Today I am totally spoilt for choice. I found a plethora of women science fiction writers and even in narrowing it down I had three authors: Pat Cadigan who I follow on Twitter and have had odd conversations with; Isobelle Carmody who has written excellent books and; C. J. Cherryh. As it turns out Cherryh is the ‘unsafe’ choice as she’s written some problematic characters but I stuck with my decision to write about her. And if you’re under age or squeamish I suggest you leave now and come back for some Friday Photos tomorrow.

Born in America in 1942, I always wonder how being born during such a turbulent era affects someone’s writing but I digress, Cherryh started writing in the 1970s with her first publication in 1976 when Donald A Wolheim bought two books from her: Gates of Ivrel and Brothers of Earth. Unlike many science fiction authors of the time she went straight to novels bypassing the usual system of having short stories published in pulp fiction.

I found an interesting article on Tor.com about Cherryh’s women. Not having read her works yet I don’t want to generalise but this article was interesting. It talks about Cherryh’s tendency to not just write about strong women but women who tend towards abuse and rape of men. Looking directly at the quote it’s quite possible to apply that to her other female characters, I intend to read some of her works one day and then I’ll make an informed decision, until then I’ll say that this particular character looks to be dreadful…which is why I said at the beginning that choosing Cherryh today is an ‘unsafe’ choice and also why I wondered if being born in the middle of WW II could have informed her writing. Anyway, the 28 comments on this article are also rather interesting and expand on the topic, sometimes at great length.

In case you’re of strong mind or you just want to fill out your collection I’ve selected three Cherryh books at random partly based on the price. The Faded Sun Trilogy, Down Below Station and The Chanur Saga which just happens to include the book I’ve pictured above.

And, in case you’re interested as to why I decided to scribble some thoughts about Cherryh? It’s this quote from her Wikipedia entry which made me sit and think.

Because of her varied and prolific output, it is difficult to classify her writing as part of any single subgenre of science fiction and fantasy. She considers the two to be part of a unified whole, and opposes attempts to segregate writers and fans by increasingly specific subgenre definitions. Regarding this issue, she has written, “[I] don’t like this specialization in which one side sniffs at the other as if they were some other species. No, no, no. We started out one creature. I don’t care if ‘they’ have spots. We’re still the same breed of cat.”^[8]

And her name? She added the H when she was told her name looked romancey, she also used initials to disguise her gender.