# Science fiction by women authors



## bobbo19

Hey guys, i was just wondering how many of you read sci-fi that a woman has written. For some reason i always gravitate to male authors but i have no reason why!


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## Rodders

It's fair to say that the genre is male dominated. 

I've read a few of Anne McCaffery (specifiically the Damia and Sassinak series), which i enjoyed very much. Although it has to be said that perhaps the Damia series did go on for a couple of books too long. She's really well known for hr Dragons of Pern books, but i've never read them. 

I also read one of the Miles Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold. (I can't remember which one, but i thoroughly enjoyed it and do hope to go back and read the rest.)

I just have to get my hands on some Ursula Le Guin. 

I read a book last year called Principles of Angels by a lady by the name of Jaine Fenn. It was her first book and very good too. She's had another one released since, but i haven't tracked it down. 

Lastly, in i've read and enjoyed many of Diane Carey's Star Trek tie in books.


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## Grimward

Le Guin is worth the read, Rodds.  I read the _*Earthsea*_ books (they were a trilogy at the time) as a "Young Adult" (the category hadn't received that name yet), and enjoyed them.  Found _*The Left Hand of Darkness*_ interesting some years later, and have several more in the infamous "To Be Read" pile.

Bobbo, maybe you just haven't found the stories by a female author that appeal to you yet?  Beyond the Anne McCaffreys and Ursula Le Guins and those listed by Rodders are many many to be found.  Sherri Tepper, James Triptree, Jr (yes, this was a woman, may she rest in peace), Margaret Weis, Melissa Scott, Kristen Britain, C.J. Cherryh, Robin Hobb, and Judith Tarr are a few I've read and liked (some more than others).  Julie Bertagna, Madeline Howard, and Mary Hoffman walk these very Chrons regularly (possibly others I haven't had the pleasure to meet yet).  Countless others, to be sure, and last but not least my personal favorite, Janny Wurts.

Just my personal opinion, but if I like how the story's crafted and the pictures it paints, that's where I find myself gravitating.


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## j d worthington

Um, it might be safer to say it was male-dominated. That seems to be changing over the past few decades (not a bad thing, in my opinion).

And it depends on whether you're interested in strictly recent sf, or sf overall. In the latter case, there are quite a few women writers worth checking out, from the aforementioned Le Guin, etc., to:

Andre Norton (Alice Mary Norton)
Pamela A. Zoline
Hilary Bailey
Josephine Saxton
Joanna Russ
Kate Wilhelm
C. L. Moore
Leigh Brackett
Sonya Dorman
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Octavia Estelle Butler
Judith Merrill
Doris Piserchia
Joan Slonczewski
Storm Constantine 
Joan D. Vinge
Suzy McKee Charnas
Vonda McIntyre
Miriam Allen de Ford
Carol Emshwiller
Francis Stevens (Gertrude Bennett)
Harriet Prescott Spofford....

You may want to take a look at the following:

WOMEN AND SCIENCE FICTION - New York Times

Women in speculative fiction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Feminist science fiction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## HareBrain

Liz Williams is another.

But many of the writers mentioned already are fantasy authors rather than science fiction (which is what I assumed the OP was talking about). There does seem to be much more of a gender imbalance in SF than in fantasy.


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## kurzon

Add Pat Cadigan and Melissa Scott to female SF authors.


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## bobbo19

yeah thanks for all the names you guys have posted!

Harebrain was right though, not really interested in the fantasy stuff, more into solid hard sf


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## Grimward

> Add Pat Cadigan and _*Melissa Scott*_ to female SF authors.


Another Melissa Scott fan....

Welcome, btw, Kurzon.  If so inclined, stop by the Introductions thread and tell us a little about yourself....



> And it depends on whether you're interested in strictly recent sf, or sf  overall. In the latter case, there are quite a few women writers worth  checking out, from the aforementioned Le Guin, etc.


Show-Off! 

