My Top 10 Science Fiction Books Written by Women

[@vintagesf]

Really glad to see this video although, as a reader of vintage SF, I may differ on most of your picks. I'm there with you for Hurley, Butler and Atwood. Ones that I would add to those three are URSULA K. LE GUIN, Joanna Russ, C. L. Moore, James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Sheldon), Connie Willis, Ann Leckie and Mary Shelley.

[@lisagulick4144]

Not actually vintage, but Elizabeth Bear is both exciting and fun to read!

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I am seriously underread on Le Guin. I appreciate the Vintage author recs because I'm not familiar with all of those

[@vintagesf]

@@TheShadesofOrange I think our combined recommendations makes a pretty good list!

[@chokog2446]

Lois McMaster Bujold!

[@JeantheSecond-ip7qm]

I am so glad you have CJ Cherryh on the list. She’s one of my all-time favorite authors and nobody talks about her. Cyteen by CJ Cherryh is a must read.

[@pkmadsen2850]

How can you not have the greatest scifi character of all time? Miles Vorkosigan written by Lois McMaster Bujold.

[@LaughingStockfarm1]

Miles forever! ❤

[@TheShadesofOrange]

Sounds like I have more reading to do!

[@ferachol]

Enjoyed the list -thank you for the recommendations. For Butler I am torn between Kindred and the Parables duology. I would also add the Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (I recommend the whole series-but the first in particular is so compelling and excellent.)

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I'm currently reading Parable of the Sower. It's definitely headed to the favourites list

[@mikesnyder1788]

So many great titles by female authors! Thanks for making this list and giving us even more books that we wish we had time to read! I am Old School Science Fiction so, naturally, the inimitable Ursula K. LeGuin is at the top of my list: The dispossessed, The left hand of darkness, and The lathe of heaven were all five star novels for me back in the day and I can still recommend them very highly. To say nothing of the dog by Connie Willis is a very special favorite because the story includes Time Travel, Romance, the Nazi bombing of Coventry, England during WWII, and a bit of a clever twist at the end. One of the very few novels that I can easily describe as - someone once said - "a ripping good yarn!" Thanks again!!!

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I am horribly underread on Guin and need to change that

[@mikesnyder1788]

@@TheShadesofOrange Right, but you have nothing to worry about! You are possibly the best read person I have ever encountered. And I truly believe you will find LeGuin a very special author. Happy reading, Rachel...

[@user-yz7sr6od1x]

Excellent choices! I'd add The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, and also highly recommend The Dispossessed by Le Guin.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I really need to read The Dispossessed

[@Tetsujin-28]

On the shelf: Foe (Iain Reid). What a fun read. These Burning Stars (Bethany Jacobs). Sea of Tranquility (Emily St. John Mandel).

[@gregjohnson6021]

Pretty good list, I've read about half of them, with Down Below Station easily my favorite of the bunch. I'd like to put in a plug for a friend of mine, Eleanor Arnason, whose writing seems to be not well known by book tubers. She's been writing SF and fantasy since the eighties, A Woman of the Iron People is anthropological science fiction, similar to Ursula LeGuin, Ring of Swords is space opera with politics and complicated aliens, and Mammoths of the Great Plains, my favorite, is a novella about the restoration of mammoths to the Dakota plains. Hope you'll check one of them out.

[@greywaren621]

Connie Wiilis should be added as well. Doomsday Book, Passage (My favorite), To Say Nothing of the Dog, Lincoln's Dream...

[@TheShadesofOrange]

Definitely room to grow on this list!

[@joannatrefethen1197]

The Seattle Public Library picked Butler's "Parable of the Sower' as their 2024 book for the entire city to read. This is the first time they picked a non-living author, but Butler lived near Seattle for years so there's a connection. Plus, it just feels timely now.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I'm currently reading it now... amazing

[@joannatrefethen1197]

I was at the Nebula Awards when The Speed of Dark won. At the presentation I saw a woman at the next table crying. I thought, if this book elicits that kind of response, I'd better read it. Glad I did, it is so uplifting. Neurodiverse characters in science fiction are more common now, but Moon was there twenty years ago.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

Yes except for the ending, it was exceptionally ahead of it's time

[@TheMike28212]

Great video. I loved Escaping Exodus, Electric Forest, and The Relentless Moon. I look forward to reading the others eventually especially The Handmaid's Tale, Kindred, and The Speed of Dark as I'm super curious about the ending of the one.

