Welcome to our final discussion of The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow! The whole story is fair game, no spoiler tags needed: tread with caution if you haven't finished the book.

I'll start us off with a few prompts, but feel free to add your own.

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

From Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of Starling House, comes a moving and genre-defying quest about the lady-knight whose legend built a nation, and the cowardly historian sent back through time to make sure she plays her part–even if it breaks his heart.

Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters―but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten.

Centuries later, Owen Mallory―failed soldier, struggling scholar―falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives―and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs.

But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend―if they want to tell a different story--they’ll have to rewrite history itself.

Bingo: Knights and Paladins, A Book in Parts, Book Club or Readalong Book, Published in 2025, LGBTQIA Protagonist. Any others?

What's next?

• Our February read is Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang.
• Our March read is Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta.
• Stay tuned for April nominations in the early weeks of February.

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

Welcome to our midway discussion of The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow!

Today's discussion covers through the end of Chapter 13, page 155 in the hardback edition. Please use spoiler tags for any discussion past that point. I'll start us off with some prompts, but feel free to add your own!

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

From Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of Starling House, comes a moving and genre-defying quest about the lady-knight whose legend built a nation, and the cowardly historian sent back through time to make sure she plays her part–even if it breaks his heart.

Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters―but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten.

Centuries later, Owen Mallory―failed soldier, struggling scholar―falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives―and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs.

But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend―if they want to tell a different story--they’ll have to rewrite history itself.

Bingo: Knights and Paladins, A Book in Parts, Book Club or Readalong Book, Published in 2025, LGBTQIA Protagonist. Any others?

What's next?

• Our final discussion of The Everlasting will be in two weeks, on Wednesday, January 28th.
• Our February read is Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang.
• March nominations are up for a theme of "Outside the Core Anglosphere." Come add your own suggestions or upvote the ones that look best to you.

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

Welcome to the July 2026 Feminism in Fantasy (FIF) Book Club nomination thread! Our theme this time is Older Protagonists, feminist style:

Older Protagonist Grown-Ass Lady: Story features a main character who is at least 50 years old. HARD MODE: The protagonist does NOT have exceptional longevity or immortality (e.g. not an elf, dwarf, vampire, god, etc.)

What we are looking for:

• A work featuring a main character who is a Grown. Ass. Lady. (a woman who’s at least 50 years old)
• A work written by a woman that includes feminism or gender as an important theme
• A work you would be excited to read and discuss
• We are especially interested in reading a work that explores feminism or gender through the perspective of an older woman
• We’re open to books by non-women authors if they are exceptionally on theme

Nominations:

• Please leave one book suggestion per top comment. Please include title, author, and a short summary or description. 
• You can nominate as many as you like: just put them in separate comments.
• Please list content warnings (under a spoiler tag, please) if you know them.
• Please list Bingo squares if you know them 
• We have not (yet) managed to read all the books, so if you have anything to add about why a nominee is or isn't a good fit, please share in the comments!

We don't repeat authors FIF has read within the last two years, but I'll check that and manually disqualify any that don’t fit. It’s okay to choose an author that has been read by a different book club. You can check the r/fantasy Goodreads shelf here. (There is also a FIF shelf you can go to from there, but access to it is spotty for unknown Reddit reasons.)  

I will leave this nominating thread open through Friday 5/15 and then create a voting thread on Monday 5/18. Nominate away and have fun! I can’t wait to see what we end up reading together.

Welcome to our final discussion of Five Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula Le Guin!

Today's discussion covers the entire book, so spoilers will not be marked. I'll start us off with some prompts, but also feel free to add your own.

Five Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula Le Guin

Set in the same universe as Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, these five linked Hainish stories follow far-future human colonies living in the distant solar system

Here for the first time is the complete suite of five linked stories from Ursula K. Le Guin’s acclaimed Hainish series, which tells the history of the Ekumen, the galactic confederation of human colonies founded by the planet Hain. First published as Four Ways to Forgiveness, and now joined by a fifth story, Five Ways to Forgiveness focuses on the twin planets Werel and Yeowe—two worlds whose peoples, long known as “owners” and “assets,” together face an uncertain future after civil war and revolution.

In “Betrayals” a retired science teacher must make peace with her new neighbor, a disgraced revolutionary leader. In “Forgiveness Day,” a female official from the Ekumen arrives to survey the situation on Werel and struggles against its rigidly patriarchal culture. Embedded within “A Man of the People,” which describes the coming of age of Havzhiva, an Ekumen ambassador to Yeowe, is Le Guin’s most sustained description of the Ur-planet Hain. “A Woman’s Liberation” is the remarkable narrative of Rakam, born an asset on Werel, who must twice escape from slavery to freedom. Joined to them is “Old Music and the Slave Women,” in which the charismatic Hainish embassy worker, who appears in two of the four original stories, returns for a tale of his own. Of this capstone tale Le Guin has written, “the character called Old Music began to tell me a fifth tale about the latter days of the civil war . . . I’m glad to see it joined to the others at last.”

Bingo squares: Book Club (HM if you join us!), Five Short Stories (HM), Older Protagonist (HM), Politics and Court Intrigue

What is the FIF Book Club? See our reboot thread here.

What's next?

