Best Woman Fantasy Authors

[Stego]

Ok, fuck it, I will play:

-Ursula LeGuin

-Robin Hobb (old stuff)

-Patricia McKillip

-Kelly Link

-Margo Lanagan

-Naomi Novik

-Norah Jemisin

-J.V. Jones

-Amy Tan

-Jacqueline Carey

-Susan Cooper

-Louise Cooper

-Terri Windling

-Lois McMaster Bujold

-Katherine Kurtz

-Elizabeth Hand

-Jo Walton

-Anne McCaffrey

-Ellen Kushner

-Tamora Pierce

-Kij Johnson

-Madeleine L'Engle

-Susanna Clarke

-Theodora Goss

-Ekaterina Sedia

-Cat Valente

Among others.

[Lady Blackfish]

If you personally are so awesome that you pay zero attention to an author's gender, then yay for you. But don't pretend it's not a problem for others.

Seriously. Why is this conversation always necessary? "Promotion of the under-represented = reverse racism" is tired and unimaginative, and I think the argument for such things is pretty easily comprehended. Why pretend the world is post-sexist just because you are?

While I'm here, I like:

Ursula LeGuin, Susan Cooper, Patricia McKillip, Susanna Clarke.

[Mjolnir]

Lyadin Wrote:

2) Because so many guys on this board, as well as a few women, avoid books by women and therefore need recs. Possibly explaining the assignment. If people weren't dickish in their reading choices, we wouldn't need them.

Well put. I agree. Thanks for bringing Micklem's books back to my attention as well.

My own agreements / additions, [long-winded; I'm constitutionally incapable of just writing names and leaving]:

I'm feeling a little bit uncomfortable here, because if we're going to bust out all the meant-for-adults recommendations we're going to run into some pretty nasty stuff. I'm all in favour of the young reading things when they're interested / feel they're ready and news of schools banning books and similar shit pisses me off, but ... well, here's hoping this doesn't end up with your son obliged to drop the f-bomb and describe anything that gives the teacher night terrors when he's drawing examples from texts for his report.

Like others have said, my favourites are gonna differ a little from what I recommend in this case.

I'll put in another good word for Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice. Not the quickest-moving book, but it's nice secondary world fantasy that isn't gratuitously nasty but doesn't treat it's readers like infantile fools. I'd say it's pace is comparable to The Name of the Wind, if you happen to have read that. Angst level occasionally somewhat high. Later books in the series bloat in length and go on rather, but remain essentially good imo. [Post Fool's Fate Hobb I've not read, and seems to not be considered as good by many. Go older.]

Mira Grant's Feed is a fun recent sf political-thriller-with zombies that I think a young man could really get into. It's pacey and it's fun. [Grant is Seanan McGuire in disguise, whose urban fantasy is again pacey and fun.]

Naomi Novik's Temeraire series: Though I've not read all the ones that are cropping up a lot I have read these, and they are very fun. Napoleonic Wars with talking dragons. Dragons occasionally comparable to talking horses but interplay between them and humans is interesting and touching and there're sweet aerial fights occasionally. Start with His Majesty's Dragon.

Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell: Is fucking boss. Towering achievement, very special book. One of the places where my very favourites would overlap with my recommendations here. Also very "respectable" if this teacher's judgmental that way. Warning: long, very long. Also not action-packed with magic explodies; 14 year old may grow bored depending on personal taste.

Ursula K. Le Guin: I think some people consider both Earthsea and the Annels of the Western Shore books ya. [i sympathize with the difficulty some folks have getting into Wizard of Earthsea, by the way; it's written in a very particular style, almost like a legend one could say, which can be a little cold at first; her other books don't really share this.] Lavinia is adult and brilliant, another place where personal favourite crosses over. Is he interested in early Rome, by any chance? If so this might work. In the case of Le Guin's sf, this is entirely subjective personal experience but I found The Left Hand of Darkness more immediately gripping than The Dispossessed.