Kidding of course.  As always, I bow to your vast expanse of literary travels, JD.


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## J-WO

Something of a coincidence--today I bought a late 70's copy of *More Women Of Wonder*, an anthology published by Penguin SF. Many of the usual suspects Mr Worthington listed. Its got a large introductory essay by Pamela Sargent.

I presume 'Women of Wonder' must exist as well. Either is probably a good intro if you can find them on Amazon or somewhere.


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## j d worthington

It does, but it doesn't show up very often.

As for the "writing fantasy" comment... most of those women mentioned actually write sf as well as fantasy. C. J. Cherry, for instance, has written numerous sf novels. Joanna Russ, Ursula K. Le Guin, Sonya Dorman, Josephine Saxton, James Tiptree, Jr., Andre Norton (who wrote a bazillion YA sf novels)... in fact, most of those in my list are known much more for their sf than their fantasy. Some of it is "hard" sf and some is "soft", but sf nonetheless. And then there are those mentioned in the links I provided, as well....

And Grim: Danke!


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## bobbo19

your not german are you j.d?


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## j d worthington

bobbo19 said:


> your not german are you j.d?


 
LOL. Nope. Born and raised in (gawdelpus!) Pasadena, Texas, and live now in Austin; ancestry a blending of Scotch-Irish, English, and (from what I understand) a little Crow....


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## gully_foyle

I would add that Ursula K LeGuin has written some awesome stuff. C.J. Cherryh does some pretty good space opera. I've also read some great stuff by P.D. James (Children of Men), Kate Wilhelm (Where Late the Sweetbirds Sang) and others.

I do agree that S.F. is male dominated, to its disadvantage.


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## J-WO

j. d. worthington said:


> ancestry a blending of Scotch-Irish, English, and (from what I understand) a little Crow....



The wings were a giveaway. I had my suspicions as soon as I saw your avatar.


It would be interesting to do a blind test- get some readers to look at, say, ten SF/F short stories and ask them the author's gender for each.

My bet is no one would get it 100% right.


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## j d worthington

J-WO said:


> The wings were a giveaway. I had my suspicions as soon as I saw your avatar.
> 
> 
> It would be interesting to do a blind test- get some readers to look at, say, ten SF/F short stories and ask them the author's gender for each.
> 
> My bet is no one would get it 100% right.


 
You are probably correct... especially given that an awful lot of women have written as men over the years, and no one (or at least very, very few) were able to tell the difference. Then again, there was the (un)natural bias entering the picture, as well....

As I have mentioned before, one of the best (and most enjoyable) books I've read on the subject is Joanna Russ's *How to Suppress Women's Writing*, which I first ran across many, many years ago....


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## jennyjj

thanks i stumbled onto here not really knowing what i was after n you've given me a great place to start! have you read any marion bradley? i thought mists of avalon was amazingly gripping and despite focusing on 'emotional' issues theres plenty of action and excitment. I might get it for this but i think female fantasy (not really read much SF except Asimov, Hobbs etc) writers have a knack of really getting you to empathise with the characters, to be where they are. When i was reading avalon i felt i really was there and could get into that world x


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## murphy

jennyjj said:


> thanks i stumbled onto here not really knowing what i was after n you've given me a great place to start! have you read any marion bradley? i thought mists of avalon was amazingly gripping and despite focusing on 'emotional' issues theres plenty of action and excitment. I might get it for this but i think female fantasy (not really read much SF except Asimov, Hobbs etc) writers have a knack of really getting you to empathise with the characters, to be where they are. When i was reading avalon i felt i really was there and could get into that world x


 
MZB also wrote quite a few books about the planet Darkover that could be classed as SF.


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## Ian Whates

A few other women SF authors that I haven't seen mentioned here as yet:

Gwyneth Jones
Justina Robson
Trisha Sullivan
Leigh Kennedy (aka Mrs Christopher Priest)
Liz Williams
Lauren Beukes
Una McCormack
Lisa Tuttle...

