# Recommedation for women/POC authors?



## buyjupiter (Mar 23, 2015)

[X-posted from my blog, because different audiences/different suggestions]
I’d like to add more women to my reading list. (Or people of color, or both).

So, I’m looking to you, oh great internet, in hopes that y’all can recommend things like (I’m going to give a list of people I’ve read and enjoyed, but have mostly finished all of their work):

Mercedes Lackey
Shelley Adina
Trudi Canavan
Margaret Atwood
Ursula K LeGuin
Octavia Butler (see note later)
Patricia Wrede
Tamora Pierce
Dianna Wynne Jones
Kage Baker
Catherine Asaro
Elizabeth Bear’s short fictions (see note later)
Esther Friesner’s Chicks in [chain]Mail series
Diana Gabaldon
Tanith Lee

I like things that are about wonderful, or awful, or fun, or quirky characters—not all of them women, but when they are women characters _they are fully realized and their sole motivation is not romantic_.

Octavia Butler note: I realized I’m sorely lacking in reading people of color, especially within SFF, because I was racking my brain for women of color SFF authors I like and I was all Octavia Butler and and and…oh s***. It’s just her. (I know of Steven Barnes, but haven’t yet read him.)

Elizabeth Bear note: Where do I start in her series/which series do I start with? My library only holds mid-catalog, so I’m gonna have to buy these.

Ok, back to main point. I do not—repeat DO NOT—want rec’s for paranormal fantasy/urban fantasy. It’s not that I don’t like the subgenre, I just have read all the good ones I think I’m gonna want for a while. Zombies are similarly out.

I’ve heard of Cherie Priest, liked the one Seanan McGuire thing I read but have yet to read more, and am scratching my head for new things to read, and I’m planning on buying one of Saladin Ahmed’s books.

If you wanna recommend your own work, please know that if you write paranormal fantasy/urban fantasy/zombie crossover novels, I’m not gonna be interested. I’m not against reading outside of Spec Fic, but I wanna see what’s available/highly recommended within SFF first.

I know lists exist out there, but I want to know what books moved people/entertained people here.


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## Tom (Mar 23, 2015)

The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner. She's not a very well-known author, and she deserves more appreciation.


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## buyjupiter (Mar 23, 2015)

Never even heard of her, thanks Tom!


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## ThinkerX (Mar 23, 2015)

Andre' Norton - creator of 'Witch World', an early 'shared world' many female authors wrote tales for.  The original novels, while good for their time (early 60's) are on the formulaic 'Sword and Sorcery' side today.  However, the anthologies of short stories and the later novels are pretty dang good and mostly female centric.

Kate Elliot - author of the seven volume 'Crown of Stars' series, set in a sort of 'alternate medieval earth,' I guess you could call it.  Numerous female characters, ranging from fascinating to deadly to wimpy.  She has another series out (title escapes me at the moment) set in a sort of 16h-17th century 'alternate earth.'  Also abundant female characters from radically different cultures.  

Elizabeth Moon -  Her original 'Paladin' series (not sure if it has a proper series title) is very good fantasy military material with a female protagonist who climbs the ranks from raw mercenary recruit to Paladin.  Her much more recent sequels to this series are of inferior quality.

Michelle West (aka Michelle Sagara) - she has a couple series of very long books dominated by female characters...but I found them very slow going.  

Worth noting because its so often overlooked: the majority of characters in LeGuin's 'EarthSea' are not white.  She was extremely ticked at the movie that 'white-washed' these characters.


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## FarmerBrown (Mar 23, 2015)

Juliet Marillier....anything! But especially her Sevenwaters trilogies. _Daughter of the Forest_ remains one of my absolute favorites that I've reread an embarrassing amount of times. All her books fall into the fantasy/fairytale retelling/historical fiction/romance  area, though the romance is almost always a bonus rather than the focus. The women are not warriors, but are strong in other ways, whether they're healers, scholars, seers, or defy convention for their beliefs and to right wrongs. 

(Shameless plug for my book, which you can learn more about at my website or PM me. I'd be willing to give you a free copy! There are two very different female protagonist narrators, one a seer/warrior....the other spends most of the novel as a horse )


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## Steerpike (Mar 23, 2015)

Gotta have Caitlin R. Kiernan on the list.

Also:

C.L. Moore
James Tiptree Jr.
Angela Carter
Ellen Kushner
Sheri Tepper
Connie Willis
Kristin Cashore


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## Ireth (Mar 23, 2015)

If you're into the Fae/Celtic myth at all, then O.R. Melling's _Chronicles of Faerie_ are worth a read. There's four books in the series. Dunno if she has any others out.