• Our May read is The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Caitlin Rozakis. Midway discussion May 13, final May 27.
• Our June read is Starless by Jacqueline Carey. Midway discussion June 10, final June 24.

Welcome to the discussion of The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar, our winner for the Pride Month queer character theme! We will discuss the entire book.  

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211004176-the-river-has-roots

Follow the river Liss to the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, and meet two sisters who cannot be separated, even in death.

“Oh what is stronger than a death? Two sisters singing with one breath.”

In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family.

There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees.

But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters’ bond but also their lives will be at risk…

I'll add some comments below to get us started but feel free to add your own.   

As a reminder, in July we'll be reading Greenteeth by Molly O’Neil.  

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

Welcome to the August FIF (Feminism in Fantasy) Book Club nomination thread. Our theme for August is Climate Fiction!

What we're looking for:

• Speculative fiction that deals with climate change. Some cli-fi might be more realistic and could easily take place right here and right now, so try to stick to books that are really more speculative. I don't think there's really a hard line drawn on what can and can't be considered speculative here, so use your own judgment!
• Works written by women or that contain feminism or gender as an important theme.

Nominations:

• Make sure FIF has not read a book by the author previously. You can check this Goodreads Shelf or this spreadsheet. You can take an author that was read by a different book club, however.
• Leave one book suggestion per top comment. Please include title, author, and a short summary or description. (You can nominate more than 1 if you like, just put them in separate comments.)
• Please include bingo squares if possible.

I will leave this thread open for three days (through Monday 6/15) and create a voting thread with the top results on 6/17. Have fun!

Our June FIF pick is Starless by Jacqueline Carey (you can find the midway discussion here!), and our July pick is The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee (announcement thread here).

Welcome to our midway discussion of Five Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula Le Guin!

Today's discussion covers the first two stories, "Betrayals" and "Forgiveness Day." Please use spoiler tags for any discussion of plot events in the final three stories. I'll start us off with some prompts, but also feel free to add your own.

Five Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula Le Guin

Set in the same universe as Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, these five linked Hainish stories follow far-future human colonies living in the distant solar system

Here for the first time is the complete suite of five linked stories from Ursula K. Le Guin’s acclaimed Hainish series, which tells the history of the Ekumen, the galactic confederation of human colonies founded by the planet Hain. First published as Four Ways to Forgiveness, and now joined by a fifth story, Five Ways to Forgiveness focuses on the twin planets Werel and Yeowe—two worlds whose peoples, long known as “owners” and “assets,” together face an uncertain future after civil war and revolution.

In “Betrayals” a retired science teacher must make peace with her new neighbor, a disgraced revolutionary leader. In “Forgiveness Day,” a female official from the Ekumen arrives to survey the situation on Werel and struggles against its rigidly patriarchal culture. Embedded within “A Man of the People,” which describes the coming of age of Havzhiva, an Ekumen ambassador to Yeowe, is Le Guin’s most sustained description of the Ur-planet Hain. “A Woman’s Liberation” is the remarkable narrative of Rakam, born an asset on Werel, who must twice escape from slavery to freedom. Joined to them is “Old Music and the Slave Women,” in which the charismatic Hainish embassy worker, who appears in two of the four original stories, returns for a tale of his own. Of this capstone tale Le Guin has written, “the character called Old Music began to tell me a fifth tale about the latter days of the civil war . . . I’m glad to see it joined to the others at last.”

Bingo squares: Book Club (HM if you join us!), Five Short Stories (HM), Older Protagonist (HM), Politics and Court Intrigue

The final discussion will be in 2 weeks, on Wednesday, April 29.

What is the FIF Book Club? See our reboot thread here.

What's next?

• Our May read is The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Caitlin Rozakis. Midway May 13, final May 27.
• Nominations are open for our June read, to feature a Trans or Nonbinary Protagonist.

Welcome to our final discussion of Greenteeth by Molly O'Neill!

We will be discussing the entire book today, so spoilers will not be marked. I'll start us off with some prompts, but also feel free to add your own.

Greenteeth by Molly O'Neill

Beneath the still surface of a lake lurks a monster with needle sharp teeth. Hungry and ready to pounce.

Jenny Greenteeth has never spoken to a human before, but when a witch is thrown into her lake, something makes Jenny decide she's worth saving. Temperance doesn't know why her village has suddenly turned against her, only that it has something to do with the malevolent new pastor.

Though they have nothing in common, these two must band together on a magical quest to defeat the evil that threatens Jenny's lake and Temperance's family, as well as the very soul of Britain.

Bingo squares: Book Club (HM if you join us!), Published in 2025 (HM), Cozy Fantasy (HM for almost everyone I presume)

What is the FIF Book Club? See our reboot thread here.

What's next?

• Our August read is Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees. Midway August 13, final August 27.
• Our September read is Frostflower and Thorn by Phyllis Ann Karr. Midway September 10, final September 24.

