There’s a question floating around the SF blogosphere asking for folks 10 favorite science fiction works by women since 2000. The question is inspired by a 2003 interview with Gwyneth Jones, where she listed out her answer to the same question.
I tend to read a lot more speculative fiction and fantasy than science fiction, mostly because I am drawn more to worldbuilding and mythological underpinnings than I care about the technological innovations or infrastructure of a world. But lately, my feminist science fiction reading group has been struggling for titles, and we have done a lot of revisiting of old classics in the past year. So this question caught my attention.
Here’s my list of what SF written by women I have read from the various lists. And I’d recommend all of them, they are good reads!
- Karen Traviss, City of Pearl (I’ve read and enjoyed the whole series. It reads like fluff but wrestles with deep issues and gives your brain plenty to mull over long after the book is closed)
- L. Timmel Duchamp, Alanya to Alanya, (I didn’t love the read, but the material has staying power, and I have decided I am compelled to read the next book. I believe there are 4 in the series)
- Liz Williams, Ghost Sister (fascinating. Wish there were more in the same world! Great book for tech, if that’s your thing. Also a facinating take on environmentalism, religion, and colinialism)
- Octavia Butler, Fledgling
- Elizabeth Bear, Carnival
- Rosemary Kirstein’s Steerswomen series
- Lyda Morehouse, Archangel Protocol (I really wish the rest of the series was still in print)
- Julie E. Czerneda, Survival: Species Imperative
- Louise Marley, The Child Goddess
- Nancy Kress Beggars in Spain
And here is the compiled list of titles from the various websites linked above (minus what I have read), mostly so I can keep track of them.
- Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm
- Cyteen by CJ Cherryh
- Synners by Pat Cadigan
- Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler
- Tricia Sullivan’s Maul;
- Gwyneth Jones’
- Life
- Bold as Love
- Midnight Lamp
- White Queen
- Castles Made of Sand
- Rainbow Bridge
- Sarah Hall’s The Carhullan Army;
- Justina Robson’s Living Next-Door to the God of Love; Natural History
- Jan Morris’s Hav
- Susan Palwick’s Shelter;
- Maureen McHugh’s Nekropolis;
- Jo Walton’s Farthing;
- Kathleen Ann Goonan’s
- In War Time
- Light Music
- Josephine Saxton – the Queen Of The States
- Leigh Kennedy – The Journal Of Nicholas The American
- Sue Thomas – Correspondence
- Judith Moffett – Pennterra
- Michaela Roessner – Vanishing Point
- Kit Reed – @Expectations
- Andrea Hairston – Mindscape
- Lisa Goldstein’s Tourists,
- Patricia Geary’s Strange Toys
- Elizabeth Moon’s The Speed of Dark,
- Elizabeth Bear
- Undertow
- Hammered
- Scardown
- Worldwired
- Silver Screen is Justina Robson’s first novel;
- Nylon Angel, Code Noir and Crash Deluxe are by Marianne de Pierres;
- Time Future is by Maxine McArthur.
- Warchild by Karin Lowachee,
- Spin State by Chris Moriarty,
- Tricia Sullivan should certainly be in there
- Linda Nagata
- The Bohr Maker
- Vast
- Memory
- Timmel Duchamp’s Marq’ssan Cycle - Tsunami, Renegade, Blood in the Fruit, and Stretto.
- Empire of Bone by Liz Williams
- The Poison Master by Liz Williams
- Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson.
- Vatta Series – multiple books (Elizabeth Moon)
- Spin state and Spin Control – Chris Moriarty