Marion Zimmer Bradley: The Mists of Avalon, specifically. Occasionally corny? Arguably. Occasionally loses the plot for a little? Probably. But I think it's great, an important book in it's day and possibly still. Warning: long.

Pamela Dean: I read Dean's Tam Lin recently and consider it extremely good, but the fantasy is very much around the edges of the tale. It's mostly about college, and reading, and all the other things that go on at college. Again, concerns that 14 year old might possibly find boring may apply.

Patricia A. McKillip: Haven't read that many of her's [there's a bunch, mostly stand-alone save The Riddle Master Trilogy], but those few I have read are gentle and lyrical without entirely sacrificing danger. They're curl-up-by-fire books, but they still demand the reader pay attention. Tend to take place in vaguely drawn fantasylands with tones varying depending on the story [Ombria in Shadow vaguely gothic and dark, The Tower at Stony Wood celtic fairy tale, The Bell At Sealey Head non-industrialized Victorian, etc.]

Kate Elliott: I admit I didn't get past book 2 in Elliott's Crown of Stars epic fantasy series [not bad, just didn't pull me onward], but her new alternate, [very alternate], history fantasy Cold Magic gets some great adventure plots going -- albeit with a bit too much running and being chased for my personal taste -- while not neglecting the crafting of a compelling political and social picture of the setting. Wrote some well-thought-of sf under another name [her own name, I believe].

Lauren Beukes: Specifically her second novel, the standalone urban fantasy Zoo City, in which many people are afflicted by an imagined disease which attaches an animal to them psychically -- look, it's hard to explain, but it's bloody brilliant and the main character's awesome. Her cyberpunk debut, Moxyland, is also supposed to rock somewhat.

Jo Walton: I actually haven't read Walton's new book Among Others yet, because I suck, but the excerpt I read was enough to get across the message that I should stand the fuck up and pay attention.

Catherynne M. Valente: We're in my personal favourite territory again. Her prose is brilliant and her stories complex and fascinating, but not just in the intellectual way [though there's plenty to think about]: they burn, these stories, very bright. Very stylized -- if that's the word; not sure it is -- and not written in a straight forward way. Approach with caution [particularly for 14 year old], but approach by all means.

Some other, newer women writers who I think do epic fantasy very well: Steph Swainston[start with: The Year of Our War, which is hella clunky, later books much smoother]: weird as fuck, with a very colloquial, irreverent sensibility; very explicit. Sarah Monette [start with: Melusine]: labyrinthine, gothic [in the good way], very character-driven with obscure and tangled and dangerous magic; very explicit; out of print because Ace didn't know what to do with a good thing. Elizabeth Bear [start with: she's written a bunch; for fantasy: All the Windwracked Stars]: the series this book begins plays sad occasionally steampunk apocalyptic riffs on Norse myth; must either have working knowledge of the Eddas or mainline Wikipedia before it makes any goddamn sense but it's entirely worth it and the sink-or-swim attitude toward the myths inspiring the series allows for a very deep story, though obviously it's not for everyone to an even greater extent than that statement's usually meant to cover; she's also written some good sf and some fascinating faerie urban fantasies starting with Blood and Iron. N. K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms: go ahead, scorn me; got arguably some major problems but does some things very well.

Susan Palwick [moving into sf here]: I'm reading Palwick's Shelter right now and trying to figure out how the fuck it didn't get nominated for a Hugo. It's a book about big, thorny topics [the personhood of AI, altruism vs self-interest, things of that kind], but with compelling characters and a fascinating, well-thought out future that's making the world depicted in Atwood's Oryx and Crake -- which I'm also reading -- look a bit thin round the edges. For fascinating futures dealt with on a very human scale also see Maureen F. McHugh's China Mountain Zhang.

Kay Kenyon [start with: Bright of the Sky: Kenyon's The Entire and the Rose is great interdimensional epic science fiction fun. Writing's a little wobbly occasionally and the series takes a couple odd plot turns, but it's got the sense-o'-wonder and the characters and world are greatly compelling.

