(x-posted to This Is Where The Voices Go)
Rejected Title: "I need Maurier books than just Daphne"
While browsing the fantastic events calendar for Manchester Literature Festival, I found myself noting just how many of the female authors (but the not poets, strangely) I'm completely unfamiliar with. This got me to wondering why none of the female authors I follow ever do events or talks.
Rejected Title: "I need Maurier books than just Daphne"
While browsing the fantastic events calendar for Manchester Literature Festival, I found myself noting just how many of the female authors (but the not poets, strangely) I'm completely unfamiliar with. This got me to wondering why none of the female authors I follow ever do events or talks.
A cursory glance at my bookshelves provided me with the answer. If you take away my near-complete Daphne DuMaurier collection and the obligatory Harry Potters, a shockingly dominant male bias shows its face.
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| a female writer, evidently |
Thinking my collection was incomplete, I checked out the books that I lust after, rather than just those that I own. Of the 217 books on my Amazon wishlist, only 18 are by female authors, and only 9 of those are fiction.
My first reaction was one of guilt, but that didn't feel right. Despite what I said about Linda Barnes, I have no issue with female authors. I don't really think of them as female authors, just as I don't think of men as male authors. Both are just extra words on a book cover or a flag to tie a series or style around.
It's not my fault that classic science fiction and fantasy was male-dominated. It's not my fault that the most attractive covers on the shelf last time I was a-browsing were attached to works by David Drake and Jeff Somers. I've got to blame the industry, and go about fixing this bias by filling my shelves with female authors, right?
No.
Putting my new-feminism cap on for a moment (they gave me one at university, it suits me when I like it), I have to say that actively searching out female authors simply because they are female is just as sexist and oppressive as having an ignorance of female authors. Gender plays no part in quality of writing, nor should it affect prominence of genres or form, although certain lists are more likely to push certain familiar styles.
So what's the solution? Passively expose myself to as many books as possible in the hope that some of them are by female authors? I'm fairly sure that's what I'm already doing, and it isn't enough.
UPDATE. Well we've proven enough through the comments below that crowd-sourcing is an excellent way to get hold of new writers, and I don't want you to think for a moment that I'm pandering when I say I'm going to enjoy working my way through all those recommendations. I also have to say I love that you're chatting amongst yourselves too!
But still.. the fact that it had to go to crowd sourcing is not such a great thing. I can easily generate a list of male writers I have never read or know nothing about, but the same clearly isn't true for women writers. I'm not special in this regard, and don't feel that my situation is a rare one. We should all be able to pull names from the air regardless of their gender, age or race, and I feel the need to return to blaming this on the availability of information, and the relative lack of exposure women writers receive, and should consider that a goal worth working towards.
Well like I say, I'm off to follow up on some of this excellent feedback, and to pass it on.
But still.. the fact that it had to go to crowd sourcing is not such a great thing. I can easily generate a list of male writers I have never read or know nothing about, but the same clearly isn't true for women writers. I'm not special in this regard, and don't feel that my situation is a rare one. We should all be able to pull names from the air regardless of their gender, age or race, and I feel the need to return to blaming this on the availability of information, and the relative lack of exposure women writers receive, and should consider that a goal worth working towards.
Nick
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*I nearly put Wilkie Collins on this list but a quick google proved a worthwhile error-check..
*I nearly put Wilkie Collins on this list but a quick google proved a worthwhile error-check..
If you are into science fiction C J Cheryh occupies 2 shelves of my 10 science fiction bookcases
ReplyDeleteLindsey Davis, particularly the Falco series.
ReplyDeleteFor SciFi/fantasy? Trudy Canavan, Robin Hobb, Jacqueline Carey, Margaret Atwood (Handmaid's Tale is a must-read), Katherine Kerr...
ReplyDeleteHonestly, female authors ARE out there, especially in that genre, but 1) you do have to seek them out to some extent because they often do not get the same kind of press and 2) there's a prevailing bias that men won't read female authors, which needs to be actively proven wrong
I've always assumed Robin Hobb was male. Chalk another one up to the male bias I guess!
