{"id":122997,"date":"2022-02-22T15:43:44","date_gmt":"2022-02-22T15:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=122997"},"modified":"2022-02-22T15:43:44","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T15:43:44","slug":"five-fascinating-matriarchies-in-sff-by-g-r-macallister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/books\/five-fascinating-matriarchies-in-sff-by-g-r-macallister\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Fascinating Matriarchies in SFF By G.R. Macallister"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fantasy and science fiction are the genres where we can imagine absolutely anything \u2013 so why don\u2019t we more frequently imagine matriarchal societies as the settings for our stories?<\/p>\n

The good news is that within the matriarchy-centered novels that do exist, there\u2019s something to please everyone. Do you prefer your fantasy novels as long as two books put together or as short as a novella? Utopian, dystopian, or neither? Inspired by pre-Columbian history or set in an imagined future off-world?<\/p>\n

Each of the five novels recommended below tells a fascinating, unique story set in a society where women run the show…<\/p>\n

The Priory of the Orange Tree<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Samantha Shannon\u2019s 2019 doorstopper of a fantasy novel (800+ pages!) blends dragons, prophecies, spycraft, magic and so much more. Queen Sabran of the House of Berethnet rules the Queendom of Inys, as her mother and her mother\u2019s mother did before her, but she has no female heir\u2014and legend says that without one, the ancient dragon known only as \u201cthe Nameless One\u201d will return to destroy the world. Sabran\u2019s matriarchal queendom isn\u2019t the only society in the novel, but it\u2019s the one we spend the most time in, and Shannon\u2019s careful, detailed worldbuilding pays off.<\/p>\n

The Power<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Most of the action of Naomi Alderman\u2019s 2017 novel takes place in the same patriarchal world we live in today, with a single twist \u2013 women and teenage girls develop the ability to unleash dangerous, potentially fatal electrical power from their bodies, and it changes everything. The framing device establishes the wider world of the novel as a matriarchy, so you have some idea of where the story\u2019s going, but how it gets there will both mesmerize and shock you.<\/p>\n

The Foretelling<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This slim YA novella is quite a departure from the acclaimed Alice Hoffman\u2019s usual style, but it\u2019s an intriguing coming-of-age tale. A girl named Rain, daughter of the queen in an all-female warrior society similar to the mythological Amazons, must find her place in society in the face of her mother\u2019s indifference and her own ambivalence about their society\u2019s practices and priorities. Rain\u2019s choices don\u2019t get any easier when the time comes for her to decide whether and how she herself will rule.<\/p>\n

A Single Stone<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Some fantasy novels are fascinating because of their epic, detailed worldbuilding, but others manage to intrigue with a highly limited, even claustrophobic society. Meg McKinlay\u2019s spare 2015 YA novel is the latter. A village cut off from the rest of the world by a rockslide relies on an annual harvest of mica from within the mountain tunnels to survive the deadly winters\u2014and the all-female council in charge takes drastic action to make sure the girls who undertake that harvest come back successful or die trying.<\/p>\n

The Moon and the Other<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If your tastes lean more toward science fiction than fantasy, you\u2019ll want to pick up John Kessel\u2019s 2017 novel set in the 22nd<\/sup> century, in a world where millions of people live in underground cities below the moon\u2019s surface. Only one of these city-states is a matriarchy, and Kessel\u2019s story explores the ramifications of the ebb and flow of people, ideas, movements and morals between the matriarchal Society of Cousins and the areas known as the Patriarchies. Political and personal conflicts abound, then build, then erupt. The result is a great example of how speculative fiction set in an alternate world explores and informs our understanding of the world we live in today.<\/p>\n

Scorpica: The Five Queendoms\u00a0by\u00a0G.R. Macallister is out now from Titan Books<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To celebrate the release of her epic fantasy Scorpica: The Five Queendoms\u00a0author\u00a0G.R. Macallister runs down her top matriarchies in science fiction and fantasy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":123004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Entertainment","MSN_Publish_Option":true,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[1,1624],"tags":[7359],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Scorpica_final.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122997"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122997"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123006,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122997\/revisions\/123006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}