Female SF Authors Part 3: The Great Books

[jeffreyab]

What do you consider are great books that are by female science fiction authors?

Of those I have read:

Anne McCaffery "Dragonrider" and "The Ship Who Sang"

Marion Zimmer Bradley "The Brass Dragon"

C.J. Cherryh "Downbelow Station" and "The Pride of Chanur"

Ursula K. LeGuin "The Dispossessed"

Connie Willis "Dommsday Book"

Books that sucked you in and made you think.

Comments

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

I'll have to give this one some thought, on your list though, while I loved the two McCaffrey books/series you mentioned, I found Cherryh's Downbelow Station and Willis's Domesday Book nigh-on unreadable. I do enjoy Willis's shorter novels, such as Bellwether and Remake.

I mentioned Mary Gentle's Ash, which probably would fit your description, but it is AH with a slight dose of fantasy, so probably doesn't fit.

Lois Bujold's Falling Free and The Warrior's Apprentice didn't do much for me, but I stuck with her and the subsequent novels in the Vorkosigan series made me glad I did.

I loved Le Guin's "Earthsea" trilogy when I first read it (at which time it was only a trilogy), but again it is fantasy. But her The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness are great.

Loved Jo Walton's Farthing and just finished enjoying Ha'penny.

Brenda Clough's How Likea God, although again, might be more fantasy than you're looking for.

I mentioned Sheila Finch and would recommend her Reading the Bones or her recent collection The Guild of Xenolinguists.

Louise Marley's The Glass Harmonica.

I preferred Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow to the follow-up Children fo God.

Catherine Wells's The Earth is All That Lasts and subsequent novels in the trilogy.