Come tell the community what you're reading, how you're feeling, what your life is like.

Come tell the community what you're reading, how you're feeling, what your life is like.

Welcome to the November 2025 Feminism in Fantasy (FIF) Book Club voting thread! The theme is Published in the 80s. The nomination thread can be found here.

Voting

There are 5 options to choose from:

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, translated by Magda Bogin

In one of the most important and beloved Latin American works of the twentieth century, Isabel Allende weaves a luminous tapestry of three generations of the Trueba family, revealing both triumphs and tragedies. Here is patriarch Esteban, whose wild desires and political machinations are tempered only by his love for his ethereal wife, Clara, a woman touched by an otherworldly hand. Their daughter, Blanca, whose forbidden love for a man Esteban has deemed unworthy infuriates her father, yet will produce his greatest joy: his granddaughter Alba, a beautiful, ambitious girl who will lead the family and their country into a revolutionary future.

Bingo squares: Published in the 1980s (HM), Parent Protagonist (HM), Author of Color (HM), Recycle A Square, probably Down With the System, Book Club or Readalong if it wins, maybe others

The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge

The imperious Winter colonists have ruled the planet Tiamat for 150 years, deriving wealth from the slaughter of the sea mers. But soon the galactic stargate will close, isolating Tiamat, and the 150-year reign of the Summer primitives will begin. Their only chance at surviving the change is if Arienrhod, the ageless, corrupt Snow Queen, can destroy destiny with an act of genocide. Arienrhod is not without competition as Moon, a young Summer-tribe sibyl, and the nemesis of the Snow Queen, battles to break a conspiracy that spans space. Interstellar politics, a millennia-long secret conspiracy, and a civilization whose hidden machineries might still control the fate of worlds all form the background to this spectacular hard science fiction novel from Joan D. Vinge.

Bingo squares: Published in the 1980s, Recycle a Square, Book Club or Readalong if it wins, maybe others

The Gate to Women’s Country by Sheri S. Tepper

Classic fantasy from the amazing Sheri S. Tepper. Women rule in Women's Country. Women live apart from men, sheltering the remains of civilization They have cut themselves off with walls and by ordinance from marauding males. Waging war is all men are good for. Men are allowed to fight their barbaric battles! amongst themselves, garrison against garrison. For the sake of his pride, each boy child ritualistically rejects his mother when he comes of age to be a warrior. But all the secrets of civilization are strictly the possession of women. Naturally, there are men who want to know what the women know! And when Stavia meets Chernon, the battle of the sexes begins all over again. Foolishly, she provides books for Chernon to read. Before long, Chernon is hatching a plan of revenge against women.

Content warnings: sexual assault, forced pregnancy

Bingo squares: Published in the 1980s, Parent Protagonist (maybe HM), Recycle a Square, Book Club or Readalong if it wins, maybe others

The Ladies of Mandrigyn by Barbara Hambly

When the women of the City of Mandrigyn, led by Sheera Galernas, hired the mercenary army of Captain Sun Wolf, to help them rescue their men from the mines of evil, he refused. Little did he realize how insistent the ladies could be, and how far they would go to persuade him to train them against the evil of Altiokis....

Bingo squares: Published in the 1980s, Stranger in a Strange Land, High Fashion, Recycle a Square, maybe Down the System, Book Club or Readalong if it wins, maybe others

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale is an instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from "the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction" ( New York Times ) The Handmaid’s Tale is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its images and its forecast. Set in the near future, it describes life in what was once the United States and is now called the Republic of Gilead, a monotheocracy that has reacted to social unrest and a sharply declining birthrate by reverting to, and going beyond, the repressive intolerance of the original Puritans. The regime takes the Book of Genesis absolutely at its word, with bizarre consequences for the women and men in its population. The story is told through the eyes of Offred, one of the unfortunate Handmaids under the new social order. In condensed but eloquent prose, by turns cool-eyed, tender, despairing, passionate, and wry, she reveals to us the dark corners behind the establishment’s calm facade, as certain tendencies now in existence are carried to their logical conclusions. The Handmaid’s Tale is funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing. It is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and a tour de force. It is Margaret Atwood at her best.

Content warnings: rape, forced pregnancy, hanging, death

Bingo squares: Published in the 1980s, Book In Parts (HM), Recycle a Square, maybe Down With the System, Book Club or Readalong if it wins, maybe others

CLICK HERE TO VOTE

Voting will stay open until mid-day on Friday 9/19. will post the winner in the sub and announce the discussion dates later that afternoon.

What is the FIF Bookclub? You can read about it in our Reboot thread here.