[@starpilotsix]

A couple favorites by women that stand out and either are standalone or lesser known: Limit of Vision by Linda Nagata The Spin series by Chris Moriarty (the first one's good but not spectacular, but I really like the second, Spin State) The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North (really, a lot by her, although sadly the last few books have veered away from topics I'm interested in) Unity by Elly Bangs (recent new fave) I'm reasonably sure you've already talked about the vN series by Madeline Ashby, but also that one, along with books by Chambers and Leckie and Robinette Kowal you've already mentioned in this very video so no need to go into them aside from 'yes, agreed!'

[@Nixx0912]

You mean the Odyssey retelings? I got those on my list too but we got French edition of "Sweet Harmony" this year so I've read it first, that on is still sf. I had a chance to get it signed also.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

Appreciate these recs

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I think that’s my favourite of the Chambers’ books too

[@kyrosv1289]

Thank you!! The ones calling to me are: The Relentless Moon (2020) Mary Robinette Kowal and possibly: Before Mars (2018) Emma Newman

[@artlesscalamity]

It’s tough, because patriarchy is ingrained in the history of civilization and culture. This isn’t a political comment, just a sociological reality. But there have been breakout moments of brilliance, even centuries back. My absolute favorite sci-fi book is by a woman far ahead of her time: Shelly’s Frankenstein.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

Mary Shelley is such a good pick. And yes, I think there are a lot of sociological reasons why there are more popular SFF male authors. Last year's top ten was interesting to discover how much my reading leans naturally to men just due to popularity and familiarity

[@starpilotsix]

@@TheShadesofOrange Something like a decade ago it occurred to me that I was reading mostly male SF authors, not deliberately, just 'as it happened', and I decided to make a conscious adjustment. Not even a huge one, just when I'm considering books that look interesting, my default (no matter who the author was) is that if the premise didn't grab me right away, I'd wait to hear others opinions, recommendations, etc, so I'd try, when the author wasn't male, to apply a slight "oh, what the hell, give it a try" pressure. Not a huge one, I still had to have some interest in the description, but just make myself a bit more open to authors I might not have tried or heard much about. With that small pressure my reading got close to 50/50 parity, and it really opened my eyes how MUCH small influences and biases can impact outcomes and even people who consider themselves not to be discriminatory in any way can still wind up with results that look that way, just because of how biases elsewhere in the world persist and magnify. To be honest, my favorites list and 'most reread books' still is weighted towards males, but I attribute it to much the same things, small biases that get magnified - not that women can't write great SF of any stripe, but if, say, they tend to be pushed away from the subgenres that I particularly connect with... well, there you go, naturally that's going to skew my results. (Similarly, the mere fact that so much of my reading happened when I was mostly reading men so a ton of 'favorites' were already on the list and even if I developed new favorites on a 50/50 basis, it's going to be lopsided for a while)

[@ReinReads]

Great list. Ada Palmer is one for you to consider. Her Terra Ignota series can be off putting to some due to framing and writing style. Given your appreciation of fantasy series and Atwood make me think you get on with it. It’s like nothing else out there but it’s a bit of a commitment being a ~1750 page tetralogy.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I really need to keep reading the Terra Ignota series. I got stuck on book 2

[@cherylmccutchan1282]

I just started Too Like the Lightning and am really enjoying it on audio. I suspect I will purchase it and eye read it also because of its complexity and narration style.

[@anonymes2884]

Yep, some good books in there, agreed. Been meaning to re-read "The Speed of Dark" for a while because I remember _really_ enjoying it when it came out and now i'm even more intrigued because I can't remember the ending at all :) - "A Calculated Life" by Anne Charnock is a more recent novel I liked, with a somewhat similar feel IIRC. I'd surely need some Ursula Le Guin in my own list (maybe "The Left Hand of Darkness") and Eileen Gunn (probably "Stable Strategies and Others") who, like Ted Chiang, only suffers from one major flaw IMO - she doesn't write _enough_ :). And just a few weeks back I finished "Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea" by Sarah Pinsker which I thought was an _excellent_ SF&F short-story collection, pretty sure some of them will stick with me for a long while.

[@thefuzzybookdragon]

'Cuckoo's Egg' is my favourite by C J Cherryh, definitely recommend.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I've never heard of that one by Cherryh

[@thefuzzybookdragon]

@@TheShadesofOrange I was lucky enough to stumble across one of the original editions from 1985 in a used book shop, but it did get reprinted in an omnibus titied 'The Deep Beyond', so you might have more luck finding that.

