Ammonite

Ammonite is British-American author Nicola Griffith's debut novel, which was published in 1992. Styled as a meditation on queer ideologies, the novel explores themes of sexuality, gender, illusion, and humanity, as well as virology. While setting aside numerous dogmatic feminist tropes, Griffith fully tackles the conundrum of whether a world run by women would be a gentler or better one. American author Ursula Le Guin cited Ammonite as “a knock-out first novel, with strong, likeable characters, a compelling story, and a very interesting take on gender. Critically acclaimed and academically praised, it has won several literary awards, including the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT themed science fiction/fantasy, and the Otherwise Award, formerly known as the James Tiptree Jr. Award, for science fiction or fantasy that explores or expands our understanding of gender. In 2008, the Italian translation of Ammonite was awarded the Premio Italia award, an Italian literary prize for astounding works in science fiction and fantasy. The novel was also shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the British Science Fiction Award, and the Locus Award for a debut novel. In September 2012 Ammonite was included in the SF Masterworks relaunch series of softcover editions (2010 - present). The series is composed of classic science fiction literature that is deemed important and considered deserving of being in continuous print.