5 ms·

In the last couple years I've been trying to branch out to read more scifi written by women. I tend to be picky in what I read anyway and often give up looking

In the last couple years I've been trying to branch out to read more scifi written by women. I tend to be picky in what I read anyway and often give up looking for things and just read old comics books so trying to find works by women has been tough. Add to that the fact that there are so many self-published multi-book series on Amazon now that it is really difficult to decide. There were a few scifi books by women that I read and didn't like but here are some I did like: I've read a few Ursula K. Le Guin books and they were decent. All I knew about Left Hand of Darkeness was the stuff about sex and the midevil-ish setting surprised me. I read a couple entries in The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells and I might go back to read more. I really liked Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. The two sequels were good but less thought provoking than the first one. I think there is another story in the same universe that I haven't read yet.

morelisp 6y ago
Of recent laureates I really loved This Is How you Lose The Time War as well as Binti (this is a trilogy, but combined form something novel-length). Becky Chambers's recent novella To Be Taught, if Fortunate was a major step up imo, and the more utopian view of space exploration (less SpaceX hype machine, more cooperative citizen science) is incredibly welcome for me. (I also liked her previous novels, but level of prose did not match the high-quality world-building - but if you are an sf fan you are probably used to this.) I'd suggest Aliette de Bodard's Xuya universe to anyone who likes The Culture, Immersion is often recommended but the one that's stuck most with me is The Shipmaker. If you like Douglas Adams, Catherynne Valente's Space Opera is in a similar vein but also beautifully extra. If you like your sf humor darker and more muted, try Johanna Sinisalo's The Core of the Sun. Other than Binti none of these are a multi-novel series, which I agree is way too common. ("Thanks" for that among many other terrible directions in sf literature, Robert Jordan.)

morelisp 6y ago

Of recent laureates I really loved This Is How you Lose The Time War as well as Binti (this is a trilogy, but combined form something novel-length). Becky Chambers's recent novella To Be Taught, if Fortunate was a major step up imo, and the more utopian view of space exploration (less SpaceX hype machine, more cooperative citizen science) is incredibly welcome for me. (I also liked her previous novels, but level of prose did not match the high-quality world-building - but if you are an sf fan you are probably used to this.) I'd suggest Aliette de Bodard's Xuya universe to anyone who likes The Culture, Immersion is often recommended but the one that's stuck most with me is The Shipmaker. If you like Douglas Adams, Catherynne Valente's Space Opera is in a similar vein but also beautifully extra. If you like your sf humor darker and more muted, try Johanna Sinisalo's The Core of the Sun. Other than Binti none of these are a multi-novel series, which I agree is way too common. ("Thanks" for that among many other terrible directions in sf literature, Robert Jordan.)