[@luaarenal5471]

Ursula, Joanna Russ, Alice Sheldon (James Tiptree Jr) and Connie Willis also get a vote from me. And add Pat Cadigan.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

Appreciate the recs

[@Octobig]

great video!! 📚 such a nice way of highlighting more SF books by women! a few of my faves are frankenstein by mary shelley & the teixcalaan duology by arkady martine (but ofc the latter wouldn't fit on a standalone list). looking forward to your updated top tens as well!

[@TheShadesofOrange]

Thanks. Loved reading your favourites

[@tomaszgoebiowski5278]

Kate Wilhelm - "Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang"

[@just_kos99]

I'm surprised you didn't have Anne McCaffrey. Not only for her Dragonriders of Pern series, but also the Rowan series and the Brainship series, all excellent reading. (BTW, the Dragonriders of Pern books aren't fantasy -- there's a perfectly good scientific explanation for the development of the giant dragons from the native, small fire lizards of Pern.)

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I actually have read any Anne McCaffrey yet but I honestly didn't realize they were sci fi. That makes me more excited to read those books

[@Unworshipediety]

Hopefully, I'll get around to reading one of these gems. Excaping Exodus does seem like something I'd like.

[@sandrapeglow2003]

Great Video!

[@O.M.G.Puppies]

Ooh, what a fun topic. I also love C.J.Cherryh (Cyteen, Foreigner, Chanur ). Octavia Butler is one of my favorite authors period, Wild Seed and Clay's Ark are my favorites. Also love Atwood. Did you like The Sparrow by Mary Russell? I liked it, but BookPilled really hated it. Also love Ursula LeGuin's books (The Disposessed) There is Mary Shelley. Imagine living in 1818 and writing a book about sewing together dead body parts and bringing it to life with Galvanic Energy. Electricity was new and mysterious then. What a strange creative mind. With regard to autism, have you looked at Temple Grandin? Check out her TED talk.

[@SleepyBookReader-666]

Very cool. I will have to rewatch and write down some of titles. I think the only one I’ve already read (at least twice) is Kindred. Being of an earlier generation , I probably would have included Le Guin, Wilhelm, Tiptree etc. But there are so many more female writers in the recent decades…it’s good to have some starting places.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

Apologies for not including links this time. It's been a busy week and I ran out of time

[@majelthesurreal5723]

I'm glad you picked what you thought were the best books and adjusted for author gender. Sometimes that is going to happen but TY for this follow up. SyFi is not my usual go to but I found some of these titles interesting and will check them out.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

Thanks. This video is getting mixed reception but I thought it was something I wanted to discuss

[@josephiyeke8946]

I loved To Be Taught, if Fortunate, just logged into Libby and saw there were a ton of books I could borrow, thanks for reminding me of Becky Chambers!

[@TheShadesofOrange]

Really liked that one. It's definitely a favourite novella

[@lissavanhouten6628]

My go-to author was Andre Norton when I was a teenager.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

Not familiar. Is that a woman?

[@lissavanhouten6628]

@@TheShadesofOrange Yes, she was relatively well-known I'd say in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. She wrote mostly to an adolescent/young adult (20s) audience. Her writing style read older. Sometimes her novels were either fantasy or sci-fi or crossed over into both genres. The Crystal Gryphon's was a favorite of mine.

[@socaltoobie8984]

The Light Brigade really piques my interest!! Will also look into Electric Forest. ☺️

[@Jzscrstsprstr]

Probably The Dispossessed (love Ursula Le Guin)

[@TheShadesofOrange]

Still need to read that one

[@ReinReads]

The Dispossessed is a great place to for LeGuin and the Hainish Cycle books. As you mentioned with some books in the video these books are loosely connected and can be read in any order. If you decide to read Left Hand of Darkness first be sure to read her introduction where she discusses her philosophy on Science Fiction. It’s exceptional. It’s even available online at Pinguin Random Houses’s website and would be a worthy place to start exploring LeGuin’s brilliance.

[@Castabulan]

Sheri S. Tepper has a wonderful oeuvre. One of my favorites is Grass. Maureen McHugh’s China Mountain Zhang is fantastic. Kathleen Ann Goonan also has some fantastic novels.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

Appreciate these recs

[@genteelblackhole]

Interesting picks, I've only read a couple of them (Kindred and the Handmaid's Tale), I'll have to check out some of the others. I'd highly recommend Connie Willis, especially the Oxford Time Travel series. Doomsday Book is phenomenal.