DeleteI think your second point about actively tackling the issue is a good one- men who don't read female authors may not be that way intentionally, but may end up influenced to stay that way by the false suggestion that it's "right" or "normal"
Nick
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Robin Hobb is a pseudonym for Megan Lindholm, which she adopted because the Hobb style is in a different area of writing than the Lindholm. Another writer you may not know is female: C.S. Friedman. Actually, take any case of initials in fantasy and SF as suspect, though K.J. Parker is male.
DeleteHuh, now I have to check mine. And fear not, this doesn't make you sexist! I read lots of scifi/fantasy too. It's not out fault that many female authors stick to romance.
ReplyDeleteYet a lot of Iain Banks and some others could also be described as romance, albeit often from a very masculine point of view, sometimes quite intentionally.
DeleteNick
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I can recommend Jennifer Egan's 'A Visit from the Goon Squad'. It's very well written and entertaining, but I have yet to check out her other works. :)
ReplyDeleteGood to see female authors sharing in the modern trend of long, descriptive book titles!
DeleteNick
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Oh, and Cherie Priest & Gail Carriger are both good.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite female author is Maud Hart Lovelace, who wrote a variation of fictionalized autobiography (kind of like Laura Ingalls Wilder, though she switched names around). I love her for showing female friendship as a healthy, supportive thing, ambition and lack of ambition as equally valid, and a particular favorite - that no one changes a romantic partner. The changing power of love is left to making people better versions of themselves, and the only jerks portrayed are refused, not "changed" for happily ever afters that don't exist in the real world.
ReplyDeleteThe books were written in the 1940's about the 1900's, so they're a bit dated in some ways, but in the lessons about young men and women hold true.
I read what I like. What I like is romance. So yes, I read mainly female authors. But that's ok, because a) I read, and b) I love to read. I do read non-romances - I also like travellogues, non-fiction and literary fiction. Some of my favourite books are by male authors - Tom Saywer, Animal Farm, the Noel Barber books, A Town Like Alice, Mila 18. I don't mind Bill Bryson or Nicholas Sparks. But mostly male authors write books I'm not interested in reading. I don't enjoy crime fiction, I don't enjoy thrillers or army novels... that said, one of my favourite books this year was David Roys' Coding Isis, which you will note was written by a male and was a thriller... The reality is that the type of books you like to read will influence whether you read male or female authors most predominantly. I like romance and a happy ending. Women do that well. This is not to say there aren't good books out there by male authors, but they are writing from a male perspective... and I'm a woman, so definately prefer books written from a female perspective. I'm just thankful that there are so many amazing books out there, some of which I've already read and some of which I am still to read. Viva La Difference...
ReplyDeleteFay Weldon, Margaret Atwood,Doris Lessing, Muriel Spark - all brilliant. Loads more..........
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling I've crossed paths with Fey Weldon before, in some of her TV screenwriting and literary criticism. Makes me think it's worth noting that outside of fiction, a lot of the essays and anthologies on my shelves are just teemign with female writers.
DeleteNick
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Everything except this line: "I have to say that actively searching out female authors simply because they are female is just as sexist and oppressive as having an ignorance of female authors."
ReplyDeleteHaving identified a situation that you wish to remedy, actively remedying it is obviously the right thing to do.
Correcting an imbalance which I believe very definitely can be ascribed to the industry, at least inasmuch as the industry reflects and reinforces biases present in society as a whole, is certainly not "just as sexist and oppressive" as the imbalance itself.
Asking friends and readers for suggestions is a great first step. I'll share your Facebook link and see if some of my sci-fi/fantasy reading feminist friends will offer some suggestions.
And, if you'll forgive a little LMGTFY, there are also plenty of websites dedicated to precisely this question:
https://www.google.co.cr/search?q=female+science+fiction+and+fantasy+authors&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
Ahh but asking real people is so much more rewarding than Google (and doesn't harm the blog stats either!) although the prevalence of certain names in all these comments already speaks of a hegemony of popularity, and perhaps a few dispassionate lists are needed to, so thanks.
