A Special Readers’ Choice: Shambleau and Others

This week’s Readers’ Choice is Shambleau and Others by C. L. Moore, one of the greats of early days of modern science fiction and, along with Leigh Brackett, one of the first women to break into the male-dominated world of the SF pulps.

‘A worthy choice’, we hear you say, ‘but what qualifies it as “special”?’

‘Well,’ we answer, our chest swelling with pride, ‘It’s only been suggested by Pat Cadigan!‘

If you didn’t already know that two-time Arthur C. Clarke Award-winner, Pat Cadigan is a big fan of the SF Gateway, then you do now! We are proud and delighted to publish almost all of Pat’s books on Gateway – as well as having Synners as an SF Masterwork – but it’s not self-interest that powers her enthusiasm. Pat Cadigan has a long history of supporting the genre and the genre’s writers, from volunteering on Worldcon committees to teaching at the famous Clarion West writing workshop to running the (much-missed) Borders SF evenings in the early 2000’s.

Pat Cadigan the Writer is well-known (as well she should be!) but Pat Cadigan the Reader, perhaps less so. But we know how insightful a reader Pat is because we’ve read the introduction she wrote for the forthcoming SF Masterwork edition of Connie Willis‘s To Say Nothing of the Dog, and sat in on many an interview and event where Pat has directed conversations like an orchestra conductor.

And now you can share Pat’s expertise, too. Take a look at Shambleau and Others and you’ll see why Pat says of C. L. Moore ‘one of the most remarkable women from the early days of modern SF; her work is still powerful’.

As ever, you can read more about C. L. Moore and Pat Cadigan in their entries in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and you can follow Pat Cadigan on Twitter at @cadigan.