Nalo Hopkinson: Specifically Midnight Robber, which is all of her's I've read. Imagine Avatar, complete with jungle, if Avatar took place in a future heavily influenced by Caribbean culture and mythology and if the main character was a determined sixteen-year-old girl rather than that boring-ass military chump. Also Hopkinson got there first.

Lois McMaster Bujold: I can't speak to her fantasy [hear it's good], but the Vorkosigan sf novels and stories are fun on toast. Start wherever strikes your fancy.

Nnedi Okorafor: Her adult debut, Who Fears Death, can be read as both sf or fantasy. Very compelling, and steeped in traditions that don't get as much play as they should in North America's version of the literature of the imagination.

Connie Willis: I've only read three of her time travel books [blackout and All Clear, which must be read together, and the Victorian time travel comedy To Say Nothing of the Dog], and her writing's incredibly readable and fun while also packing a heavy emotional punch. Easy to read but mature and considered; if he's interested in sci-fi I'd rank these right up there.

Sorry for huge long post. Could have been even longer, and [as other posters' expertise illustrates] I've not even read that much. Hope at least some of it comes in useful. Oh: Margo Lanagan would be on here, but she's categorized as young adult. So would Susan Cooper, both for her amazing The Dark Is Rising sequence with it's wonderful sense of place in rural England, Cornwall, and the Welsh hills, and for more recent fun boy-meets-Shakespeare novel King of Shadows.

[Grack21]

Well I had this long post about how A Companion to Wolves by Monette and Bear is a horrible, disgusting book, but firefox ate it. So yeah. Avoid that book like a Stankek Goodkind team up.

[Errant Bard]

Seriously. Why is this conversation always necessary? "Promotion of the under-represented = reverse racism" is tired and unimaginative, and I think the argument for such things is pretty easily comprehended. Why pretend the world is post-sexist just because you are?

Ok, now, who made that argument? I'm not sure how asking why the size of the niche of the publishing production the book belongs to matters when deciding to read it or not based on the author's gender/ethnicity is seen as some accusation of reverse racism. I didn't even get an answer, speaking of that.

Of course, on the other hand, the idea that women are under-represented feels a bit strange in light of the Rowling, Meyer, McCaffrey, Zimmer Bradley, Le Guin, Bujold, Hobb, Hamilton, Rice, etc, all very well known, with some having mega hits male authors can only hope to emulate, in the genre, coupled to the apparent fact brought in by Liadin, that 50% of books are written by women (surely someone must read them), but that's not really important here since the OP asked for those specific recommendations.

As for the post-sexism thing, I don't really know what it means, but in a general way, I feel it's more productive to put everyone in the same group rather than stress the existence of different groups to be treated differently, to fight sexism. Promoting the unjustly under-represented isn't contradictory to that, and is actually the thing to do.

Whatever, while I'm here:

Seconding Diana Wynne Jones, LeGuin, McCaffrey, Bradley, Clarke, Gentle, Parker. Also throwing in The Bone Doll's Twin by Lynn Fllewelling, and The twelve kingdoms by Fuyumi Ono.

[Grack21]

Lynn Fllewelling is fantastic. Forgot all about her.

I think the reason this has come up here is because they're have been threads before dedicated to how worthless female authors are, and its popped up in a few other threads. It'd be nice to pretend that its not a problem around here, but it can be. Now, I'm not saying its a huge trend, it is mainly the few same people over and over. But its something to be aware of.

Random note: Elizabeth Haydon, any thoughts on those? I read them a looong time ago. I remember the world building was fantastic but the main character was a bitch And something about a giant dragon that wants to eat the world. Searching through she seems to get some hate but I dont see why.