DeleteI think I let my small-f feminism run away with me a little too.. I guess I mean that while actively searching female authors is certainly the best solution, it isn't the "right" solution, in that it shouldn't be necessary at all.
Nick
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Susanna Clarke popped first in to my mind.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently working on Pat Caddigan, very interesting view on cyberpunk society.
I had to check if you can get Johanna Sinisalo in English. She's a Finnish new weird writer and you can get her debut novel Troll — A Love Story on Amazon. Totally worth the trouble.
While naturally the hope would be that gender made no difference, it would be interesting to read some female-authored cyberpunk. While I do plan to read Ann Aguirre, the names that the genre tends to throw up are usually male- Sterling, Gibson, Somers, etc..
DeleteNick
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Julian May, Robin Hobb, Sara Douglas, Fiona McIntosh. All fantasy rather than sci fi but amazing all the same.
ReplyDeleteVonda McIntyre, particularly the Star Farers trilogy, Nicola Griffith, particularly "Slow River," Ursula K. Leguin, particularly "The Dispossessed" and "The Left Hand of Darknesss," Suzette Haden Elgin, especially The Ozark Fantasy Trilogy and the Native Tongue trilogy, Octavia Butler, in general, though you may want to start with Mind of My Mind, Patternmaster, Wild Seed series, Patricia Briggs who writes awesome fantasy, Lois McMaster Bujold who has one half a dozen Hugos and who writes wonderful SF, James Tiptree aka Alice Sheldon, Naomi Novik who has done a fabulous alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars with dragons, Jacqueline Carey,Kage Baker--I could go on and on. I haven't even mentioned Kate Wilhelm, Anne McCaffrey (The Ship Who Sang is wonderful, although I could happily crash Pern into Dune and say "good-bye" to both), Marion Zimmer Bradley, Connie Willis, C.J. Cherryh, Sherri Tepper, Joan Vinge, Madeline L'Engle,Leigh Bracket, and others of famous award winning SF&fantasy writers either because I haven't read them yet myself, they are not among my personal favorites, or they primarily write fantasy--If you'd like more suggestions or like me to star the best just let me know, please.
ReplyDeleteA fantastically long list, thank you! I remember reading Vonda McIntyre's Star Wars EU novel "Crystal Star" as a teenager, it would be interesting to see how she fares with her own fictional universes.
DeleteAnne McCaffrey is a name I know from the jackets of other books- she always seems to have had great things to say about otehr authors I enjoy, things worth quoting and sticking on front covers.
Nick
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Anything by Connie Willis is a must read, especially Domesday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog. So is Sharyn McCrumb's Bimbos of the Death Sun, which is actually a murder mystery set at a science fiction con. It's a good mystery as well as being pretty funny, and you can't beat the title.
ReplyDeleteAlso there's a lot of 19th-century fiction that didn't make it into your university course. Try Elizabeth Gaskell for one, and if you haven't read Horace by George Sand, look for it.
I've written before about judging a book by its title (who can forget "MAIN BITCH" ?) and those two longer titles are definitely helping me judge them as worth a look, thanks!
DeleteYou're right about university, any university. Even with a whole semester crammed with 19th Century Literature, that's still barely going to scratch the surface.
Nick
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What about Marion Zimmer Bradley, Anne McAffrey or Diana L Paxson? All have written great Scifi/Fantasy works.
ReplyDeleteJane Gardam, Salley Vickers, Emma Donohoe,
ReplyDeleteKeri Hulme, Barbara Kinsolver, Barbara Trapido, Joyce Carol Oates and Carol Sheilds should give you some to go along with, And I must third the utterly brilliant Margaret Atwood
There indeed seems to be a lot of praise for Margaret Atwood, and none of it with a hedging "If you like X" kind of disclaimer. Looks like I've found a first port of call, at least!
DeleteNick
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Speaking about fantasy female writers, I notice nobody said Liliana Bodoc yet. And you get a Latin-American female writer to the list, I guess if you're on the fantasy/sci-fi shelves there must be an anglo-saxon bias as well.