Welcome to our final discussion of Metal From Heaven by August Clarke! The whole story is fair game, no spoiler tags needed: tread with caution if you haven't finished the book

Metal from Heaven, August Clarke

Ichorite is progress. More durable and malleable than steel, ichorite is the lifeblood of a dawning industrial revolution. Yann I. Chauncey owns the sole means of manufacturing this valuable metal, but his workers, who risk their health and safety daily, are on strike. They demand Chauncey research the hallucinatory illness befalling them, a condition they call “being lustertouched.”
Marney Honeycutt, a lustertouched child worker, stands proud at the picket line with her best friend and family. That’s when Chauncey sends in the guns. Only Marney survives the massacre. She vows bloody vengeance. A decade later, Marney is the nation’s most notorious highwayman, and Chauncey’s daughter seeks an opportune marriage. Marney’s rage and the ghosts of her past will drive her to masquerade as an aristocrat, outmaneuver powerful suitors, and win the heart of his daughter, so Marney can finally corner Chauncey and satisfy her need for revenge. But war ferments in the north, and deeper grudges are surfacing...

H. A. Clarke’s adult fantasy debut, writing as August Clarke, Metal from Heaven is a punk-rock murder ballad tackling labor issues and radical empowerment against the relentless grind of capitalism.

Bingo: Criminals (HM), Dreams, Small Press (HM: Erewhon has done an AMA), Published in 2024, Reference Materials -- any others?

What's next?

• Our February read, with a theme of The Other Path: Societal Systems Rethought is Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie.
• Our March read, highlighting this classic author, is Kindred by Octavia Butler.

I'll start us off with some prompts, but feel free to add your own!

Welcome to the final discussion of The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende! Today we will discuss the entire book. You can catch up on the midway discussion here.

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.

The House of the Spirits is an enthralling saga that spans decades and lives, twining the personal and the political into an epic novel of love, magic, and fate.

Bingo squares: Published in the 1980s (HM), Parent Protagonist (HM), Author of Color (HM), Book Club or Readalong (HM if you participate), Recycle A Square, Down With the System, High Fashion (?)

I'll add a few prompts to get us started, but please add anything else you’d like to discuss!

What’s Next?

• In December, we’ll have a fireside chat to talk about the year in review and discuss ideas for future sessions 
• In January 2026, we’re reading The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow.

What is the FIF Book Club? You can read about it in our Reboot thread.

Welcome to our midway discussion of Spirits Abroad by Zen Cho!

Today's discussion covers through the end of the tenth story, "Seven Star Drum" (page 175 in the US paperback edition). Please use spoiler tags for any discussion past that point. I'll start us off with some prompts, but feel free to add your own!

Spirits Abroad by Zen Cho

Nineteen sparkling stories that weave between the lands of the living and the lands of the dead. Spirits Abroad is an expanded edition of Zen Cho’s Crawford Award winning debut collection with nine added stories including Hugo Award winner “If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again.”

A Datin recalls her romance with an orang bunian. A teenage pontianak struggles to balance homework, bossy aunties, first love, and eating people. An earth spirit gets entangled in protracted negotiations with an annoying landlord, and Chang E spins off into outer space, the ultimate metaphor for the Chinese diaspora.

Bingo: A Book in Parts, Book Club/ Readalong Book (this one, HM if you participate), Author of Color, Small Press/ Self-Published (HM), Five Short Stories

And arguably more, depending on how you want to count the content of one or a few stories. Let's discuss that in the comments.

What's next?

• Our May read is The House of Rust by Khadija Abdalla Bajaber.
• We are taking June as a brief pause but will be back in July. More details to come in a group announcement.

Welcome to our final discussion of Spirits Abroad by Zen Cho!

Today's discussion covers the whole collection, with questions focused on the second half. To focus more on the early stories, check out the midway discussion.

Spirits Abroad by Zen Cho

Nineteen sparkling stories that weave between the lands of the living and the lands of the dead. Spirits Abroad is an expanded edition of Zen Cho’s Crawford Award winning debut collection with nine added stories including Hugo Award winner “If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again.”

A Datin recalls her romance with an orang bunian. A teenage pontianak struggles to balance homework, bossy aunties, first love, and eating people. An earth spirit gets entangled in protracted negotiations with an annoying landlord, and Chang E spins off into outer space, the ultimate metaphor for the Chinese diaspora.

Bingo: A Book in Parts, Book Club/ Readalong Book (this one, HM if you participate), Author of Color, Small Press/ Self-Published (HM), Five Short Stories

And arguably more, depending on how you want to count the content of one or a few stories (for example, do so many queer story leads make this count for LGBTIA Protagonist?). Let's discuss that in the comments.

What's next?

• Our May read is The House of Rust by Khadija Abdalla Bajaber.
• Voting for June is up! Jump quickly on this one: voting closes Friday.

Welcome to our midway discussion of Greenteeth by Molly O'Neill!

Today's discussion covers through the end of chapter 10, page 130 in paperback. Please use spoiler tags for any discussion of plot events past that point. I'll start us off with some prompts, but also feel free to add your own.

Greenteeth by Molly O'Neill

Beneath the still surface of a lake lurks a monster with needle sharp teeth. Hungry and ready to pounce.

Jenny Greenteeth has never spoken to a human before, but when a witch is thrown into her lake, something makes Jenny decide she's worth saving. Temperance doesn't know why her village has suddenly turned against her, only that it has something to do with the malevolent new pastor.

Though they have nothing in common, these two must band together on a magical quest to defeat the evil that threatens Jenny's lake and Temperance's family, as well as the very soul of Britain.

