Beyond Reality discussion

I was looking at a recommendation request on Goodreads today for a female sci-fi author with a female protagonist. I recommended a couple C.S. Friedman books to her but realized that my own sci fi shelf is seriously lacking in female authors.

I've mostly read the "classic" sci fi (Asimov, Bradbury, Wells, Clarke, Heinlein, etc.). Can someone here get me up to date on current adult sci-fi authors, especially women? I'm an engineer, so I'm happy to read the full spectrum, including hard sci-fi.

C. J. Cherryh is the best scifi author. Also I've recently read R. M. Meluch's Merrimack series which is both exciting and funny with a couple of strong female protagonists.

Canadian Author Julie E. Czerneda, most of her protagonists are Female.

Lois Bujold is a favorite of mine; her Miles Vorkosigan series focuses mainly on a male protagonist, but the two books collected in the omnibus Cordelia's Honor are about his mother and her history, and they're wonderful :) Also, many of Connie Willis's books feature female protagonists.

Nicola Griffith is another good one, and definitely check out Octavia Butler and Ursula K. LeGuin. Elizabeth Bear is another. I have not yet read anything by Kameron Hurley but I have a few of her books on my TBR and have heard wonderful things.

C.J. Cherryh is a prolific writer whose stories run the gamut of main characters, many of whom are female. Perhaps the most compelling is the female alien ship's captain, Pyanfar Chanur in the Chanur novels.

I would also highly recommend Nancy Kress. Starting with her Hugo winning Beggars in Spain, her characters are well conceived and of all genders. And I can't possibly leave out the late Kage Baker. Her "Company" novels involving time travel and unbridled hubris feature the unforgetable female protagonist, Mendoza.

And, without going into detail, I would also recommend Joan Vinge author of the Hugo winning The Snow Queen.

Octavia Butler--at least her novel Kindred--is brilliant soft sci-fi. I think some of her other books are more traditional sci fi, but I haven't read them myself.

Shel wrote: "Lois Bujold is a favorite of mine; her Miles Vorkosigan series focuses mainly on a male protagonist, but the two books collected in the omnibus Cordelia's Honor are about his mother and her history, and they're wonderful :)"

A number of the books switch between PoV characters where some of them are female.
Ethan of Athos
Komarr
Captain Vorpatril's Alliance

However, all of Bujold's books contain strong female characters. What's even better is that they are all strong in very different ways. Almost like real people. ;)

Another to look at would be Elizabeth Moon. I highly recommend Remnant Population, though again her books all contain varied capable women.

There's also Catherine Asaro. I recommend her Skolian Empire series. The POV characters switch throughout the books, some male, some female.

The authors already listed in this thread are all ones I would highly recommend. I'll also add:
Sharon Lee who co-writes with Steve Miller -their Liadan series
James Tiptree Jr.
Tanya Huff
Sheri S. Tepper
Pamela Sargent
Louise Marley
Lisanne Norman
Joan Slonczewski
Margaret Atwood, especially The Handmaid's Tale
S.L. Viehl
R.M. Meluch
Andre Norton is a Grand Master of SF, but wrote mostly male characters, still definitely worth reading, though!
Kate Wilhelm
Joanna Russ

All of these are authors I've read and enjoyed their work.

Knew I came to the right place!

A Tiptree collection is on its way to me with my pre-ordered copy of Words of Radiance and Murder of Crows. Cherryh and Bujold especially have been on my TBR list for awhile. Guess it's time I start hunting those down.

I wasn't totally knocked out by A Wizard of Earthsea last year; think I may have missed the "window" for those by at least a decade. I have a couple other books of hers on my TBR list, though.

Thanks for all the good suggestions, please keep them coming! Any of these hard sci-fi? The more I consider it, the more my brain wants some speculative science to chew on.

The Earthsea books are very different from LeGuin's sci-fi; try The Left Hand of Darkness to get a sense of what her SF writing is like :) Still not quite hard sci-fi, but very different from her fantasy.

Deborah Chester has written The Alien chronicles which had believable characters and good solid writing. Not seen anything else of herd lately.

A few female authors I like :


Justina Robson
Connie Willis
Catherynne M. Valente
Chris Moriarty

A couple of additional great writers:

Vonda McIntyre: I would recommend Dreamsnake, about an healer that uses genetically engineered snakes and Superluminal, about a woman that pilots a faster-than-light ship through some modifications to her heart.

Anne McCaffrey: her Pern novels may or may not be science fiction according to different definitions, The Ship Who Sang instead is a collection of short stories about Helva, an human mind that has been transplanted into a spaceship.

I started a List in GoodReads of Adult Science Fiction books written by women authors. Will you help me by adding to it or voting? Please not YA or fantasy on this list. Thanks for this discussion thread. It's been really helpful.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/user_v...

Kristen wrote: "Octavia Butler--at least her novel Kindred--is brilliant soft sci-fi. I think some of her other books are more traditional sci fi, but I haven't read them myself."

Octavia Butler was brilliant -- I'd recommend Clay's Ark and Lilith's Brood: Dawn / Adulthood Rites / Imago.