[@lisagulick4144]

_A Closed and Common Orbit_ also deals with learning to feel comfortable in one's own skin as well as finding a place to belong. Yes, it is kind of gritty...but there's a whole lot of tenderness as well. But then, I want to retire to Port Coriol!

[@TheShadesofOrange]

You are making me want to reread Orbit

[@lisagulick4144]

@@TheShadesofOrange Excellent! My work here is done! >^_^

[@markchristiansen9611]

Ann Leckie novel Ancillary Justice. Such a great job.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

Love that one. I only skipped it because I'll likely include it in my next series video

[@lukebanks9007]

I know you said youbwernt doing series. But J.S. Dewes The Devide series has its 3rd book coming out soon. The first book was really really good. The second one was also good but not quite as good as the first. Looking forward to Relentless Legion

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I'm so excited for book 3! Hopefully I'll review it this fall

[@rickfish8043]

I gotta know what happens in the speed of dark now, it will be the next book I read

[@dalejones4322]

I am reading The Light Brigade now. I'm 60 pages in and enjoying it so far. Have you read the short story Blood Child by Octavia Butler. It is so good and very disturbing. Whitney put me on it and it's hard to believe how much there is to such a short story. You've definitely got me curious about The Speed of Dark. Thanks for the great video Rachel

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I still need to read Blood Child. I'm currently reading Parable of the Sower and it is Amazing

[@TuftyMcTavish]

A couple of authors pop to mind whom I have much enjoyed, including Elizabeth Bonesteel, C.A. Higgins and Megan E. O’Keefe. Of your list I am probably most interested in reading “The Light Brigade.” As I was listening to you I actively paused, and wandered into my Library to confirm my thinking that I already owned a paperback copy of that book. I previously tried and quickly bounced off “The Stars Are Legion” as it was a bit too ‘tentacle’ for me as I recall! I’ll maybe try again, after something else of theirs - it just wasn’t the right time.

[@maxturgeon89]

I know you've read it and it wasn't a favourite of yours. But one of my all-time favourite novels (in any genre) is LeGuin's *The Left Hand of Darkness*. I never thought I could enjoy an extended trek on ice that much.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I really need to reread it because I feel like I should love it

[@EricBowersTrekkie]

Good list! I would add an Ursula K. Le Guin book maybe. 👾👾👾👾👾👾

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I am seriously underread in her sci fi

[@Millie.C]

Lilith's Brood by Octavia E. Butler is at the top of my list every since I've read it some years ago. I wouldn't even pick a book of the trilogy, together as a whole they make for an amazing experience. I actually got a physical copy, after reading the audiobook, and it was a single book with all 3 parts. I would also recommend Nnedi Okorafor, though she writes more towards fantasy, from what I understood her style is science fantasy rather. Her work is very compelling, and even poetical to some degree. On a more unpopular opinion, Ursula Le Guin did not work for me.

[@aboynam3dblu3]

Some of these sound great, will have to add em to the ever lengthening tbr. Not very familiar with a lot of sci/fi written by women but my one offering here would be “Left Hand of Darkness” by Le Guin. And I don’t know if anthologies belong on a list like this but “Outer Space, Inner Land” the second volume of her “The Real and The Unreal” is also really wonderful.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

This list is definitely missing some le guin

[@lylelisle9568]

I find it incredible that Your list leaves out the only sci-fi author to match Heinlein's 4 Hugo awards. Lois McMaster Bujold.

[@phillipray4380]

I recommend “Doomsday Book” by Connie Willis. It won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards back in the day.

[@JosephSaltal]

I read "The Handmaid's Tale" in college.

[@andrewgillis5997]

My favorite Wayfarer book too! Have you read any of the retrieval artist series by Kristine Kathryn Rusch? The premise is a bit.. convoluted (bring your suspension of disbelief) but they're fast paced and fun mysteries set on and around the moon.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

No I haven't but I'm intrigued

[@hoytreads]

In the Garden of Iden, by Kage Baker. It's the first in her "The Company" series, which has some uneven entries, but is awesome overall. Time traveling cyborgs controlled by a mysterious company based in the far future. She died tragically young, but put out some great work.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

Add that to my tbr

[@markchristiansen9611]

Miles Vorkosigan saga is one of my favorites, especially the more action-oriented ones with Miles

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I definitely need to read some miles

[@lpa4058]

My Favorite Octavia Butler book is The Parable of the Sower

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I just finished it! Amazing

[@TatianaBoshenka]