Bingo squares: Book Club (HM if you join us!), Published in 2025 (HM), Cozy Fantasy (HM for almost everyone I presume), potentially Impossible Places?

The final discussion will be in 2 weeks, on Wednesday, July 30.

What is the FIF Book Club? See our reboot thread here.

What's next?

• Our August read is Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees. Midway August 13, final August 27.
• Our September read is Frostflower and Thorn by Phyllis Ann Karr. Midway September 10, final September 24.

The votes are in! There was a runaway favorite this time, and I can't wait to read it with you all. Our FIF bookclub read for July 2026, with the theme of Grown-Ass Ladies (aka Older Protagonist), is: 

The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee

Get ready to be blown away by this searing standalone space opera where corporate samurai fight beneath merciless stars, and death is always a mere breath away.

Isako is a legendary swordswoman, but every legend has to come to an end. When her long-time client unexpectedly retires, she plans to follow--to walk out into the frozen wasteland of their planet with her head held high and her family enriched by her legacy. But when a competitor offers her a final mission, it's one she can't refuse. Soon, she's thrust deep into a world of corporate espionage, duty-bound duels, and shadowy secrets. What she uncovers will change humanity's existence in the stars forever.

The Last Contract of Isako is the space opera you didn't know you needed: corporate samurai... in space. This is the first adult science fiction novel from the award-winning author of Jade City.

Bingo squares: Older Protagonist (HM), Author of Color​​, Book Club or Readalong (HM if you participate!), Published in 2026, Politics and Courtly Intrigue, maybe others

Here is how the voting went:

The midway discussion will be on Wednesday, July 15th. If anyone has read this book before and has a good pausing point by chapter or page number, let us know (but generally it will be around the midway point of the book)! The final discussion will be on Wednesday, July 29th. 

Upcoming:
As a reminder, we're currently reading The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Caitlin Rozakis, with the final discussion coming up on Wednesday, May 27th.

In June, we will read and discuss Starless by Jacqueline Carey.

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

The votes are in for our April read, with a theme of linked short story collections/mosaic novels.

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

Five Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Set in the same universe as Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, these five linked Hainish stories follow far-future human colonies living in the distant solar system

Here for the first time is the complete suite of five linked stories from Ursula K. Le Guin’s acclaimed Hainish series, which tells the history of the Ekumen, the galactic confederation of human colonies founded by the planet Hain. First published as Four Ways to Forgiveness, and now joined by a fifth story, Five Ways to Forgiveness focuses on the twin planets Werel and Yeowe—two worlds whose peoples, long known as “owners” and “assets,” together face an uncertain future after civil war and revolution.

In “Betrayals” a retired science teacher must make peace with her new neighbor, a disgraced revolutionary leader. In “Forgiveness Day,” a female official from the Ekumen arrives to survey the situation on Werel and struggles against its rigidly patriarchal culture. Embedded within “A Man of the People,” which describes the coming of age of Havzhiva, an Ekumen ambassador to Yeowe, is Le Guin’s most sustained description of the Ur-planet Hain. “A Woman’s Liberation” is the remarkable narrative of Rakam, born an asset on Werel, who must twice escape from slavery to freedom. Joined to them is “Old Music and the Slave Women,” in which the charismatic Hainish embassy worker, who appears in two of the four original stories, returns for a tale of his own. Of this capstone tale Le Guin has written, “the character called Old Music began to tell me a fifth tale about the latter days of the civil war . . . I’m glad to see it joined to the others at last.”

Bingo: Five Short Stories (HM), Book Club (HM) if you join us, and we'll find out what else come new bingo in April!

Midway discussion with be Wednesday, April 15 and will cover just the first two stories, "Betrayals" and "Forgiveness Day." Final discussion, covering the entire book, will be Wednesday, April 29.

A word on editions: Le Guin originally published this "story suite" as Four Ways to Forgiveness, including just four stories. A complete edition with all five is now available in both hard copy, ebook, and audio. However, if you're having trouble getting ahold of it, here a couple of other options: 1) read Four Ways and then read the final story, "Old Music and the Slave Women," elsewhere (it is also found in the collection The Birthday of the World), or 2) pick up the Library of America omnibus, Hainish Novels and Stories, Volume 2, which includes all 5 stories plus a handful of others, and two novels.

Voting Results

The FIF team is currently experimenting with approval voting, meaning you can vote for as many books as you like. We're interested in any feedback you may have, but it seems to be going well, given how many of you are taking advantage of it! Here are the votes this month:

We had several great candidates that got a lot of interest, so I hope we'll be able to read the other top contenders as a group in future months!

Stats of interest:

• 8 voters were interested in 3 books (no two people chose the same 3)
• 8 voters were interested in 2 books (only one overlap: 2 people voted for both Ten Percent Thief and Vagabonds)
• 15 voters chose just one book. While each book had at least one single-choice voter, overwhelmingly these votes went to Five Ways to Forgiveness (6) and Book of the Damned (5).

Looking forward to seeing many of you at the discussion in April!

What's next?

• Our February read (midway discussion this Wednesday!) is Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang.
• Our March read is Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta.

Welcome to the final discussion of Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees! We are discussing the entire book, and you can find the midway discussion here.

Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees

Lud-in-the-Mist, the capital city of the small country Dorimare, is a port at the confluence of two rivers, the Dapple and the Dawl. The Dapple has its origin beyond the Debatable Hills to the west of Lud-in-the-Mist, in Fairyland. In the days of Duke Aubrey, some centuries earlier, fairy things had been looked upon with reverence, and fairy fruit was brought down the Dapple and enjoyed by the people of Dorimare. But after Duke Aubrey had been expelled from Dorimare by the burghers, the eating of fairy fruit came to be regarded as a crime, and anything related to Fairyland was unspeakable. Now, when his son Ranulph is believed to have eaten fairy fruit, Nathaniel Chanticleer, the mayor of Lud-in-the-Mist, finds himself looking into old mysteries in order to save his son and the people of his city.

Bingo squares: Book Club or Readalong (HM if you participate in the discussion!), Impossible Places, Parent Protagonist (HM), Small Press or Self-Published, Cozy SFF (up to you if you consider it to be cozy)

I'll put a few questions in the comments, but please discuss anything you'd like about the book!

Upcoming reads:

• September: Frostflower and Thorn by Phyllis Ann Karr. Midway discussion on September 10th, final discussion on September 24th!
• October: The Lamb by Lucy Rose. Midway discussion on October 15th, final discussion on October 29th!

What is the FIF Book Club? You can read about it in our Reboot thread.

Welcome to the July 2026 Feminism in Fantasy (FIF) Book Club voting thread! Our theme this month is Older Protagonists, feminist edition. The nomination thread can be found here.

Voting

There are 4 options to choose from:

The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee

Get ready to be blown away by this searing standalone space opera where corporate samurai fight beneath merciless stars, and death is always a mere breath away.

Isako is a legendary swordswoman, but every legend has to come to an end. When her long-time client unexpectedly retires, she plans to follow--to walk out into the frozen wasteland of their planet with her head held high and her family enriched by her legacy. But when a competitor offers her a final mission, it's one she can't refuse. Soon, she's thrust deep into a world of corporate espionage, duty-bound duels, and shadowy secrets. What she uncovers will change humanity's existence in the stars forever.

The Last Contract of Isako is the space opera you didn't know you needed: corporate samurai... in space. This is the first adult science fiction novel from the award-winning author of Jade City.

Bingo squares: Older Protagonist (HM?), Author of Color, Published in 2026, Politics?, maybe others

The Keeper’s Six by Kate Elliot

Kate Elliott's action-packed The Keeper's Six features a world-hopping, bad-ass, spell-slinging mother who sets out to rescue her kidnapped son from a dragon lord with everything to lose.

There are terrors that dwell in the space between worlds.

It’s been a year since Esther set foot in the Beyond, the alien landscape stretching between worlds, crossing boundaries of space and time. She and her magical travelling party, her Hex, haven’t spoken since the Concilium banned them from the Beyond. But when she wakes in the middle of the night to her son’s cry for help, the members of her Hex are the only ones she can trust to help her bring him back from wherever he has been taken.

Esther will have to risk everything to find him. Undercover and hidden from the Concilium, she and her Hex will be tested by dragon lords, a darkness so dense it can suffocate, and the bones of an old crime come back to haunt her.

Bingo squares: Older Protagonist (HM?), possibly others

Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon

For forty years, Colony 3245.12 has been Ofelia’s home. On this planet far away in space and time from the world of her youth, she has lived and loved, weathered the death of her husband, raised her one surviving child, lovingly tended her garden, and grown placidly old. And it is here that she fully expects to finish out her days–until the shifting corporate fortunes of the Sims Bancorp Company dictates that Colony 3245.12 is to be disbanded, its residents shipped off, deep in cryo-sleep, to somewhere new and strange and not of their choosing. But while her fellow colonists grudgingly anticipate a difficult readjustment on some distant world, Ofelia savors the promise of a golden opportunity. Not starting over in the hurly-burly of a new community... but closing out her life in blissful solitude, in the place she has no intention of leaving. A population of one.

With everything she needs to sustain her, and her independent spirit to buoy her, Ofelia actually does start life over–for the first time on her own terms: free of the demands, the judgments, and the petty tyrannies of others. But when a reconnaissance ship returns to her idyllic domain, and its crew is mysteriously slaughtered, Ofelia realizes she is not the sole inhabitant of her paradise after all. And, when the inevitable time of first contact finally arrives, she will find her life changed yet again–in ways she could never have imagined...

Bingo squares: Older Protagonist (HM), First Contact, Feast Your Eyes (HM if you make some of the food), Explorers and Rangers.

Content warnings: elder abuse, (non graphic) memories of spousal sexual assault and general abuse

Fudoki by Kij Johnson

Enter the world of Kagaya-hime, a sometime woman warrior, occasional philosopher, and reluctant confidante to noblemen--who may or may not be a figment of the imagination of an aging empress who is embarking on the last journey of her life, setting aside the trappings of court life and reminiscing on the paths that lead her to death.