All of these are well worth checking out. There are many, many excellent women SF (and fantasy) authors out there. 

I was delighted to commission an all-new collection (okay, all new bar one reprint) of stories from women authors a few years ago:
150 Myth-Understandings NewCon Press : NewCon Press 
but know full well that this barely scratches the surface.


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## Somni

I second the  Miles Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold, really enjoyed these.  I haven't noticed Elisabeth Moon mentioned.  I liked her Vatta series.


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## clovis-man

Some of my favorite authors, irrespective of gender:

Joan Vinge
Kage Baker
Nancy Kress
Kathleen Ann Goonan

And of course the obvious ones, e.g., Cherryh, Le Guin, Norton, etc.


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## chrispenycate

I suspect the (now diminishing) paucity of female hard SF writers is due to the same factors that caused the science and technology college where I went to university to have nearly three percent of its students female, and almost half those in biological sciences.

Level with the dolls' house/meccano dichotomy, and trailing close behind the "what's the use of educating girls, they just get pregnant and become housewives" hard liners came "but if you are going to get an education, something refined, Letters, fine arts. Definitely not science, and much more definitely not engineering.

So, in a period when 'hard' science fiction outweighed 'personality based' by a fair margin, there were very few women owning up to being such (Naomi Mitchinson, memoirs of a space woman, the ship who sang, Zenna Henderson's 'the people' stories) and, as with the college, tending towards the biology/sociology rather than 'hard' sciences; a girl could have ambitions as a physician, never a physicist.

I hope and trust this is fading; anyway, there are more girls being educated in scientific studies, and more female authors are capable of doing convincing 'hard'…

_Sneaks in Doris Lessing, and Martha Dodson Forward, and scoots off._


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## Vertigo

Ian Whates said:


> A few other women SF authors that I haven't seen mentioned here as yet:
> 
> Gwyneth Jones
> Justina Robson
> Trisha Sullivan
> Leigh Kennedy (aka Mrs Christopher Priest)
> Liz Williams
> Lauren Beukes
> Una McCormack
> Lisa Tuttle...
> 
> All of these are well worth checking out. There are many, many excellent women SF (and fantasy) authors out there.
> 
> I was delighted to commission an all-new collection (okay, all new bar one reprint) of stories from women authors a few years ago:
> 150 Myth-Understandings NewCon Press : NewCon Press
> but know full well that this barely scratches the surface.


 
That's the first mention I've seen of Justina Robson on these boards which I find a little surprising. I thought her quantum gravity books (those that I've read so far) wonderfullly quirky and serious fun. I have also seen them being recommended by other SF authors but never a mention on here.

Maybe that's just that dodgy search engine again.


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## clovis-man

chrispenycate said:


> So, in a period when 'hard' science fiction outweighed 'personality based' by a fair margin, there were very few women owning up to being such (Naomi Mitchinson, memoirs of a space woman, the ship who sang, Zenna Henderson's 'the people' stories) and, as with the college, tending towards the biology/sociology rather than 'hard' sciences; a girl could have ambitions as a physician, never a physicist.
> 
> I hope and trust this is fading; anyway, there are more girls being educated in scientific studies, and more female authors are capable of doing convincing 'hard'…


 
In another forum, Elizabeth Moon (whose name hasn't been mentioned yet) seems to include herself as at least a "space opera" writer. I know this doesn't provide automatic membership in the Kim Stanley Robinson/Stephen Baxter club, but may be suggestive at least. The book she mentions is *Hunting Party*. Not having read anything of hers, perhaps someone else here can enlighten me as to her "credentials"


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## Vertigo

You are right clovis EM hasn't been mentioned yet. I could of sworn she had, but on reviewing...no.

I have read and enjoyed some of hers; Hunting Party is from her Serrano Legacy series (first one actually) and is sort of similar to Weber's Honor Harrington stuff. Enjoyable reading but I'm not sure I would go as far as to call it space opera. Then again I'm not too sure what the definition of space opera is, it just doesn't feel right applied to her stuff, to me at least.