[Liadin]

Of course, on the other hand, the idea that women are under-represented feels a bit strange in light of the Rowling, Meyer, McCaffrey, Zimmer Bradley, Le Guin, Bujold, Hobb, Hamilton, Rice, etc, all very well known, with some having mega hits male authors can only hope to emulate, in the genre, coupled to the apparent fact brought in by Liadin, that 50% of books are written by women (surely someone must read them), but that's not really important here since the OP asked for those specific recommendations.

C'mon, don't mischaracterize what I said. I said that if one walks around a library or bookstore, roughly half of the books will have apparently female names on them. No, I haven't done a study, but I've spent a lot of time in libraries and bookstores. The point being that if someone never or virtually never reads anything written by a woman, it's not because such books are so rare one might not run across them, it's because they're choosing not to.

Also, notice that at no point have I said that most people in general tend to avoid female authors, which is certainly not true; the majority of book-buyers are women after all. I've said that many people on this board apparently do so; more broadly, it appears that many male fantasy SFF fans do. And notice that 1) the fact that some female authors have been highly successful doesn't mean it isn't more difficult for women than men (particularly in the genre), as one could name far more male fantasy authors with high levels of commercial success, and 2) you include authors who write for kids (Rowling, Meyer) which is another game entirely and an author with a male-sounding pseudonym (Hobb). Neither of which speaks to the books adult male fantasy fans buy for themselves when they're aware of the author's gender.

ETA:

Random note: Elizabeth Haydon, any thoughts on those? I read them a looong time ago. I remember the world building was fantastic but the main character was a bitch And something about a giant dragon that wants to eat the world. Searching through she seems to get some hate but I dont see why.

From what I recall Rhapsody was quite poorly thought-out and poorly written, with a ridiculous Mary Sue main character. I think the 1-star review at the top of the stack on Amazon sums it up pretty well.

[Grack21]

C'mon, don't mischaracterize what I said. I said that if one walks around a library or bookstore, roughly half of the books will have apparently female names on them. No, I haven't done a study, but I've spent a lot of time in libraries and bookstores. The point being that if someone never or virtually never reads anything written by a woman, it's not because such books are so rare one might not run across them, it's because they're choosing not to.

Also, notice that at no point have I said that most people in general tend to avoid female authors, which is certainly not true; the majority of book-buyers are women after all. I've said that many people on this board apparently do so; more broadly, it appears that many male fantasy SFF fans do. And notice that 1) the fact that some female authors have been highly successful doesn't mean it isn't more difficult for women than men (particularly in the genre), as one could name far more male fantasy authors with high levels of commercial success, and 2) you include authors who write for kids (Rowling, Meyer) which is another game entirely and an author with a male-sounding pseudonym (Hobb). Neither of which speaks to the books adult male fantasy fans buy for themselves when they're aware of the author's gender.

ETA:

From what I recall Rhapsody was quite poorly thought-out and poorly written, with a ridiculous Mary Sue main character. I think the 1-star review at the top of the stack on Amazon sums it up pretty well.

Have you actually read it though? Most of the amazon reviews seem focused on the romance/sex part, how dare they! aspect. It's possible I have a bad memory but I thought the prose and world building was interesting and the non main characters were too. It seems to have good scores on amazon and I remember them being pretty popular. Could someone give me some specif examples of why its so horrid? Just saying Oh it had a Mary Sue and it was Bad doesn't help much. This one is really botheing at me because I remember loving them as I read then. I jope this isnt going to another GoodKingization.

[Errant Bard]

C'mon, don't mischaracterize what I said. I said that if one walks around a library or bookstore, roughly half of the books will have apparently female names on them.

I'm sorry for misunderstanding, but you were responding to, and quoted : What percentage is written by women? and answered directly Based on bookstore/library observations, I'd guess about half, give or take a few percentage points either way.

How am I supposed to guess you were not saying that you believed that 50% of books were written by women but making some finer argument unrelated to the question? Especially as the context of my reusing your answer deals with representativity and visibility anyway, converging towards your point (unless I misunderstand again, I dont know) :worried:

Could someone give me some specif examples of why its so horrid? Just saying Oh it had a Mary Sue and it was Bad doesn't help much.