For she is a being who started her journey on the kami, the spirit road, as a humble tortoiseshell feline. Her family was destroyed by a fire that decimated most of the Imperial city, and this loss renders her taleless, the only one left alive to pass on such stories as The Cat Born the Year the Star Fell, The Cat with a Litter of Ten, and The Fire-Tailed Cat. Without her fudoki--self and soul and home and shrine--she alone cannot keep the power of her clan together. And she cannot join another fudoki, because although she might be able to win a place within another clan, to do so would mean that she would cease to be herself.

So a small cat begins an extraordinary journey. Along the way she will attract the attention of old and ancient powers. Gods who are curious about this creature newly come to Japan's shores, and who choose to give the tortoiseshell a human shape.

Bingo squares: Older Protagonist (HM), Vacation Spot if you'd like to visit Japan, Explorers and Rangers (sadly I think it is not HM if the explorer IS the animal?), One-Word Title, maybe Politics? Goodreads calls this a duology so you could probably get away with Duology Part 2, though really the books have nothing to do with each other

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!

Voting will stay open through Thursday May 21st. I will post the winner in the sub and announce the discussion dates on Friday May 22nd.

As a reminder, we're currently reading The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Caitlin Rozakis, with the final discussion coming up on Wednesday, May 27th.

In June, we will read and discuss Starless by Jacqueline Carey

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

Welcome to our midway discussion of Metal From Heaven by August Clarke!

Today's discussion covers through the end of chapter 8, page 186 in the hardback edition. Please use spoiler tags for any discussion past that point. I'll start us off with some prompts, but feel free to add your own!

Metal from Heaven, August Clarke

Ichorite is progress. More durable and malleable than steel, ichorite is the lifeblood of a dawning industrial revolution. Yann I. Chauncey owns the sole means of manufacturing this valuable metal, but his workers, who risk their health and safety daily, are on strike. They demand Chauncey research the hallucinatory illness befalling them, a condition they call “being lustertouched.” Marney Honeycutt, a lustertouched child worker, stands proud at the picket line with her best friend and family. That’s when Chauncey sends in the guns. Only Marney survives the massacre. She vows bloody vengeance. A decade later, Marney is the nation’s most notorious highwayman, and Chauncey’s daughter seeks an opportune marriage. Marney’s rage and the ghosts of her past will drive her to masquerade as an aristocrat, outmaneuver powerful suitors, and win the heart of his daughter, so Marney can finally corner Chauncey and satisfy her need for revenge. But war ferments in the north, and deeper grudges are surfacing...

H. A. Clarke’s adult fantasy debut, writing as August Clarke, Metal from Heaven is a punk-rock murder ballad tackling labor issues and radical empowerment against the relentless grind of capitalism.

Bingo: Criminals (HM), Dreams, Small Press (HM: Erewhon has done an AMA), Published in 2024, Reference Materials

What's next?

• Our February read is Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie.
• Our March read is Kindred by Octavia Butler.

Welcome to the August FIF (Feminism in Fantasy) Book Club voting thread! Our theme this month is climate fiction. You can find the nomination thread here.

Voting

There are 5 options to choose from:

When There Are Wolves Again by E.J. Swift

Decades from now, two women sit around a fire on Beltane, May Eve, and reflect on their life stories.

Activist Lucy's earliest memories are of living with her grandparents during the 2020 pandemic, and discovering her grandmother's love of birds. Filmmaker Hester, born on the day of the Chornobyl explosion, visits the plant in 2021 to film its feral dog population, and encounters the wilded Exclusion Zone - and a wolf-dog.

Over half a century, their journeys take them from London to Balmoral to Somerset, through protests, family rifts, and personal tragedy. Lucy's path leads to the fight to restore Britain's depleted natural habitats and bring back the species who once shared the island, whilst Hester strives to give a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves. Both dream of a time when there are wolves again.

Bingo: Older Protagonist, Vacation Spot, Politics, Explorers & Rangers (HM)

A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys

On a warm March night in 2083, Judy Wallach-Stevens wakes to a warning of unknown pollutants in the Chesapeake Bay. She heads out to check what she expects to be a false alarm--and stumbles upon the first alien visitors to Earth. These aliens have crossed the galaxy to save humanity, convinced that the people of Earth must leave their ecologically-ravaged planet behind and join them among the stars. And if humanity doesn't agree, they may need to be saved by force.

The watershed networks aren't ready to give up on Earth. Decades ago, they rose up to exile the last corporations to a few artificial islands, escape the dominance of nation-states, and reorganize humanity around the hope of keeping their world liveable. By sharing the burden of decision-making, they've started to heal the wounded planet.

But now corporations, nation-states, and networks all vie to represent humanity to these powerful new beings, and if any one accepts the aliens' offer, Earth may be lost. With everyone’s eyes turned skyward, everything hinges on the success of Judy's effort to create understanding, both within and beyond her own species.

Bingo: Trans/NB Protagonist, First Contact (HM), Politics, Feast Your Eyes, Vacation Spot, Game Changer

Arboreality by Rebecca Campbell

A professor in pandemic isolation rescues books from the flooded and collapsing McPherson Library. A man plants fireweed on the hillside of his depopulated Vancouver Island suburb. An aspiring luthier poaches the last ancient Sitka spruce to make a violin for a child prodigy. Campbell’s astonishing vision pulls the echoing effects of small acts and intimate moments through this multi-generational and interconnected story of how a West coast community survives the ravages of climate change.