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## chrispenycate

Elizabeth Moon is ex military, and writes what she knows.

Even if, in 'Hunting Party' Heris Serrano is not actually in the military, she's been thrown out against her will, and uses military training and tactics in a civilian environment. And the rest of the series both she and Esmay Suisa are in uniform. Similarly with Vattas war, there is an entire society mapped out, but it is seen from the viewpoint of combatants. 

There are a few technical details, like the messy work of cleaning out the life support system in HP, the weapons systems in Vatta's war, or the giant service craft in "Once a hero" – she's observed the mechanics of making a high tech military force work, and they're not all elegant and neat – but the accent is on human interaction between fighters, and military tactics.


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## J-WO

*Karen Traviss* and her _Wess'Har War_ series is pretty blumin' good.


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## Vertigo

chrispenycate said:


> Elizabeth Moon is ex military, and writes what she knows.


 
Must admit I hadn't realised she was ex military but I'm not too surprised. As you say she does show many of the less glamorous aspects of the military machine which for my money creates a more solid foundation for this kind of story. Another aspect I am interested in is she is one of the few authors I have come across who addresses the issue of longevity creating a difficult environment for personal advancement. But that is a topic I plan to try and have a chat about on another thread in the future sometime, rather than drag this thread of topic .


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## iansales

Susan R Matthews is also ex-military, and I much prefer her novels to Elizabeth Moon's.


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## Vertigo

iansales said:


> Susan R Matthews is also ex-military, and I much prefer her novels to Elizabeth Moon's.


 
I've not come across her - I shall have to take a look. I do enjoy military SciFi though it is not main genre.


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## jojajihisc

A few more..

Ellen Klages
Molly Gloss
N.K. Jemison
Kij Johnson
Nnedi Okorafor
Karen Joy Fowler
Elizabeth Bear

Some of those are probably fit more precisely in the speculative fiction genre but who's counting?


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## JustPassingThrough

Just recently I found myself getting into the stories of  _Kate Wilhelm. 
_


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## Radix

I really enjoy most everything by Octavia E. Butler-
(never could get into her _Xenogenesis_ trilogy)
the _Patternist series_ (esp. "Wild Seed" & "Mind Of My Mind")
"Kindred" & the _Parable_ Series are some of my favorites~


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## Anne Lyle

I would also add:

* Eleanor Arnason (reminds me a lot of Le Guin)
* Catherine Asaro (SF romance with a space opera flavour)

and the short stories of Aliette de Bodard (her novels have all been fantasy so far, I think).

I have to admit I prefer SF by women, maybe because it is more likely to be focused on the characters or on "soft sciences" such as biology and anthropology (I have a degree in zoology). Also, I work with computers all day, so technology-based SF isn't escapist enough for me!


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## Ian Whates

Anne Lyle said:


> I would also add:
> 
> * Eleanor Arnason (reminds me a lot of Le Guin)
> * Catherine Asaro (SF romance with a space opera flavour)
> 
> and the short stories of Aliette de Bodard (her novels have all been fantasy so far, I think).


 

Catherine has just written a new (long) short story for a _Mammoth_ title I'm editing.  It's set in the Skolian Empire and features my favourite character of hers, Soz (Sauscany) Valdoria.  

Aliette's writing a story for the next NewCon Press anthology I'm planning, which hopefully will be coming out next Eastercon; so I certainly wouldn't argue with your choices.


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## JustPassingThrough

Kelly Link.

Kicks major arse.


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## JDP

Julian May is one of my all time favourites.


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## Stephen Palmer

I really liked the original Many Coloured Land, but the series seemed to drag on.


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## Connavar

The authors who are in my fav authors and who happen to female are in ranking fav order:



Leigh Brackett
CL Moore
CJ Cherryh
Tanith Lee
Joanna Russ

I havent read many others simply because many of the famous ones today are in types of SF i dont read often.  Military, Hard SF.