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## cupiscent (Mar 24, 2015)

Some of my favourites not yet mentioned:

NK Jemisin - gets bonus points for being a woman of colour?   I particularly recommend her _Killing Moon_ / _Shadowed Sun_ duo (strongly evocative of ancient Egypt) but her more popular work started with _The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms_.

Amanda Downum - her Necromancer Chronicles (epic fantasy, not urban), starting with _The Drowning City_, contain some amazing characters who go on really interesting arcs.

Jennifer Fallon - some of her stuff can be a little same-old, but I found the Second Sons trilogy, starting with _The Lion of Senet_, to be really amazing. Occasionally classed as "not fantasy" because it's more about maths than magic, but it's a ripping good fantasy yarn, for my money.

Ambelin Kwaymullina - a woman of Aboriginal Australian descent, she's writing a series of YA dystopic fantasy. The first book is _The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf_, and I enjoyed it tremendously... and I'm often very harsh on YA not having "enough" to it compared to the growed-up books I enjoy.


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## buyjupiter (Mar 24, 2015)

@ThinkerX: I'm reading an Andre Norton right now. Elizabeth Moon! How did I forget about her. I love her short SF fiction.

@FarmerBrown: I've read all the Juliet Marillier books. They were quite good, I'll PM you later on tonight.

@Steerpike: The fact that I left Connie Willis off my list, when I've been known to frequent second hand bookshops in hopes of finding the last piece of Connie Willis back catalog, is sad. I've even found and read all the Christmas stories (among other things) that Subterranean published recently. I've read Ellen Kushner as well, but haven't heard of/read the others, so thanks for the tips.

@Ireth: *runs to Amazon store* There were several years where anything Celtic/Arthurian/Gallic Celtic went to the top of my reading list, because I was obsessed with this mythos. It's been a while since that's been the case, but maybe it's time for a revival. 

@cupiscent: I've heard of Jennifer Fallon and/or picked up one of her books at the bookstore once? I browse so much, and put so little on the wishlist, that it's hard to remember. I think I'm mostly done with dystopian tales, but I might make an exception for this one. (Again, zombies have kind of made it hard to read anything dystopian, but I've made an exception for Wool, so I can do so again.)

Thank you all so much for the help. I've been without reading funds for a while, and trying to do a lot of reading of newer SFF women authors solely through the public library is difficult. *skips off to find new books*


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## stephenspower (Mar 24, 2015)

Jo Walton, who can write rings around everyone. I'm about to start Ann Leckie's first Ancillary book. And I've been enjoying the flash fiction of Caroline Yoachim at Daily Science Fiction.


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## Svrtnsse (Mar 24, 2015)

Celia Friedman - Primarily her Magisters" series, but also the "True Night" series.


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## Steerpike (Mar 24, 2015)

Oh yeah, I should have mentioned Jo Walton. Excellent.


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## buyjupiter (Mar 24, 2015)

buyjupiter said:


> @Steerpike: The fact that I left Connie Willis off my list, when I've been known to frequent second hand bookshops in hopes of finding the last piece of Connie Willis back catalog, is sad. I've even found and read all the Christmas stories (among other things) that Subterranean published recently. I've read Ellen Kushner as well, but haven't heard of/read the others, so thanks for the tips.



@Steerpike again: 

How have I never heard of Sherri Tepper? How did none of my English teachers over the years, seeing me with Margaret Atwood book after Margaret Atwood book, NOT recommend her as someone to try? After looking at her most recent books, it looks like they're a blend of Margaret Atwood and Kim Stanley Robinson, which is a good sell in my books. (Also--must not use the entirety of my book money on her books. Must resist.)


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## Steerpike (Mar 24, 2015)

@buyjupiter - Tepper is great. She came to writing late in life, but I've really enjoyed her work.

Caitlin R. Kiernan is a trans author, and those themes arise in her work "The Drowning Girl." I think my favorite of hers is "Daughter of Hounds," which is an older work of hers and different in style from her newer stuff.

I encountered Angela Carter in a college course in women's studies. Great stuff. Her short story collection The Bloody Chamber is excellent, if you don't mind wordy prose. Check out these two twists on Little Red Riding Hood (The Company of Wolves is particularly nice): Untitled Document


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## Russ (Apr 16, 2015)

I would be remiss not to mention my friends Nalo Hopkinson (a WOC) and Maria Snyder.  Both very, very good authors.


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## Cambra (Aug 29, 2015)

Jacqueline Carey the first Kushiel trilogy.


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