suggested that it might work better, and sell better, as four books for young adults. It did. Her books have been translated into twenty languages and won several awards. 

The Song Of The Lioness series is set in a place called Tortall, a mediaeval-like kingdom where women don’t get to be knights. But Alanna, the heroine, wants to become a knight. Her twin brother, Thom, wants to be a sorcerer. Alanna was supposed to travel to a temple in the City of the Gods and Thom was to go to the palace for training as a knight. 

The siblings decide to swap places so they can do what they really want to do. Alanna disguises herself as a boy and goes to train for knighthood as a page called Alan, while Thom goes to the City of the Gods where he can learn to be a sorcerer. 

Alanna is able to keep her identity a secret. One thing I liked about  the story is that she has to deal with things like having a period. Too many stories with disguised girls don’t take that into account. 

In the course of the series, she grows up, becomes “the lady knight” and marries. 

The Immortals series is set in the same universe as Song Of The Lioness, with another heroine, and the adult Alanna appears in it. The heroine Daine is gifted with Wild Magic and can talk to animals, heal them and even shapeshift to animal form. 

By this time, women in Tortall can become knights and practise other occupations they couldn’t in the start of the Lioness series, so there are a lot of strong, interesting female characters.

There are several other series, which have all done well, but these are the ones I have enjoyed the most. 

All of her books are available in ebook and print. 

A To Z Blogging Challenge 2026. Women In Speculative Fiction. O Is For Olwen.

 Olwen is the heroine of the poem Culhwch and Olwen. It’s a mediaeval Welsh story included in the Mabinogion, translated by Lady Charlotte Guest in the 19th century. 

It is a story of a quest carried out by Arthur and his knights to help Culhwch, a young cousin of Arthur, win the beautiful Olwen, daughter of a giant, Ysbaddaden. Culhwch hasn’t actually met her when he falls in love with her; it’s a spell put on him by his stepmother, by which he will never marry unless it is her. The stepmother doesn’t think he will ever be able to marry her, because it’s going to take a quest that he can’t carry out by himself.

That, of course, is not a problem, because he is the cousin of King Arthur, who is only too happy to help, along with his top knights.

Really, it’s just an excuse to show what Arthur and his knights can do; they are very much pre Malory. No Lancelot, for a start. And they have magical powers as folk tale characters. They use them.

Ysbaddaden quite understandably isn’t keen to agree to his daughter’s marriage, because he knows that when she marries, that will be the end of him. So he gives a long list of things the heroes must do before Culhwch can claim her.

The name Olwen means “white tracks” because everywhere she walks, white flowers spring up. It sounds rather goddess-like to me. In fact, there is a story(non Arthurian), Einion And Olwen,  in which a shepherd goes to the Underworld to marry her. That Olwen is the mother of the bard Taliesin. There are scholars who do think she is a solar goddess. 

Who knows? It makes a great story, anyway. 

As we might have guessed, Culhwch, Arthur and his knights do complete the quest. Ysbaddaden gets a haircut and, as prophesied, dies, so the young couple are allowed to marry.

If you’d like to read it, you can get it in the Mabinogion, which has some other wonderful stories in it. I have the original translation by Charlotte Guest, in ebook, but there are others, including one I read years ago for English Literature when I was at university. 

For some of the other stories in the Mabinogion, there are four novels by Evangeline Walton. I haven’t come across a novel based on this story, though. 

A To Z Blogging Challenge 2026. Women in Speculative Fiction. N Is For The Nightingale

 The Nightingale is a novel by Kara Dalkey. It is part of a series of novels inspired by fairy tales, edited by Terri Windling. They were published long ago enough to be out of print, but this one is still available in Kindle ebook; if you only have Apple Books you are out of luck. 

Kara Dalkey has, however, written quite a few other books, including some in Apple Books, if you are interested. 

If you read the stories of Hans Christian Andersen, you probably remember the story on which this is based. In case you haven’t, here is the story outline. 

A Chinese Emperor is befriended by a nightingale which sings beautifully. He is happy with the bird, until he is given a mechanical nightingale. The fake nightingale also sings beautifully but, like other devices, eventually breaks down. Death - as the Grim Reaper - comes for the Emperor and only the original nightingale can save him.

The novel is set in feudal Japan, in a vague time period. In fact, it tells us at the very beginning that it “took place in ancient times” and asks the reader not to ask when. It is “before shogun and samurai ruled the land.” The author knows a lot about Japanese history and culture, so that is what she writes, though this was only her second novel.

The nightingale of the title is a young woman, Uguisu,  not a bird. She plays the flute brilliantly. Instead of an artificial nightingale she is replaced by a courtesan who also plays the flute. 

It starts with her asking a family ghost to help her decide the best way to commit suicide because she is not allowed to marry the young man she loves due to her father’s plan for their minor noble family to rise in power with a marriage he wants.