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm pleased to say there's books from Czech, Russia, Germany, England, North America and Italy on my shelves.. I'm also painfully aware that those places are pretty damn similar. Perhaps some ficton of Latin-American origin is indeed just as necessary a shakeup.
DeleteNick
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Lets see Tanya Huff, Maragret Weis, Patricia Briggs, kate elliott, Catherine Cooke and trudi canavan to name a few
ReplyDeleteAnother shout for Trudi Canavan I see.. I'll admit the covers of The Black Magician Trilogy have caught my eye before.
DeleteNick
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My five cents (ören) goes to Octavia E Butler who wrote AMAZING SF.
ReplyDeleteMargaret Atwood who have a great language (Oryx & Crake). Scarlett Thomas who has written my favorite book of all times (The end of Mr Y)and Catherynne M Valente (if you like fairy tale settings The Night garden is somewhat complicated and layered but has great language).
Paula Volsky. I believe that her books are out of print but can be bought from Amazon used and if you like sci fi/fantasy are totally worth it. I go back to her books over and over.
ReplyDeleteYou had me at "out of print"
DeleteNick
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Diana Gabaldon! Her work defies genres and is just fantastic!
ReplyDeleteIn no particular order: Ursula K. Le Guin, of course. Octavia Butler (just read EVERYTHING). Tananarive Due. That's scifi/fantasy. Fiction? Barbara Hambly. Barbara Kingsolver. BarbaraNeely [sic]. Them's the Barbaras. Doris Lessing. Dorothy Parker. Dorothy Sayers and Ngaio Marsh (if you like classic mystery). Gloria Naylor (read everything except The Women/Men of Brewster Place). Toni Morrison. Toni Cade Bambara. Eudora Welty. Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Edith Wharton. Kate Chopin. Anne Petry. Zora Neale Hurston. Katherine Anne Porter. Gwendolyn Brooks (her one novel and all of her poetry). Flannery O'Connor. Isabel Allende. Amy Tan. Louise Erdrich. Leslie Marmon Silko. Joan Didion. Alice Walker. Annie Dillard. Sandra Cisneros. Jamaica Kincaid. Edwidge Danticat.
ReplyDeleteDorothy L. Sayers
ReplyDeleteMercedes Lackey and Karen Marie Moning are two that come to mind right away. Mercedes has a lot of fantasy/sci-do books and while Karen DOES have romance in some of her books (her Highlander series) I don't think she's dominantly romance.
ReplyDeleteI think it can be a danger to resist female authors based on romance content, as long as the "fluttering hearts" and "heaving bodices" et al are gone it should be safe!
DeleteIt bothers me a little I can so readily identify those cliches...
Nick
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Everybody's done a great job. The only one I can think of to add is C. S. Friedman, of the Coldfire Trilogy.
ReplyDeleteIris Murdoch. Only a mad person goes through life without trying at least 'The Bell' or 'The Sea, The Sea'.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Harry Potter is obligatory? I've not read a line.
I just finished a great new fantasy book by Jo Spurrier called "Winter by my shield". It looks like it's going to be a series, so that will help with your bookshelf ratio ~_^
ReplyDeleteAlways good to join a series at the start too, a little less overwhelming.
DeleteNick
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Jacqueline Carey, Laurel Hamilton, Kathleen McGowan, Karen Marie Moning, Elizabeth Moon, Tamora Pierce, Anne Rice, Sharon Shinn, Jane Yolen...
ReplyDeleteSomething also to consider...how many women right under male names?
Diane Duane - Author of the Young Wizards series, Anne McCaffrey - Author of the Dragonriders of Pern, Diana Wynne Jones - Dark Lord or Derkholm and other wonderful fantasy series, and Anne Rice writes vampire books.
ReplyDeleteEven I haven't read every name on these suggestions. Good conversation here. I haven't seen anyone say Diana Wynne Jones. More YA than adult, but a great writer of fantasy.
ReplyDeleteEverything Gine said. And what others have said as well. Also,
ReplyDeleteFourthing Margaret Atwood, particularly "A Handmaid's Tale".