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## iansales

If you're looking for reviews of sf books by women writers, you could check out SF Mistressworks.


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## Fried Egg

Ian Whates said:


> Catherine has just written a new (long) short story for a _Mammoth_ title I'm editing.  It's set in the Skolian Empire and features my favourite character of hers, Soz (Sauscany) Valdoria.


What Mammoth title would that be, Ian?


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## Ian Whates

Fried Egg said:


> What Mammoth title would that be, Ian?


 
_The Mammoth Book of SF Wars_, FE.  It's at the proofing stage at present and will be released next year.


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## Fried Egg

Ian Whates said:


> _The Mammoth Book of SF Wars_, FE.  It's at the proofing stage at present and will be released next year.


Sounds interesting Ian, thanks.


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## Connavar

iansales said:


> If you're looking for reviews of sf books by women writers, you could check out SF Mistressworks.



I read that and thought i must read her and her and her ah!

I follow your blog for interesting articles like that.  I like to research what i will read in the near future.  I dont want to read only classic,golden age SF only.


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## antiloquax

"Native Tongue" by Suzette Haden Elgin is great.
a


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## Ackernon

i have to say that if I like the story, I don't notice if it was written by a male or female author.  C. J. Cherryh and Orson Scott Card are two of my favorite authors without regard to sex.


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## TomMazanec

I kept _Communipath Worlds by Suzette Haden Elgin _after my 2005 book sale because it incorporated one of my favorite short stories "For the Sake of Grace".
And I kept less than 1% of my books.


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## Lew Rockwell Fan

Sarah A. Hoyt is great.


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## Rodders

I always felt that the Star Trek books, especially the earlier ones), had a very good ratio of female and male authors.

I have downloaded Anne Leckie’s “Ancilliary“ books.


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## Vertigo

Rodders said:


> I always felt that the Star Trek books, especially the earlier ones), had a very good ratio of female and male authors.
> 
> I have downloaded Anne Leckie’s “Ancilliary“ books.


I enjoyed those except for the last one, Provenance, which is only loosely related being a totally different story not even set in the Raadch Empire. I found that one very much poorer than the Ancillary books which were good. They had their flaws and certainly weren't 5 star books but were very good enjoyable reads set in an intriguing universe. I liked her totally gender-non-specific approach in those but hated it in Provenance!


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## Vince W

Rodders said:


> I always felt that the Star Trek books, especially the earlier ones), had a very good ratio of female and male authors.


Diane Duane wrote some of the best Star Trek books ever. I still think the Bra' Trek reboot should have used Vonda N. McIntyre to write the scripts.


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## Danny McG

Sheri S Tepper *Raising the* *Stones* is my current reading.
Really good


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## BAYLOR

*The Heads of Cerberus *  Francis Stevens   also by her *The Nightmare and other Tales of Dark Fantasy *


Her real name was Gertrude Barrows Bennet  1883 to 1948 .


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## BAYLOR

Tanith Lee  wrote some amazing fantasy and she wrote some pretor good science fiction , *The Electric Forest*.

C S Friedman written some excellent  stuff.

I*n Conquest Born 
The Madness Season 
The ColdFore Trilogy*

Ann Maxwell

*Timeshadow Rider *


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## Guttersnipe

I've read The Mount by Carol Emshwiller and Anthem by Ayn Rand. I agree that it's male-dominated. So sad.

As for classic sci-fi female authors, I'd suggest Katherine MacLean and Clare Winger Harris.


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## Ambrose

What about Zenna Henderson?


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## Timebender

Of course, I feel a discussion of woman SF authors would be remiss to not include Madeliene L'Engle, even if her boosk went back and forth between science-fiction and science-fantasy.


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## JimC

Leigh Brackett
Andre Norton
C.L. Moore
were superb.
Brackett was also great with screen plays (Rio Bravo, The Big Sleep, etc.).


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