The Twilight Zone

Okay. I have a confession to make. The first book we ever read in this book club was a science fiction title by Nicola Griffith: Ammonite. It was chosen by the members of the newly formed group and most of them (I think all 3 at that point?) really liked it. But here's my confession. I hate science fiction - yes, I'm making a blanket generalization about a whole genre. I just do. I have a mental block about it. I'm sure Ammonite has all kinds of goodness to it, but I got to page 7, saw the word "airlock," and I was done. I just couldn't push through.

So, several book club members of late have decided we need to go down that road again. To punish me, maybe. To expand my horizons, maybe. Anyhoo, we've been researching like mad, with the help of the wonderful Trevor at Audrey's Books. And I've got a long list of titles to choose from. So. Go. Read below. And tell me your opinion. Quick! Before I change my mind.

• Octavia Butler: Lillith's Brood

According to wikipedia, the central characters are Lilith and her genetically altered children. The story includes extraterrestrials who have a third gender, the "ooloi," who have the ability to manipulate genetics, plus the ability of sexually seductive neural-stimulating powers. Octavia Butler seems like a cool choice - a black lesbian writer way before her time.

• Katherine V. Forrest: Daughters of a Coral Dawn

According to lambdascifi.org, it is a lesbian classic about a race of women (founded by one woman and her daughters) leaves its home to colonize a vacant planet. It is the first novel in her Lambda Literary Award-winning lesbian-feminist utopian trilogy.

• Ursula K. LeGuin: The Left Hand of Darkness

Another book considered to be a classic of lesbian fiction despite LeGuin not being a lesbian author. Characters are hermaphroditic humans; for part of each lunar cycle they are sexually latent androgynes, and for the remaining days are male or female.

• Jewelle Gomez: The Gilda Stories

A black lesbian vampire who began life as a slave and got her education in a whorehouse is not your typical heroine. Not quite sci-fi? More fantasy? I don't know.

• Melissa Scott: Mighty Good Road

A definite lesbian author - she's co-authored some titles with her partner Lisa A Barnett. The title mentioned was one of many to win the Lambda Lit awards for lesbian sci-fi - others include: Point of Dreams/Burning Bright/Trouble and Her Friends...

• Joan Slonczewski: Door Into Ocean

The ocean-world of Shora is populated solely by "Sharers," amphibious females who "share" with each other every aspect of their lives.

• Monique Wittig: Les Guérillères

Wittig was a French author and feminist theorist who called herself a radical lesbian. This sensibility can be found throughout her books, where she depicted only women. Les Guérillères was a landmark in lesbian feminism - about a war of the sexes, where women engage in bloody, victorious battles using knives, machine guns and rocket launchers. Moreover, sympathetic males join them in their combat.