Happy International Women’s Day 2020!
In honor of the day, I’m posting a list of some female authors of outstanding science fiction or fantasy. Warning: this is a very partial list, because as I write I keep thinking of more and more authors. Women are well-represented in this field.
Anne McCaffrey, of course. The Dragonriders books are classics. And in spite of the dragons, they’re science fiction, not fantasy.
Ursula K. Le Guin. The Earthsea trilogy, and Left Hand of Darkness in particular.
N.K. Jemisin. The Fifth Season, Broken Earth trilogy. Hugo Award winners and outstanding books!
Lois McMaster Bujold. I enjoyed the Vorkosigan Saga in particular. Wonderful space-opera series.
Kate Elliott. The Jaran series was written in the early 1990s. It’s an adventure with great worldbuilding and complex, realistic cultures. One of my favorites.
Melissa Scott has written some good Stargate tie-in books, which I love, but my favorite is her novel Five Twelfths of Heaven and its sequels.
Martha Wells won a Nebula Award for All Systems Red, the first in her Murderbot Diary novellas, and a Hugo for the second.
Robin Hobb has written many fantasy novels. My favorites are her Farseer trilogy and Liveship Traders trilogy.
Doris Egan is a screenwriter and producer, but she also wrote a novel in the mid-1990s called City of Diamond. I love a book with complex characters and motivations, and this is one. Unfortunately the sequels were never written.
Ellen Kushner, author of Swordspoint, an excellent and complex fantasy that has a vibe of Regency England and surprisingly has no magic.
Octavia E. Butler. Parable of the Sower and Kindred, among many other outstanding works.
And … so many more! For International Women’s Day, check out the work of an author you haven’t read before, or re-read an old favorite.
Author Anne Marie Lutz 