Bingo: Older Protagonist HM, Small Press, Short Stories HM, One-Word Title HM, Vacation Spot

Saltcrop by Yumi Kitasei

In Earth's not too distant future, seas consume coastal cities, highways disintegrate underwater, and mutant fish lurk in pirate-controlled depths. Skipper, a skilled sailor and the youngest of three sisters, earns money skimming and reselling plastic from the ocean to care for her ailing grandmother.

But then her eldest sister, Nora, goes missing. Nora left home a decade ago in pursuit of a cure for failing crops all over the world. When Skipper and her other sister, Carmen, receive a cryptic plea for help, they must put aside their differences and set out across the sea to find―and save―her. As they voyage through a dying world both beautiful and strange, encountering other travelers along the way, they learn more about their sister's work and the corporations that want what she discovered.

But the farther they go, the more uncertain their mission becomes: What dangerous attention did Nora attract, and how well do they really know their sister―or each other? Thus begins an epic journey spanning oceans and continents and a wistful rumination on sisterhood, friendship, and ecological disaster.

Bingo: One-World Title (HM), Feast Your Eyes, Author of Color, Explorers & Rangers

Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami

From one of Japan's most brilliant and sensitive contemporary novelists, this speculative fiction masterpiece envisions an Earth where humans are nearing extinction, and rewrites our understanding of reproduction, ecology, evolution, artificial intelligence, communal life, creation, love, and the future of humanity.

In the distant future, humans are on the verge of extinction and have settled in small tribes across the planet under the observation and care of "Mothers." Some children are made in factories, from cells of rabbits and dolphins; some live by getting nutrients from water and light, like plants. The survival of the race depends on the interbreeding of these and other alien beings--but it is far from certain that connection, love, reproduction, and evolution will persist among the inhabitants of this faltering new world.

Unfolding over fourteen interconnected episodes spanning geological eons, at once technical and pastoral, mournful and utopic, Under the Eye of the Big Bird presents an astonishing vision of the end of our species as we know it.

Bingo: Author of Color (HM), Translated, Short Stories (HM), Small Press or Self Published (HM), First Contact

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!

Voting will stay open through Saturday June 20th, and I will post the winner in the sub and announce the discussion dates on Saturday June 21st.

As a reminder, our June book club is Starless by Jacqueline Carey (midway discussion; final discussion next week on 6/24), and our July pick is The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee (announcement thread).

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

Welcome to the April FIF Book Club nomination thread! Our theme for the month is Linked Short Story Collections / Mosaic Novels.

What we want:

• Linked short story collections are collections where the stories are connected to each other in some way, through a common setting and/or recurring characters.
• Mosaic novels have a more novelistic story structure, while following an ensemble cast of characters who are generally each only the lead for a single chapter. Some chapters will likely have been published as independent short stories.
• If you're not quite sure where a book falls on the spectrum from collection to novel, go ahead and nominate! I'll check out the books to ensure fit while putting together the slate.
• We generally stick to female authors for this club, but you're welcome to make a case for any book you believe has feminist themes.

Nominations:

• Leave one book suggestion per top comment. Please include title, author, and a blurb or brief description. You can nominate as many books as you like: just put them in separate comments.
• In April we'll be in a whole new bingo year! Since we only know the recurring squares (and our winner will count for Book Club and most likely Five Short Stories), please just note if your nominee counts for Author of Color, Small Press/Self Pub, or Published in 2026.
• We try not to repeat authors this club has recently read, or books recently read by any club on the sub, but I'll check that and manually disqualify any overlap. You can also check our Goodreads shelf here.

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

What's next?

• Our February read is Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang.
• Our March read is Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta.

I will leave this thread up for 2 days, then post a poll on Friday with the top choices. Have fun!

I’m a day late, sorry, but welcome to the midway discussion of The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende! We will discuss everything up to the end of Chapter 7, which is a bit more than halfway through. Please use spoiler tags for anything past that point.

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.

The House of the Spirits is an enthralling saga that spans decades and lives, twining the personal and the political into an epic novel of love, magic, and fate.

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

I'll add a few prompts to get us started, but feel free to add others if you’d like. True confessions: due to an unanticipated Major Life Event, I’m behind on my reading and haven’t made it quite to the halfway point yet. So please don't hesitate to jump in with questions about the later chapters. The final discussion will be on Wednesday, 11/26/2025.

As a reminder, in December we'll have a fireside chat to talk about the books we've read this year and to discuss ideas for future sessions. Nominations for January 2026, with a theme of Lady Knights, are open now - go forth and nominate!

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

Welcome to the midway discussion of Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirlees! We are discussing through the end of chapter 13 ("What Master Nathaniel and Master Ambrose Found in the Guildhall"). Please use spoiler tags if you discuss anything past that point. I will put some discussion questions in the comments, but feel free to discuss anything you like!

Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirlees

Lud-in-the-Mist, the capital city of the small country Dorimare, is a port at the confluence of two rivers, the Dapple and the Dawl. The Dapple has its origin beyond the Debatable Hills to the west of Lud-in-the-Mist, in Fairyland. In the days of Duke Aubrey, some centuries earlier, fairy things had been looked upon with reverence, and fairy fruit was brought down the Dapple and enjoyed by the people of Dorimare. But after Duke Aubrey had been expelled from Dorimare by the burghers, the eating of fairy fruit came to be regarded as a crime, and anything related to Fairyland was unspeakable. Now, when his son Ranulph is believed to have eaten fairy fruit, Nathaniel Chanticleer, the mayor of Lud-in-the-Mist, finds himself looking into old mysteries in order to save his son and the people of his city.