Thirding or Fourthing Octavia Butler, particularly Wild Seed series
Classic Sci-Fi...You know what, go to your local library and borrow the Women of Wonder anthology series. They have Women of Wonder: The Classic Years, More Women of Wonder: the Contemporary Years and the New Women of Wonder.
Those 3 books alone will give you over a dozen excellent woman sci-fi authors.
There is a comparable anthology for woman fantasy authors.
Don't forget Andre Norton, either. Also enjoyable are Patricia Briggs, Karin Lowachee, and Patricia Wrede. (I'd have more but most of them have already been listed.)
ReplyDeleteSticking to SF:
ReplyDeleteLinda Nagata, especially Limit of Vision and Memory.
Elizabeth Bear, especially the Hammered Trilogy.
Connie Willis, especially The Domesday Book.
Candas Jane Dorsey, especially A Paradigm of Earth, possibly the least well known brilliant first contact novel I've ever read.
Nancy Kress, especially the Beggars in Spain trilogy. (If it reminds you of Ayn Rand and that annoys you, keep going. It gets more complicated.)
Maureen McHugh... personal favorite, Half the Day is Night, though China Mountain Zhang is, I think, more popular.
Melissa Scott, if you like slightly vintage feeling cyberpunk.
Lois McMasters Bujold, the Vorkosigan series, though it's more incredibly believable space opera than hard SF.
I've only read one thing by Jo Anderton, Debris, but it was excellent, though I must warn you it's one of those science fiction that feels a lot like magic worlds, which some people don't like.
Spin State and Spin Control by Chris Moriarty (yes Chris is a girl).
Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow and its sequel, Children of God.
Pat Cadigan, especially Tea from an Empty Cup.
Julie E. Czerneda's In the Company of Others, I haven't read in so long I honestly don't remember why I liked it, but I remember liking it.
Sheri Tepper... is a conditional recommendation. Her philosophy, feminist and otherwise, is very front and center in her books. Sometimes it can be a bit strong even if you agree with it, like eating the bouillon cubes instead of making the soup. But she has compelling world and character building and a knack for constructing nasty moral dilemmas. I can usually enjoy one or two of her books, and then I have to go and read the Lord of the Rings again.
Elizabeth Moon, the Speed of Dark.
Kathleen Ann Goonan's Queen City Jazz.
If you count Alternate History as SF, then Jo Walton's Farthing series.
I assume you already know about Ursula LeGuin, Andre Norton, Octavia Butler, Andre Norton, Zenna Henderson, James Tiptree, Nalo Hopkinson.
I'm sure I'm missing tons, as I am not at home to see my bookshelf. This is just from Google-assisted memory. And if you like fantasy or YA, that's a whole different list.
If you like military-themed SF (you mentioned Drake and Weber), any of Elizabeth Moon's books are worth your while to check out. The Heris Serrano, Esmay Suiza, and Kylara Vatta series are all militaryish SF, and the Paksenarrion series is militaryish fantasy. You won't be disappointed!
ReplyDeleteAnother author to check out is Tanya Huff, especially her "Valor" series. (I like all her books, but only the Valor series is militaryish.)
C.J. Cherryh's books are a mix of militaryish themes and cultural themes. She has the most amazing insight into what might make an alien culture "ticK" and how it might be different. I'd say any military themes are an adjucnt to the cultural themes, rather than the driver of the plot.
On the "alien culture" themes, one of the *best* authors (IMHO) is Julie Czerneda. She's a biologist by training, and really pays a lot of attention to how different biology might influence - or drive - an alien culture. They aren't just humans dressed up in funny bodies, their biology informs and directs the society she imagines for them.
These are just off the top of my head. I know there's more, but... I've other things to do today, and I can't take the time to think them through right now.
Thanks for some very tailored recommendations!
DeleteWhile I first stumbled across David Drake due to his penchant for AWFUL book covers (http://www.nicksheridan.com/2011/08/crap-book-impressions-3-northworld.html) he seems to have gradually established as a guilty pleasure, and most of the Iain M. Banks SF I enjoy has inescapably military overtones. It will certainly be interesting to see if a female authored perspective presents Military SF in a different fashion.