I'm surprised no Ursula K. LeGuin. It's so hard to pick one book by her because she's written so many great ones, but maybe Powers from the Annals of the Western Shore series. Or The Tombs of Atuan from Earthsea. If you want it more SF-like and less fantasy-like, then maybe The Left Hand of Darkness. Butler, I do love very much. My favorite by her is the Xenogenesis trilogy also known as Lilith's Brood. It has more science-fictional elements than Kindred, which is kind of a fantasy, isn't it? It's great either way, though. Oh, and I forgot Fledgling which is Awesome. Another great sf novelist is Lois McMaster Bujold. I would recommend Cordelia's Honor by her.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I would have included Fledgling if I hadn't recently put in on my horror list. Her speculative fiction fits so many genres. And I am so underread in terms of Le Guin. Really need to fix that

[@isobeltotten4402]

great books by women in my humble onion: lapvona (obvi for me), women talking, patience and sarah, the secret history, the true and splendid history of the harristown sisters, convenience store woman, things to do when you're goth in the country, the deep, her body and other parties, silver in the wood, bunny, tender is the flesh, girl woman other, milk fed, suture, fruiting bodies, affinity (or any other sarah waters book tbh). was surprised to realize i've read little to no scifi by women. it's not my favourite genre but i do read it, especially stuff that's more on the speculative end. i do have another rivers solomon book on my tbr that's scifi so I'll let you know how that goes.

[@upwithgravity]

The Many-Colored Land by Julian May, first in a great series. My favorite Butler book is Wild Seed.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

Oh I've read that one. I just assumed it was a male author. This is the real reason I constantly say "they"

[@lisagulick4144]

One really great author that you missed is Joan Slonczewski. My favorite of her novels is _Brain Plague._ She is a microbiologist as well as a writer, and she does an awesome job of making the science fun and exciting while helping us suspend our disbelief and buy into her worlds. (It is part of a series, but a good standalone.) Someone else mentioned Sheri S. Tepper; you really must read _The Fresco._ First contact with a few unusual twists. And...no Nnedi Okorafor? _Binti_ is actually a mini-collection of novellas, but together they make one short novel! Or, read _Lagoon,_ another first-contact novel. You like gritty? Nnedi is good at gritty, especially after things take a dark turn for one of the emissaries.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I will have to look up that author. I didn't include the Binti trilogy because I would put them on a series list instead

[@angelamccollister]

Have you read Moon's Remnant Population? It was my favorite book the year i read it. I haven't yet read The Speed of Dark. I also love her fantasy.

[@dalejones4322]

Remnant Population was a great book. I forgot about it. Great call

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I did read Remnant. I prefer Dark but still a good one

[@jeroenadmiraal8714]

I really liked Kameron Hurley's The Stars Are Legion

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I really need to reread that one

[@mr.flopsyfudge1290]

Becy chambers are easy one of my favorite female author! Her books speaks to me.

[@bfitzger2]

I've read most of the books by the authors you mentioned; at least half of them are truly amazing (authors and books, e.g. Tanith Lee is amazing almost all the time, same for Elizabeth Moon albeit for different reasons).Kindred was a brutally hard read for me, and her Parable books were more to my enjoyment (but Kindred was better? Hard to say). Award-winning and amazing female authors I've read in the past few months not mentioned: Connie Willis, Vonda N. McIntyre, Ursula K. LeGuin.

[@CyraNoavek]

Memoirs of a Spacewomen by Naomi Mitcheson

[@cherylmccutchan1282]

Has anyone mentioned Ursula K Le Guin yet?? 🤣Left Hand of Darkness and The Word for World is Forest are high on my favorite scifi list. Hopefully, you'll include Ann Leckie and Martha Wells on an upcoming list of series. I've also got A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine high on my TBR.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I know! It's such a giant gap

[@travisporco]

great stuff...but ah man, no Murderbot :(

[@JeantheSecond-ip7qm]

Yes, needs more Murderbot.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

As a sequential series, I would save it for a series list

[@sams5963]

I read Tanith Lee's Electric Forest earlier this year based on the recommendation of Matt at Bookpilled. And you don't need to answer this but did you mean to imply in your comments that you had an eating disorder that affected your fertility? I apologize if I got the wrong end of the stick on that one.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I developed am ED while dealing with infertility... which made the infertility worse. 🤦‍♀️ I plan to share more in a video next year

[@sams5963]

@@TheShadesofOrange Well I take it you managed that difficulty successfully. Excellent.

[@HannahRanita]

Hi Rachel. Do you have any fiction books about deception or political drama?

