Recommended women sf writers

[bookfiend]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Aren't the male romance authors mostly writing under female-sounding pseudonyms?

I've heard that men actually make up a larger proportion of romance authors than you might think, only they're just not writing under their "real" names* because it's thought that the books wouldn't sell as much, in much the same way that female authors had to for centuries† mostly had to disguise their gender when writing non-romances.

* Except Fabio, who's apparently ghost-written anyway.

† Why hello there, Georges Eliot and Sand!

That's quite possible; I really know little about the genre, since I don't read it. I was just going by lists of names I'd seen (which, as you say, could very well be pen names) and discussions on this and other reading forums.

[Xanthe]

Catherine Asaro

The Saga of the Skolian Empire series

From Wikipedia:

The Saga of the Skolian Empire, informally called the Skolian Saga, is a series of science fiction novels, novelettes and novellas revolving around characters from an interstellar empire known as the Skolian Empire and their power struggle with the rival Eubian Concord. The plot of the book unfolds over several generations of characters and revolves around political intrigues, but also contains subplots regarding romance, physics, bio-enhancements, and virtual computer networks.

Asaro is known for including sophisticated mathematical concepts in her fiction. The method of space travel used in the Skolian Empire books comes from a paper Asaro wrote on complex variables and special relativity that appeared in the American Journal of Physics. The novel Spherical Harmonic involves an imagined universe based on the Hilbert space described by the spherical harmonic eigenfunctions that solve the Laplace Equation, and some prose in the book is written in the shape of the sinusoidal waves found in the spherical harmonics.[7] Her novel The Quantum Rose is an allegory to quantum scattering theory and is dedicated to her doctoral advisors and mentors in the subject, Alex Dalgarno, Kate Kirby, and Eric J. Heller. The novella "Aurora in Four Voices" includes topics ranging from Fourier series to integration problems in calculus, as discussed in Mathematical Fiction forum. In essays in the back of some of her novels, Asaro explains the mathematical and physics basis of the ideas used in the books, in particular Spherical Harmonic, The Quantum Rose, and The Moon's Shadow.

From me:

This is a great scifi series, a mix of hard scifi and space opera. There are plots and subplots, various story arcs involving the characters, an interesting cultural clash between the enemies and all-around great world-building. She slips the science into you without you really realizing it. Her Saga of the Skolian Empire books are ones that I re-read in their entirety every couple years.

She wrote the books out of chronological sequence, so if you want to know both the publishing and chronological sequences, see this Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Asaro

[Worldwalker]

I'm not trying to equate anything. I'm just saying that if we think it's bad to do something -- in this case, focusing on the gender of the writer -- then we shouldn't be doing it. To say "it's bad when it's to the detriment of women, so it's good if it's in favor of women" is saying that two wrongs make a right.

[Xanthe]

Sharon Lee

Co-author with Steve Miller of the Liaden Universe series.

From Wikipedia:

. In the wake of a diaspora from a "decrystallizing" galaxy that was mankind's prior home, the human race is divided into three major sub-races: Terran, Liaden and Yxtrang. (There are also numerous isolated colony planets that have backslid technologically and are held as protectorates until their civilizations regain enough advances to cope with extraplanetary contact.)

Liadens are usually shorter than the Terran norm, often with golden skin. They are deeply concerned with their melant'i which roughly corresponds to the concern with "face" for which Japanese Samurai are famous. Some are almost rabidly isolationist; it is not uncommon for Liaden to refer to those of other races as "it" likening them to animals. Several characters are part- or even half-Terran: this does not endear them to the isolationists.

Liaden society is clan-based, each Clan being made up of one or more families ("lines"). The Head of a Clan is the "Delm", the head of a line is the "Thodelm"; either might be male or female as circumstances dictate.

Some Liaden are trained as explorers: the Scouts. They are regarded with distaste by the more isolationist within Liaden society.

Most of the stories thus far centre on members of Clan Korval, made up of the yos'Phelium and yos'Galan lines. Scouts also appear often.

The seven-book "Agent of Change" sequence tells of the struggle between Clan Korval, a Liaden Clan of much note, and the mysterious "Department of the Interior".

The eighth novel, Balance of Trade, is set 275 years prior to the end of the "Agent of Change" sequence. It features Jethri Gobelyn, a young Terran trader who is adopted by a Liaden Master Trader to the consternation of virtually everyone.

The ninth novel, Crystal Soldier, published in February 2005, takes place even earlier still: it is the first half of "The Great Migration Duology", and tells the story of Cantra yos'Phelium, who piloted the original exodus to Liad, and her partner Jela. The sequel, Crystal Dragon, was published in 2006 and takes the story up through the founding of Liad and of Clan Korval.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liaden_universe

From me:

A most excellent series! It's a grand sweeping ongoing space opera with the most intriguing characters, corrupt agencies, mercenary soldiers, human divisions, trade disputes, a space-wide crime family, clan loyalties, Clutch Turtles, an ancient tree, a mysterious invading force, and excellent culture-building. This is definitely a keeper series. Another series that I re-read almost yearly.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

I'm not trying to equate anything. I'm just saying that if we think it's bad to do something -- in this case, focusing on the gender of the writer -- then we shouldn't be doing it. To say "it's bad when it's to the detriment of women, so it's good if it's in favor of women" is saying that two wrongs make a right.

Yes, you've been equating a personal decision to seek out authors of a particular type to read with an institutional act to shut out authors of that same time from being published.