The ghost has better plans for her and tells her not to be silly. She gives Uguisu a beautiful flute and tells her to practise it by the river. By doing this she will attract the attention of the highest in the land. As she does.

I loved it when I first read it years ago, and still do. 

I have recently bought it in Kindle ebook. 

A To Z Blogging Challenge 2026. Women In Speculative Fiction. M Is For Madeline Miller

 Today’s post will be short, as I have mentioned this author before, in a review, and have only read one of her books. She has, at this stage, only written two novels anyway, though another one, Mestra,  is coming in September 2026, and she has done a short story, Galatea, published individually as an ebook and audiobook. I have been advised several times to get around to reading The Song Of Achilles, which, by the way, took her ten years to write, but for now, I’ll stick to the book I have actually read, Circe. 

All of her work seems to be centred within the world of Greek mythology, There are quite a few novels with a Greek mythology theme, but they are not all fantasy as such. Mary Renault’s Theseus novels, for example, explain how he might have been in the real world, and there is even a reference to the historical Thera explosion. 

Circe is not historical fiction. It’s straight Greek myth. Circe, the heroine of this novel, the sorceress whom  Odysseus meets in  The Odyssey, is the daughter of the Sun god Helios. Her sister is Pasiphae, wife of King Minos and mother of the bull-headed Minotaur - literally. No attempt is made to explain that he is anything else. Her brother is Aeetes, of Golden Fleece fame. Medea is her niece. She turns nymph Scylla into the horrible sailor-eating monster we know from mythology as revenge for sleeping with Circe’s boyfriend, the sea god Glaucus.

And so this Circe lives her way through the myths we know. She takes lovers such as Odysseus and Hermes. She has a very good reason for turning men into pigs(not a long way to go!). She helps Penelope when Odysseus has turned out not to be nice after all. 

Despite her poor reputation im the myth,  Circe seems to be the only decent person in her family. 

The novel doesn’t mess around with the Greek myths; everything in this story happened in the myths.

The book has won or been shortlisted for several awards. It’s easily available in ebook or print. 

Here is a link to my review of the novel.

https://suebursztynski.blogspot.com/2018/05/just-finished-reading-circe-by.html

A To Z Blogging Challenge 2026. Women In Speculative Fiction. L Is For Margo Lanagan

 Margo Lanagan is an Australian YA author who has won many awards. I will put a link to her Wikipedia entry at the end of this post, so you can find out how many awards she has won over the years. 

I will talk here about some of those I have read.

The first of her books I read, Touching Earth Lightly, was not speculative fiction. To be honest, I didn’t care for it. And she wrote quite a few mainstream novels under pen names.

But then I began to read her fantasy books, both short stories and novels and loved them. 

Tender Morsels was based on the fairy tale “Snow White And Rose Red.” That story is about two sisters living in the forest and being helped by an enchanted bear, as well as trying to help a very ungrateful dwarf. In this novel the bear is a young man who comes from another universe in bear form. 

It was controversial in the US, due to violence and rape elements(their mother had been raped by her father). There were also complaints that it was not YA fiction). That didn’t stop it from winning several awards - the World Fantasy Award, the Ditmar Award(Australian SF and fantasy award) and making some shortlists and honour books - the Shirley Jackson for horror fiction, the Printz Award honour book for YA fiction, the Aurealis shortlist(Australia), and the Locus Award. 

Personally, I loved it. 

Another novel I really enjoyed, which started as a novella, was Sea Hearts, known overseas as The Brides Of Rollrock Island. It is set on an island in nineteenth century Scotland. A young woman - very unpopular locally - finds that she can turn seals into human form, as selkies. She has some selkie ancestry herself, as there were human/selkie marriages in the past. If you are familiar with these stories you will know that the man who wants a selkie wife has to hide her sealskin or she will return to the ocean. And they always find their skins and go back, in the folk tales. 

But in this novel, the selkie brides are effectively Stepford wives. They are not robots, but they are beautiful and they do as they are told. It gets to the point where all the island’s men want one, even the married ones. That is very profitable for the woman who produces them. The only problem is that the children born of them are all boys, as the girls can’t survive on land and have to be put back into the ocean, where they become seals. When the island’s human women decide they have had enough and leave, there are only men and boys left.

I won’t spoil the ending, just read it! It also was an award winner, starting with the CBCA Award, for Older Readers. It won several awards within Australia and was at least shortlisted for others. 

A beautiful book!  

Most of her speculative fiction was short stories and published as collections, such as Black Juice(2004), featuring the rather sad story “Singing My Sister Down”, which won the World Fantasy Award. The collection itself also won several awards, and it was only the first of several more collections. 

Here is a link to Margo Lanagan’s Wikipedia entry, where you can find a list of her books and the awards they have won.

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

The books are still available in ebook, print and audiobook.