In 2003
Gwyneth Jones wrote a
column for the Guardian listing her top 10 science fiction picks by women writers. Many of her choices have strong biology themes:
• Ursula Le Guin's
The Left Hand of Darkness![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_ucVje9czx9n5L1GNsZh0PQJbDYNaWQB1iqztBl7z-XXC01FRduGcFEhY6waGwyv_9OJLY-JTOqda3bR_fi5gaw-QcOCYp2tcWN2jQl3ae-0EiokXrLWt5iOOvj-FmqWa-0UTgpSbhX0dAvUQnv7fxXhEm5KLQ=s0-d)
takes place on the planet
Gethen, where the inhabitants are androgynes who can become either male or female during their fertile period.
• In Kate Wilhelm's
Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang: A Novel
cloning is developed to save the human race after the environment has been destroyed.
• CJ Cherryh's
Cyteen![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_ve-yw4y7kmB5vzKzlSYaeVAUBXejOyAfUpRPURDsojClKkn0lm9rAJ8sFkvDmF0PjLkkWd0MCOAaVVhpWB3PZ9bIjHfDgSD3n3ZwUZBkTy6LXcpzwZbKM0q0OpXdnlHk_z54SrWT2DdNCLTsFMmEGMsTf-YzA=s0-d)
is "about domination and slavery, the monsters power makes and the twisted lives of the children born to perpetuate the dynasties" with genetic engineering and cloning central to the story.
• Kathleen Ann Goonan's
Light Music![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_u3jYEvqOXOwQbQtdAssDlnB9Dyw9hPhQoeOIHE65VhqbBf0iXB2ZLmqi6RVUyzT7Hq0yh1L5JHk1k04QXi3Eo2RqZMIryT1TiJc8qsnaPlArXthBjfxnCy9eucpBlA-86kDaX9UpEG6tyW-7NEOP_zPJPY99g=s0-d)
is "a tour of the consequences of Lynn Margulis's radical thinking on evolution. This is how we could see ourselves if we weren't Darwin's slaves: every self a community, every human being a symbiote city, a node in the richly permeable network of life on Earth."
Read Jones' entire list.
(via io9)Tags:science fiction, biology
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Wow! I've been looking for a link like this! I have my own blog, The Writer's Daily Grind. You can find it at
ReplyDeletehttp://www.writersdailygrind.blogspot.com
Furthermore, my WIP is science fiction, and the science fiction is biological/evolutionary. And I'm female. I don't expect that I will ever achieve the status of Ursula Le Guin, a writer I very much admire. But I'm out there writing. And I try to be scientific. So I'm really happy I found your blog!
Anne Gilbert