The Female Man (1975) by Joanna Russ @ The Veil Brewing Co.
Details
The Female Man (1975) by Joanna Russ is the winner of the January 10 SCI-FI BOOK poll! We'll be meeting to discuss it at the Veil Brewing Company on January 10, 2026.
Here's some info about this (somewhat formally challenging) book:
Winner, James Tiptree, Jr. Award for best novel, retrospectively - "One of the great writers of the 20th century" - The New York Times
Four alternate selves from radically different realities come together in this “dazzling” and “trailblazing work” (The Washington Post).
Widely acknowledged as Joanna Russ’s masterpiece, The Female Man is the suspenseful, surprising, darkly witty, and boldly subversive chronicle of what happens when Jeannine, Janet, Joanna, and Jael—all living in parallel worlds—meet. Librarian Jeannine is waiting for marriage in a past where the Depression never ended, Janet lives on a utopian Earth with an all-female population, Joanna is a feminist in the 1970s, and Jael is a warrior with claws and teeth on an Earth where male and female societies are at war with each other. When the four women begin traveling to one another’s worlds, their preconceptions on gender and identity are forever challenged.
Acclaimed as one of the essential works of science fiction and an influence on William Gibson, THE FEMALE MAN takes a look at gender roles in society and remains a work of great power.
"A potent mixture of science fiction and dark satire. It’s like listening to your smartest, funniest friend tell you why the whole world is garbage." - The New York Times
"It was incredible to me that this book existed and I had never heard of it. I couldn’t believe that it wasn’t more widely known, because it’s just astonishing, in subject and style, and it still feels so urgent, even though it was written fifty years ago." - Nicole Rudick, editor, Joanna Russ: Novels & Stories, LOA #373
"Part of the genius of The Female Man lies in how its utopian and dystopian worlds need each other. One woman alone, Russ suggests, cannot save herself, let alone anyone else: We need to find alternate versions of ourselves and allies who do not look just like us." - The Nation