I think this thread deals with it, among other books:

[Grack21]

I'm sorry for misunderstanding, but you were responding to, and quoted : What percentage is written by women? and answered directly Based on bookstore/library observations, I'd guess about half, give or take a few percentage points either way.

How am I supposed to guess you were not saying that you believed that 50% of books were written by women but making some finer argument unrelated to the question? Especially as the context of my reusing your answer deals with representativity and visibility anyway, converging towards your point (unless I misunderstand again, I dont know) :worried:

I think this thread deals with it, among other books:

That helps a little, but its more, Shes pretty and doesn't know it and there's love :vomit:. But thanks for trying. I'll put those in my DO NOT MENTION ON WESTEROS file, along with David Weber(who i think is fantastic and you all have bad taste) :P

[AverageGuy]

Was that Shadow of the Lion? If it was, it was co-written with Eric Flint and Dave Freer. Lackey's portion of that book was the same story she told in the Merovingian Nights shared world series. The boy with the brother and the grandfather.

Yeah, that was it. Don't know what parts she wrote exactly, all I know is that it didn't seem YA to me. Again, I haven't tried any other books she's co-/written, so they may be more YA, but I enjoyed that one.

[Gigei]

Ursula Le Guin cannot be recc'ed enough!

Has no one mentioned The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley?

I can't say that I particularly like it that much but it is a notable fantasy book by a female writer that gives a feminist interpretation of male-centered Arthurian myth. It would be pretty useless to read this if one is not already familiar with Arthurian myth though.

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

Hm. Just a couple more names, some I've seen, some I haven't, though I might have just missed them. In terms of recommending them to your son, you'd have to check them out; by the end of your post I wasn't sure if you wanted recs for him or just general discussion. In any case, I'm not sure how old your son is, so some of these are no doubt wildly inappropriate. :P

I also want to preempt disbelief, looking at that first name on my list -- I've kind of devaited from the actual request by listing authors whose books I just really enjoyed (or would have enjoyed) as a pre-teen/teenager, as well as those I think are great.

Melanie Rawn

Cherie Priest (Boneshaker: zombies in Seattle!)

NK Jemisin

KJ Parker

Nnedi Okorafor

Octavia Butler

Mary Shelley

Judith Tarr

Alice B Sheldon / James Tiptree, Jr.

other than the fact that you say it can't be YA: Judy Blume, SE Hinton, Madeleine L'Engle

for non-fantasy/sf stuff:

Willa Cather

Baroness Orczy (Scarlet Pimpernel)

Zora Neale Hurston

Toni Morrison

Murasaki Shikibu (Tale of Genji)

Betty Smith (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn)

Stella Gibbons (Cold Comfort Farm)

[Lord Toblerone]

That helps a little, but its more, Shes pretty and doesn't know it and there's love :vomit:. But thanks for trying. I'll put those in my DO NOT MENTION ON WESTEROS file, along with David Weber(who i think is fantastic and you all have bad taste) :P

I've only read his story in Warriors but that was fucking tedious. At least until the vampires showed up. That was amusingly off the wall.

on-topic:

One thing I love about Diana Wynne Jones is how she can write a story from the POV of a young person in such a way that you as the reader can see when they're being childish and foolish and really should tell somebody/ask for help, but never in a matriarchal Victorian "naughty children should respect their elders" way.

Charmed Life is a good example of this.

[Mjolnir]

Grack21 Wrote:

Well I had this long post about how A Companion to Wolves by Monette and Bear is a horrible, disgusting book, but firefox ate it. So yeah. Avoid that book like a Stankek Goodkind team up.

