Slashdot surprised me by posting a review of Ian M. Banks' new Culture novel, Matter. The review is more of a general critique of Banks' Culture universe and doesn't go into too much detail about the new story. Still, it's worth checking out for the comments that follow.

Arthur C. Clarke died today at age 90. Godspeed.

Sometime in the early nineties I agreed to take a trip with a friend of mine to Florida to visit - you guessed it -- his grandparents. Knowing how this would play out, I decided to take some reading along. While I read a lot of books between the ages of 10 and 15 (mainly fantasy), I had neglected reading fiction during my later teens to pursue other activities that crop up when you have a group of friends that like to knock on your window at 2am.

I knew I wanted to read science fiction, but since I didn't know where to start, I decided to buy some books that had this "Hugo Award Winner" label on the cover. I reasoned that Hugo knew what he was talking about because wherever I went, the science fiction/fantasy section had these books diplayed prominently.

Locus Online has posted a list of science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels that have appeared on various "Year's Best Books" lists, such as Publisher's Weekly, Time Magazine, Newsweek, etc, etc.

Some of the best science fiction literature have interesting, well-defined female characters moving the story along. Some authors, such as Alastair Reynolds, almost exclusively write their stories with strong women characters. Others are more well-rounded in their character descriptions.

I'd like to highlight some of the more interesting women to grace the pages of speculative fiction. Love 'em or hate 'em, they are the ones that stick in my mind after the final page has been read.