Geek Feminist Revolution

Starred review from March 14, 2016
Hugo Award–winning writer Hurley (Empire Ascendant) places some of her best previously published essays and nine new pieces into a collection that loudly highlights the limiting, raw deal women get in the science fiction and fantasy genre as authors, readers, and characters. She points out the dangers of trying to subvert gender norms rather than overturning them, and the impact that the science fiction writing tropes of the 1980s still have on today’s popular imagination, while encouraging writers to create, and readers to demand, stories that really push the edges of what we can imagine. She writes in an exquisitely crafted yet deceptively casual, profanity-laced style, linking her experiences to universal issues with rousing conviction. Hurley is certainly not the first to point out the deep misogyny in 21st-century popular culture, but she articulates the problems in an incisive, opinionated, and demanding blend of analysis and personal storytelling that will inspire her readers and peers in the science fiction community to work toward change. Agent: Hannah Bowman, Liza Dawson Associates.

Hurley, a two-time Hugo winner and deeply thoughtful social and media critic, has published a collection of essays on topics ranging from her personal realizations of white privilege to the rage she and other women (and some men) share at online misogynists from the gaming world. C.S.E. Cooney's narration, sadly, inspires even the most sympathetic listener to pack up the audio and go find the print work: She over-enunciates, frequently injects a whine into her tone that doesn't reflect Hurley's attitude, and exhibits a stiffness that suggests discomfort with performing. An author herself, we can hope that Cooney trains and practices for subsequent narration efforts. F.M.R.G. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

September 1, 2016

Hurley collected a Hugo Award for her essay "We Have Always Fought," which is one of the pieces included in this collection. Her words act as avatars for those advocating the inclusion of female sf/fantasy writers, gamers, and bloggers in geek culture. Since so much of pop culture has its roots in sf and fantasy, and those roots have morphed into influential video games, movies, and television shows, this is an important battle for feminists. While the essays are uniformly excellent, narrator C.S.E. Cooney's performance lacks nuance. Her earnestness becomes a trifle monotone, but since the book has natural stopping places between essays, listeners can dip in and out as needed. VERDICT Recommended for larger libraries. ["A great introduction for geek guys seeking to understand and reassurance for women that the injustices, while real, are survivable": LJ 6/1/16 review of the Tor hc.]--Kelly Sinclair, Temple P.L., TX

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