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Pick & Mix challenge for 2026.
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dustydigger
Posted 2026-01-08 3:33 PM (#33734)
Subject: Pick & Mix challenge for 2026.		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		Hi people here we go for another year of hopefully great reading.
My plans for the most part are to concentrate on rereads,particularly old SF and a little fantasy.perhaps.
Must admit I am often underwhelmed with modern SF. Probably all this course correcting the genre to even up women's place in the genre,gender politics etc is very necessary but as ever with such corrections things can go too fart the other way. its natural and expected Yep I'm a female who has been reading in the ASF/F genres for many decades(first junior books out of the public library aged 7 was The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe,first adult books I got out the day I got my adult library card aged 13 was Ray Bradbury's Golden Apples of the Sun and ERBs A Princess of Mars. I cut my teeth on Van Vogt,Ted Sturgeon,Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke, and Silverburg.later branching to Zelazny etc.I am quite comfortable therefore with the heavy preponderance for multiple decades of straight white male authors in the genres. I roll my eyes all the time when people post to complain about the lack of women in the books of the 50s etc. It is what it is,all subgenres and the like have their own parameters expectations and rules and the like. If you dont like those limits etc dont read the genre then. Spec fic is spread very wide,there is something for everyone. I am never going to enjoy grimdark people.I understand the pioneers of such books especially G RRMartin had legitimate beefs with the stodgy books of the time and made iconoclastic efforts,very successfully to usher in an age of moral shades of grey,everything and everyone tending to the dark side. I am never going to enjoy such works myself,but see no point in complaining that EVERYONE in these books seems to be unpleasant lol.
And so I can appreciate why most of the latest award winners are female ,and the issues highlighted cover gender and womens issues an awful lot,but after a lifetime of conditioning I am still more likely to enjoy and feel comfortable with older works and at this time when real life is fraught with difficulties ,multitudes of brilliant ideas and themes in often less than 200 pages.appeals to me so for the most part I feel more comfortable with the old white guys even if the women arent up to much in the stories. . So sue me.
But what I love about this challenge is that because of its broad latitude in reading themes its always great fun for me t take a fun stroll through the wildly different shelves that appear here.Everyone has such fun and diverse reads,its great.
So have a great year and enjoy great books everyone.
Happy reading.
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