What you say about Cherryh and Czerneda reminds me of Timothy Zahn's Conqueror's Trilogy, the whole middle volume of which was given over to an exploration of the systems and beliefs of the enroaching alien culture.
Nick
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I'd say Cherryh is more like Zahn's Conqueror's Trilogy than Czerneda's books are. Czerneda does have some conflict (as all good books do, IMHO), but it's more on an individual or social level than warring factions.
DeleteYou might want to start with Cherryh's "Chanur" series. I pretty much love all her books - I just like the way she tells a story - but there's only one human in the whole series, and that makes for a fascinating study of alien cultures - an alien trying to figure out what makes other aliens "tick."
The protagonist is a lion-like "Hani" trader, Pyanfar Chanur, who keeps getting herself and her ship in the middle of conflicts between various alien species. I call the Hani "lion-like" because although the males are the "head" of the clan and fight for territory, the females do the work and manage the business of the clan. Py scandalizes her whole culture by bringing her mate on board her ship (to work as a junior crew(gasp)man) after he loses his territory in a battle with a younger, stronger male. Males were considered unsuited for business, because they're ruled by their hormones. When they're defeated, they're expected to slink off into a secluded exile and wait to die.
Anyway, it's a fun series to read. IMHO, of course.
OOH, Meredith... your comment was published while I was typing mine. Your tastes are so similar to mine, I'm going to try out the ones you've mentioned that I haven't read yet.
ReplyDeleteNick, I must second her Elizabeth Bear (Hammered Trilogy), Lois McMasters Bujold, and Nancy Kress recommendations especially.
To answer your question, Nick: Our physical book shelves are pretty balanced, since my husband likes a lot of the same stuff I do, and he's being ludditeish about e-books. So we buy SF, Fantasy & Alt History in dead-tree form. My e-book collection (mostly genres that the Hubs isn't a fan of), though, is heavily tilted toward female writers. And the ones that aren't written by women mostly have women protagonists (or strongly developed female co-protagonists).
ReplyDeleteDead-tree form will always beat digital in my book, pun intended. I love the idea that your e-reader is for your own personal collection, and your shelves are the point where the two of you cross over!
DeleteNick
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Gosh--the list is almost endless!
ReplyDeleteIn addition to the above authors, I have collected the late Jo Clayton, but don't know if her works are available any longer.
Maria V. Snyder and Kristin Cashore are wonderful; they both tend to be considered Young Adult authors. Sharon Lee & Steve Miller (ok--they write as a team) have created the wonderful Liadan universe. I very much like Deborah Harkness' two books and am impatiently awaiting the release of the third book of the trilogy next year. Anne Bishop, Naomi Novik, Emily Gee, Shanna Swendson, Darynda Jones. Kelley Armstrong is another great Canadian author.
For mysteries, I love both of Kerry Greenwood's series (Australian). Louise Penny (Canadian), Nevada Barr, Dana Stabenow, Laurie R. King, Sue Grafton, Marcia Muller, Sara Paretsky, Anne Perry, Lauren Willig, and Suzanne Arruda are other favourites.
I very highly recommend Caryn Mirriam-Greenberg, a poet, who has just released her first novel and it's excellent.
Some great looking recommendations, all of them. Writing as a team can be interesting- despite being a ridiculously huge David Gemmell fan, I was still unable to tell where in his final novel he stopped and his wife Stella began.
DeleteSome other teams are easier to imagine- Carol and John Barrowman for one. I see her writing furiously while he bounds around in the background, spouting unconnected ideas before becoming restless and leaving the room.
Nick
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I listened to an interview of the two of them and it seems to be both of them bounding around the room throwing ideas at a dictaphone and then Carol writing them up while John goes off kissing men on TV. He's totally okay with that arrangement and she acknowledges that he's the one with the best ideas. ;)
DeleteThen I hope she won't mind me largely ignoring her if I make it to one of the book signings they're doing this month..
DeleteNick
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I missed the military connection, but now that Karen's pointed it out, Bujold's Vorkosigan and Bear's Hammered books are military too.
ReplyDeleteAlso seconding the Sharon Lee & Steve Miller - I debated and ended up leaving them off my list because of Steve, but I heart the Liaden books.