Hey, it's not that bad. I'll grant you it's got some pretty major flaws -- it's quite short and the cast is huge and it's hard to keep them straight, and I really really wish the men-feel-the-compulsions-of-their-wolves thing went more places than just boinking [eating hunted meat, perhaps; it might add more vericimilitude]. But horrible? Disgusting? I thought it was quite interesting in places, particularly the struggles the main character in this very masculine society has with adopting a nonviolent, balancing, peace-keeping role within the wolfcarl society.

It's not what I'd recommend first [or possibly second] by either of them by any means. But I think it's got good points. I certainly wouldn't agree it's Yeardish.

[Liadin]

I'm sorry for misunderstanding, but you were responding to, and quoted : What percentage is written by women? and answered directly Based on bookstore/library observations, I'd guess about half, give or take a few percentage points either way.

How am I supposed to guess you were not saying that you believed that 50% of books were written by women but making some finer argument unrelated to the question? Especially as the context of my reusing your answer deals with representativity and visibility anyway, converging towards your point (unless I misunderstand again, I dont know) :worried:

Never mind. The way you responded to my post it sounded like you thought I was talking out of my ass. I did say it was just an educated guess, not intended to be taken as gospel. Anyway I may have misinterpreted your response.

[williamjm]

My son is 14 and his reading level is definitely 14+. But I would say he's likely to miss a lot if a book is overly subtle, then again I miss a lot when a book is overly subtle.

Oh yeah, Ann Mcaffery, I'd forgot her too. I read her short story in Legends (or was it Legends II?) and thought it was pretty good. Then I read one of the actual dragon books and thought it was lame.

I don't know if I'd really be all that interested in them if I read them for the first time now, but when I was 14 I did really like McCaffrey's Pern series, so I think your son might be at about the right age for them. That said, even at that age I did notice that some of the books were better than others, some of the books that were a bit disconnected to the main plot were quite poor - the original trilogy of Dragonflight, Dragonquest and The White Dragon are the best to start with.

Another series by a female author I liked a lot when I was 14 was Julian May's Saga of the Exiles series (and the prequel/sequel Galactic Milieu Trilogy), and although I haven't read it for a few years I think it would probably stand up to a re-read better than McCaffrey's books. It's a very imaginative series, apparently the basic premise of time travelling back two millions years to the Pliocene epoch wasn't enough of a concept, but May also had to add in psychic powers, Celtic mythology and half a dozen alien races along with a list of (often memorable) characters comparable in size to ASOIAF's cast list.

[Datepalm]

Connie Willis: I've only read three of her time travel books [blackout and All Clear, which must be read together, and the Victorian time travel comedy To Say Nothing of the Dog], and her writing's incredibly readable and fun while also packing a heavy emotional punch. Easy to read but mature and considered; if he's interested in sci-fi I'd rank these right up there.

Read Doomsday Book. BO/AC were ok, in the end, but they can't hold a candle up to Doomsday book - all the detail and the immersion and the humor, but much more focus and control. And much more of an emotional punch.. (Though I admit To Say Nothing is probably my favorite of her books.)

Has anyone recced Mary Renault? I remember enjoying her books a lot at that age, and I don't think they slip into YA territory completely, BUT they're failry short.

[Galactus]

I found Doomsday book to be... Unspectacular. Fun enough time travel story but nothing particularly noteworthy in any direction.

[Datepalm]

I found Doomsday book to be... Unspectacular. Fun enough time travel story but nothing particularly noteworthy in any direction.

What did you think of the history? I can't speak to the accuracy, but what the book did for me was drive home, emotionally, this sense of the whole of history as being made up of real people, which came as something of a profound revelation at that point.

I think Willis - especially her serious stuff - is a little love it or leave it. People who don't like Willis, just don't, and people who do - just do. I've come to terms with it, even though I feel she's a bit underappreciated. For someone who liked Blackout/All Clear for readability emotional punch though, which is exactly where I thought the books failed to live up to her previous standards, Doomsday Book is a really obvious rec. If you didn't like DB - you're not going to like BO/AC, but if you did like them, you'll probably love Doomsday.