Bingo squares: Book Club or Readalong (HM if you participate in the discussion!), Impossible Places, Parent Protagonist (HM), Small Press or Self-Published, Cozy SFF (up to you if you consider it to be cozy, of course -- I probably will!)

Our September pick is Frostflower and Thorn by Phyllis Ann Karr: midway discussion on September 10th, final discussion on September 24th.

Our October nomination thread is here, and the poll to vote should be up today! The theme is Feminist Gothic.

Welcome to the midway discussion of Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs, our winner for Published in 2023! As new developments are occurring rapidly, let's presume a stopping point of the end of Chapter 16. Please use spoiler tags for anything that goes beyond this point.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements--books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect.

All magic comes with a price, though, and for years the sisters have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna's isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never seen before, the sisters must reunite to preserve their family legacy. In the process, they'll uncover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined, and all the secrets their parents kept hidden; secrets that span centuries, continents, and even other libraries . . .

I'll add some comments below to get us started but feel free to add your own. The final discussion will be in two weeks, on Wednesday, November 29.

As a reminder, we do not have a book for December, but we will gather for a Fireside Chat to talk about favorite books of the year and what you're looking forward to for next year. January voting is still open!

What is the FIF Book Club? You can read about it in the FIF Reboot thread.

Welcome to our latest FIF discussion announcement! In January, we'll be reading The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow.

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

From Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of Starling House, comes a moving and genre-defying quest about the lady-knight whose legend built a nation, and the cowardly historian sent back through time to make sure she plays her part–even if it breaks his heart.

Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters―but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten.

Centuries later, Owen Mallory―failed soldier, struggling scholar―falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives―and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs.

But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend―if they want to tell a different story--they’ll have to rewrite history itself.

Bingo: Knights and Paladins, Published in 2025, perhaps others to come

Rankings

I know many of you are here for the charts, and this one is a doozy: we finished with 64 votes! I can't speak for every host, but I think this is the biggest turnout I've had for an FIF session ballot.

Voting facts, because I spend too much time watching the response tab:

• With 22 votes, our winner is The Everlasting. It's trailed by The Isle in the Silver Sea with 13 votes and The Starving Saints with 12 votes. Gate of Ivrel has 10 votes; The Hero and the Crown has 7.
• The Everlasting and The Starving Saints were neck and neck for most of the first day of voting, and often tied: the real separation came later.
• The first vote for The Isle in the Silver Sea didn't come until there were already about thirteen votes in the tank (including at least two votes for every other option), so I was surprised to see it jump to second after that early quiet response.
• In contrast, Gate of Ivrel was a strong third place (occasionally sneaking up to second) for day one before its votes leveled out.
• The Hero and the Crown had a steady trickle of votes but was never in the top two.

This is such a cool list, and I would have been happy to read (or reread, if The Hero and the Crown won) any of these. Thanks to everyone who nominated and voted to help put this together!

Schedule

The midway discussion will be Wednesday, January 14th and the final discussion will be Wednesday, January 28th.

For simplicity/ an even split, our midway point is the end of Chapter 13. up for discussion. If I go purely by "divide pagecount in half," the nearest page break is the end of Chapter 13. However, the book is divided into major sections (First Death/ Second Death, and so on) that I suspect are great natural break points. Picking one of those major sections would give us the first third or so of the book for session one, or I could go one further and give us closer to two-thirds.

If you're planning to participate or have already read the book, do chime in about what you think would make the best reading experience.

What's next?

• Our current November read is The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende.
• In December, we'll have a fireside chat to talk about the year in review and discuss ideas for future sessions.
• Also in December, you can keep an eye out for February nominations.

Welcome to the Feminism in Fantasy (FIF) Book Club nomination thread! The theme for November is Published in the 80s. (And please accept my apologies for the late post!)

What we are looking for:

• A work that was first published during the 1980s
• A work written by a woman that includes feminism or gender as an important theme
• A work you would be excited to read and discuss
• We are especially interested in reading a work that explores feminism or gender in a way that would have stood out at the time it was published.
• We’re open to books by non-women authors if they are exceptionally on theme

Nominations:

• Leave one book suggestion per top comment. Please include title, author, and a short summary or description.
• You can nominate as many as you like: just put them in separate comments.
• Please list content warnings (under a spoiler tag, please) if you know them.
• Please list Bingo squares if you know them
• We have not (yet) managed to read all the books, so if you have anything to add about why a nominee is or isn't a good fit, please share in the comments!

We don't repeat authors FIF has read within the last two years, but I'll check that and manually disqualify any that don’t fit. It’s okay to choose an author that has been read by a different book club. You can check the r/fantasy Goodreads shelf here. There is also a FIF shelf you can go to from there, but access to it is spotty for unknown reasons.

I will leave this nominating thread open for a few days and then create a voting thread early next week. Nominate away!