Not going to help your count any, but great recent SF by men with female protagonists: Jay Lake's Green series, Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl, China Meiville's Embassytown.
Your last paragraph makes me worry I may have gone too far, and now no-one will recommend me any male authors ever again with the logic "Nick doesn't want those anymore" or similar!
DeleteJack McDevitt writes excellent strong female SF leads, without over-stuffing them full of masculinity as some screenwriters are want to do.
Nick
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I'm a McDevitt fan too! Another writer with great female characters is James Alan Gardner, especially his "Expendable" series. The protagonist of the first book (Expendable) is Festina Ramos, who appears to a varying degree in the later books, too. Technically, she's part of the Explorer corps, but they call themselves the Expendable corps - they're the first down on a new planet, they make the first contact with a new species... basically they're sent into any situations where there's a high likelihood of going "Oh Shit" (so called for the last words usually heard over the com).
DeleteSounds good! The best Sci-Fi seems to me to be the characters-out-of-their-element kind, which for explorer/archealogy fiction is pretty much tour-de-jour!
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Jacqueline Carey, Patricia Briggs, Michelle Sagara, Barb Hendee, and Devon Monk are the ones I've been following in the past decade or so, and that's probably the order I would recommend them in.
ReplyDeleteI never really thought about it before, but my fiction section is about half and half. I collect certain male authors (D.H. Lawrence, Salman Rushdie, Nabokov), but I also collect female authors that I've come to love (Jeanette Winterson, Marge Piercy, Sharan Newman, Margaret Atwood). As for sci-fi/fantasy, my favorite fantasy author of all time is Mercedes Lackey, especially her Heralds of Valdemar series (which is epic and will keep you busy for a long, long time), and her Five Hundred Kingdoms series (which is a fascinating and brilliant take on the fairy tale genre).
ReplyDeleteAlso, although they are for a much younger age group, my favorite YA authors are Patricia C. Wrede and a fairly unknown author named Anne Lindbergh (NOT Anne Morrow Lindbergh, who was her mother--search engines get the two confused). Anne wrote what might just be my favorite YA book of all time, Travel Far, Pay No Fare. I also really adore the Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke (haven't seen the movie, though).
Thanks! The majority of my books have been "collected" as you say. Heh, pull out David Gemmell and Iain Banks and that's nearly half my books gone! Evidently as a gatherer I should look for another prolific author or two rather than spreading myself too thinly!
DeleteNick
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From general observation men have more male authors and women have more female authors. Take out my Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett and you're left with mostly female-written books and a Ben Elton or two.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think of the Orange Prize for Fiction then?
In general, or the winners and nominees? I'd shake my head at your Ben Eltons but I have both John Barrowman biographies so can't ever really criticise :P
DeleteNick
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ReplyDeleteCherie Priest (f) is steampunk if that tickles your fancy
Adding in yet another recommendation for Sheri Tepper, Margaret Atwood, Ursula LeGuin, and Connie Willis.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Sharon Shinn's Samaria series is pretty dang good. Well, the first three books are.
Marge Piercy both her sf work & fiction.
ReplyDeleteA note to the people saying things like "women stick to romance, not SFF" -- actually, in Australia there are more female fantasy authors than male, roughly twice as many, actually. Some names (some of whom have already been mentioned, but never mind): Jennifer Fallon, Glenda Larke, Trudi Canavan, Karen Millar, Marianne de Pierres, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Rowena Cory Daniells (sometimes writing as Cory Daniells), Jo Anderton, Alison Goodman.
ReplyDeleteThe excellent and active Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/AustralianWomenWriters also recommended me the following "Aussie SpecFic" authors:
ReplyDeleteMargo Lanagan (latest: Brides of Rollrock Island)
Kim Westwood (Courier's New Bicycle)
Meg Mundell (Black Glass)
Claire Corbett (When We Have Wings)
Eva Hornung (Dog Boy)
Honey Brown (The Red Queen)
These are apparently some of the recent prize-winners or books that have been long or shortlisted for major prizes.
Nick
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