i recently gave a talk on octavia butler and emergent strategies in johannesburg, south africa. which was A DREAM COME TRUE so i won’t try to play it cool at all. the audience was brilliant, engaged, and hungry for more readings. i started listing names of science/speculative/visionary fiction books that i would recommend for folks wanting to build their capacity to read sci-fi and speculative fiction for social justice, or with a social justice lens. the idea behind this is that a lot of science/speculative/visionary fiction can be read as case studies and imagination expanders that can help us navigate towards different ways of strategizing on social, economic and environmental justice in real time.
a few folks said, can you send us that list? and that sparked this post, which i have been wanting to write for a while. this is my starter list, in order from what i felt were the easiest worlds to enter to the harder ones. all of these are worthwhile reads. i reserve the right to add on as my memory is non-linear…and please feel free to add on in the comments section!
The Parable of the Sower and The Parable of the Talents, Octavia Butler
Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card (continue on to Speaker for the Dead. i disagree with Card’s sexuality politics, but i don’t believe in only engaging the work and vision of people i agree with)
My Soul to Keep ( and the rest of the African Immortals series), Tananarive Due
The Dispossessed, Ursula Le Guin
Bloodchild, Octavia Butler (short story collection – especially crucial stories are ‘The Morning, The Evening and The Night’ and ‘Speech Sounds’)
Midnight Robber, Nalo Hopkinson
The Inheritance Trilogy, NK Jemisin
Who Fears Death?, Nnedi Okorafor
Wild Seed, Mind of My Mind, Clay’s Ark and Pattermaster (often grouped together as the Patternist series, or the Seed to Harvest collection), Octavia Butler…(if you can get a copy of Survivor, a book she stopped publishing, it adds pieces to this collection)
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula Le Guin (i recommend her works as a whole as well – the rest of the hainish series which this book is a part of, the earthsea series, even her translation of the tao te ching)
Dune, Frank Herbert (read as much of this series as you can – it tracks and traces power, culture shift and evolution in ways that are challenging, gorgeous, shocking)
Dawn, Adulthood Rites and Imago (sold together as the Xenogenesis trilogy, or Lilith’s Brood), Octavia Butler
2312, Kim Stanley Robinson
The Famished Road, Ben Okri
Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Train, China Meiville (Also everything else that he has written, especially Embassytown)
Neuromancer and Idoru, William Gibson
Dhalgren, Samuel Delaney (also everything else he’s written, including his autobiography)
Canopus in Argos: Archives series, by Doris Lessing
Oh please oh please do add Vandana Singh!
I like Larissa Lai’s work, particularly Salt Fish Girl.
Great list for folks starting out in progressive genre fiction! I would only add a bunch (like Terry Bisson’s Fire on the Mountain, Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time, Norman Spinrad’s The Iron Dream, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, The Gate t Women’s Country by Sheri Tepper, etc. etc.) and note that Dhalgren is not a beginner text for most. It’s an advanced project though well worth the effort.
thanks for the list!
i’d definitely add
the fifth sacred thing
by starhawk
Every book by Shari Tepper.
Also: =Alif the Unseen= by G Willow Wilson
A short story called The Persistence Of Vision by John Varley really pried my brain open to new possibilities.
I like Stephen Barnes “The Kundalini Equation” and just finished Ayize Jama-Everett’s “The Liminal People” which was quite good if you are looking at new authors.
Wonderful list! I have really enjoyed some of these novels. Another one in a similar vein is Carole McDonnell’s Constant Tower and Windfollower. Windfollower offered a very distinctive perspective on a number of common cultural situations inherent to classic fantasy, and Constant Tower provides a very indepth fantasy world that not only goes against most fantasy tropes but also immerses the reader in social justice issues without the reader even realizing that it’s happening.
Anyone out there share my passion for Ken McLeod? Please. From The Star Fraction to The Fix. Ticks all the boxes. Social Justice. Communism. Socialism. With a Scottish face. Anarchism. Good, clear, exploratory imaginative writing. Ideal for someone new to the genre. He’s a humanist. Some others you’ve mentioned may be “fine writers”, avant-guard envelope pushers (to some) but also I suspect, sadists. I realize the human species is exasperating, must have wrecked the patience of many saints, but beating up on them hasn’t worked. More Ken McLeod. And there’s a pile of seriously great women sci-fi/spec-ficters too. List available on request. And more creative propositions.