[@TheShadesofOrange]

Nothing specifically on those themes that I can think of

[@maxturgeon89]

Infomocracy by Malka Older. I haven't read it yet (it's actually part of the trilogy!), but I think it fits the bill

[@JosephSaltal]

I see "The Martian Chronicles". That's a favorite of mine.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

An absolute favourite of mine!

[@davidcarlson4289]

I don't know if you ever mentioned this author in another sci Fi list but Mary Doria Russell is a fantastic author who wrote a duoligy called The Sparrow and the Children of God. Must've come out about 20 years ago but I still think about the themes. Check then out

[@TheShadesofOrange]

Sadly I have bad feelings towards the Sparrow

[@sarafairchild2588]

@@TheShadesofOrange- I have wonderful feelings but the ending is of course shocking and its like your other one- don’t read the last few chapters. However it gave me one of my fave descriptions of getting ready for a space journey, the journey and descriptions of inhabitants at the destination.

[@JohnSmith-x8s5g]

1.) Wow people demand quotas in EVERYTHING these days. 2.) Your 🇨🇦 is renewed.

[@ÂngeloF-tzp]

No Ursula Le Guin? Wow

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I know! It's such a giant gap in my reading

[@Zugzug386]

📚

[@candicebarbata5028]

📚✨

[@thomassmith6232]

Nothing by Andre Norton?

[@TheShadesofOrange]

I thought that author was a man until people started recommending them in the comments.

[@zubaerchaudhari8267]

Hello there hey there hey Hello hey there hello

[@roanokebrooks]

🛸

[@Rogue_VI]

I'm gonna guess that you haven't read In Conquest Born by C. S. Friedman because it would be on this list if you had.

[@TheShadesofOrange]

Sounds like I better fix that

[@jakobwetzel7065]

📖 💃🏻

[@FrankOdonnell-ej3hd]

The Light Brigade=DNF⚛

[@TheShadesofOrange]

Did you get far enough in to find out what was going on?

[@FrankOdonnell-ej3hd]

@@TheShadesofOrange no maybe I should have had more patience but it's never been my strong suit. ⚛

[@lisbethfajardo7349]

🚀🛸👽👩‍🚀👩‍🔬👩‍💻🕵️‍♀️🤱📚

[@margieexplores]

as a classic SF fan, your recs are superficially scifi... you automatically label them science fiction because of the space opera/exploration setting, when in truth, you're duped by these publishers to believe these fantasy stories are SCIENCE fiction

[@garthok6224]

Don't take my opinion the wrong way... but...What's the relevance of the author's sex?... i really don't get it. What's next?. Best book by pet owners authors, by curly haired authors, by gingers authors, by blue eyes authors, by left handed authors, by blind authors, by deaf authors... who cares. A good book is a good book, period.

[@theresainns4342]

Surely the sex of the author is irrelevant - isn't it sort of disrespectful to women to have a pity party list for them. Start down this rabbit hole and you will end up having to do lists for every minority group, and this will likely render your original personal list of favourites pointless

[@bellehorror7690]

Your comment is beyond irrelevant.

[@trendtrader4010]

who cares what gender the writer's are if they are good then they are good, please don't start this gender mess for scifi

[@Unworshipediety]

It kinda matters as each gender can at times write about different subjects with varying degrees of success. Plus, it's just kind of fun to see how authors of comparable skill can write about the same topic but depending on their gender, race, or status in society often can illuminate a subject matter through the lens of their personal experience.

[@davidranderson1]

Looking at sci fi books based on different categories can be fun and interesting. People shouldn't feel threatened by it. Separate lists for classic and modern books isn't ageist. Separate lists of books by American writers and books by authors from other countries isn't anti-American. If we really don't care about a writer's gender that it shouldn't be a "mess" to bring up a list of women writers. If there's any "gender mess," it's that so many female authors had to use male pseudonyms in the 40s, 50s, and 60s in order to get published, and, to this day, many female writers still publish under their initials instead of using their full names because of a concern that male readers are less likely than female readers to read both male AND female authors.

[@anonymes2884]

@@davidranderson1 Well said.

[@artlesscalamity]

Civilization started the mess a long time ago. It matters that woman artists have had to fight harder for respect and success. Thankfully we are now living in different times - but there’s a reason that her initial list was all men. Because women were historically shut out. There’s nothing wrong with recognizing this.

[@Maeve_Ever_Books]

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[@ferachol]

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[@halko1802]

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[@TepidShambles]

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[@sambell2743]

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