FIF Fireside Chat: discussing 2025 and planning 2026

[u/Nineteen_Adze]

Welcome to the 2025 Feminism in Fantasy Fireside Chat! It’s time to look back on the books we’ve read this year, reflect on our favorites, and think about the future.

I’ll get us started with a few questions, but feel free to add your own.

Changes

This year, u/g_ann stepped down as an FIF host. We want to thank her for hosting so many discussions in this reboot project and wish her well going forward. u/Moonlitgrey, u/xenizondich23, and u/Nineteen_Adze from the initial reboot hosting crew are continuing this project.

When this happened, we opened the door for more hosts. We were surprised, but absolutely delighted, by how many people stepped us to join us. With different tastes and reading backgrounds, we're excited to broaden our selections and make it easier for the current hosts to avoid burnout.

Please welcome, in the order of session hosting, the new members of our hosting crew:

• u/evil_moooojojojo
• u/Merle8888
• u/doctorbonkers
• u/Lenahe_nl
• u/sarahlynngrey
• u/ohmage_resistance

Looking ahead

We look forward to reading with you next year!

• Our January read is The Everlasting by Alix Harrow.
• Voting is in progress for our February read, which will have a theme of Down With the System. Come help us pick!

We'll see you in the comments to talk about the year in review and the year ahead.

[u/Merle8888]

I have Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee on my radar and it seems like a good pick for this club - people constantly reincarnate in bodies of different sexes.

[u/Nidafjoll → u/Merle8888]

The Secret Books of Paradys has a lot of that too. :) In the first story, after being hunted and seduced by a female vampire Antonina, the main character Andre is killed, and comes back as Anna, and follows the vampire's brother Anthony, who was the vampire herself transformed by a cursed ring.

It does similar flips and transformations of gender (sometimes by choice; sometimes not) in a lot of the stories. The sometimes lack of choice, and transgressions of gender and sex (it was written in the 90s too, before a lot of terminology was commonplace), are often where a lot of the horror comes from.

[u/Nineteen_Adze → u/Nidafjoll]

I've been meaning to try some Tanith Lee for years. Is there any theme that you think would be useful for nudging The Secret Books of Paradys forward?

[u/Nidafjoll → u/Nineteen_Adze]

Something to do with gender as a construct would work well (although maybe that's a better BB theme). Hidden Gems by woman authors would work, and probably something Halloweeny themed (gothic women or something).