One denies those authors the chance of making a living honestly in the open. The other does not. Apples and oranges are both fruits, but that's where the resemblance kind of ends.

And you're derailing someone's request thread in order to repeatedly express your opinion that they shouldn't even be asking in the first place.

And this thinly-veiled judgment you passed without even the minimal courtesy of adding a recommendation for an author in your first post passing said thinly-veiled judgment.

And it takes three lefts to make a right.

And I recommend the OP look at Nalo Hopkinson and Candas Jane Dorsey for authors who fit their request for both sf female writers in this thread, and Canadian sf authors in the other thread. I've only read short stories, but they've struck me as fairly decent, enough that I wouldn't reject reading longer works based upon that previous experience.

And if the OP would like to try some old school Canadian female-written SF, there's a nice collection of Judith Merril's short stories available DRM-free via Fictionwise (buy when they have a discount coupon, which they do most months). She's got a branch of the SF collection of one of the big libraries (Toronto Public, I think) named after her and her personal collection went there after she died, I believe.

And now I think I'm done here.

[Frida Fantastic]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

I'm not trying to equate anything. I'm just saying that if we think it's bad to do something -- in this case, focusing on the gender of the writer -- then we shouldn't be doing it. To say "it's bad when it's to the detriment of women, so it's good if it's in favor of women" is saying that two wrongs make a right.

I think it's a good thing to look for writers that are underrepresented in the publishing market. I realized that a good majority of the books I've read and are on my to read list are by white men published in either Britain or the USA just because of how big publishing industry works, but I want to give other storytellers a shot.

It's just like looking for Canadian writers, or indie writers, or a male romance writer. Ultimately, when I sit down and read a book, I expect a damn good story regardless of who wrote it, and I'll still violently throw a bad book across the room even if it was written by an indie Aboriginal-Canadian scifi quadriplegic female writer.

I just looked at books I've read since 2006, and 22% of them are by female writers. I don't read romance. That looks just about the same number in parliament!

[jehane]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

† Why hello there, Georges Eliot and Sand!

Let's not forget Messrs Acton, Currer and Ellis Bell!

I'll add some of my favourites to the list. Apologies if I've repeated some - there were lots of names on the list!

CS Friedman, probably best known for the Coldfire Trilogy (fantasy) but personally my favourite is This Alien Shore (SF).

Jacqueline Carey, fantasy. I've always wondered if she was inspired by this famous list.

Julian May, SF, though I think there is fantasy in the mix as well.

Sheri S Tepper

For the younger audience, I enjoyed Diana Wynne Jones (Harry Potter done earlier and better!), Robin McKinley, Madeleine L'Engle, Patricia McKillip.

And there's loads more...

[BenG]

Let's not forget C.L. Moore and James Tiptree, Jr.

[OtterBooks]

Mary Doria Russell, author of The Sparrow. Sorry if it was mentioned already.

Female authors may be underrepresented in specific genres like SciFi and Mystery, but they've been dominating fiction publishing for at least a decade. Often this is blamed on the fact that females comprise the largest number of readers (by a huge margin, with regard to fiction), but some have suggested that publishing houses have played a big part in creating this trend, by favoring books geared towards women.

Why Men Don't Read: How Publishing is Alienating Half the Population

On a different note: there seems to be a discernible bias in favor of male authors when it comes to reviews. Books written by men appear to get better review coverage by large publications like NYT.

[WillAdams]

Tanith Lee --- most of her stuff is fantasy, but she has done some science fiction.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

† Why hello there, Georges Eliot and Sand!

Alice Mary Norton took up the pen names Andre Norton, Andrew North and Allen Weston back when it was believed that women couldn't write science fiction. Her sci-fi books are old school, but I like them that way.

[Timoleon]

Linda Nagata

http://www.amazon.com/Linda-Nagata/e..._athr_dp_pel_1

I really enjoyed "The Bohr Maker."

[carld]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

That's ironic because both Alice Mary Norton and Carolyn Cherry had to use masculine (Andre) or neuter (C.J.) pen names. Book buyers (or at least publishers) back then made buying decisions, apparently, based on what sex the author was. Have we gone back to those days?

A good book is a good book. Shouldn't we be beyond caring whether a man or a woman wrote it?

Funny story, sort of. I read Andre Norton for years, as did my friends. We were all big Sci-fi/Fantasy readers, and always called "him" Andrea Norton, and just assumed that the writer was a woman. It never occurred to any of us that Andre was supposed to be a masculine name (though looking back, of course it was).

[Frida Fantastic]

Thanks for the recommendations, everyone!

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

Female authors may be underrepresented in specific genres like SciFi and Mystery, but they've been dominating fiction publishing for at least a decade. Often this is blamed on the fact that females comprise the largest number of readers (by a huge margin, with regard to fiction), but some have suggested that publishing houses have played a big part in creating this trend, by favoring books geared towards women.

Why Men Don't Read: How Publishing is Alienating Half the Population

Great article, I haven't really thought about it, thanks! It's interesting too to think about how other products are tied to books. Over here in Canada, the biggest chain we have is Chapters, and it morphed over the years to sell interior design knick knacks and cute stationary in pastel colours and bird/floral silhouettes. I guess the underlying assumption is that a lot of these customers are women who like to buy these sort of knick knacks for their home. Fascinating.

[Joykins]

I like Margaret Atwood's SF--particularly _The Handmaid's Tale_ and I have _Oryx and Crake_ and _After the Flood_ in my TBR queue.