Oh! I still have a little bit of time in #Internationalwomensday, don't I? Some of the *great* sf/f writers are/were women.
I just spoke in another thread of CJ Cherryh's extraordinary skill at exposition in fiction.
But there are plenty more.
Andre Norton lit my youth, and is probably the oldest exemplar I know of.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder was there, too, with delightful tween-level fantasy, especially _Black and Blue Magic_.
Nora *fucking* Jemisin has won, so far, *three* Hugo Best Novel awards, two of them back to back, one for each book in the Broken Earth trilogy.
Ann Leckie's creations are universally regarded as top-notch sf.
Elizabeth Moon, with hard sf in usually military settings.
Octavia Butler was basically a god.
Martha Wells is big these days cuz of the MurderBot books, but her backlist is fantastic.
Ursula Leguin, who I think might have been the first female sf/f author I ever read whose name made it clear she was female, is, of course, *legendary*.
Arkady Martine has done some truly impressive work, esp. _A Desolation Called Peace_.
There are also writers who don't specialize in sf/f, but who have written there:
Margaret Atwood's _Oryx and Crake_ stands out.
As does Mary Doria Russell's *stunning* _Sparrow_ duology. (Be prepared to feel sad.)
The list goes on and on and on:
Charlie Jane Anders,
Tamsyn Muir,
Connie Willis,
Mira Grant,
Mary Robinette Kowal,
Lois McMaster Bujold,
Joan Vinge,
Nancy Kress
I am *certainly* forgetting many names I should not, but I am old and tired and working from memory.
Women have written some of the best sf/f of all time.
@GeePawHill oh boy, where to start…
Diane Duane
Jo Clayton
Carole Nelson Douglas
Ru Emerson
Barbara Hambly
Katharine Kerr
Katherine Kurtz
Mercedes Lackey
Anne McCaffrey
Robin McKinley
Patricia McKillop
Diana Paxson
Melanie Rawn
Jennifer Roberson
Midori Snyder
Sherri S Tepper
Deborah Turner Harris
Rebecca Yarros
OMG, I miss reading Katherine Kurtz _soooo_ much. The Saint Camber series was _sooo_ good.
I grew up on Anne McCaffrey's Dragon Riders of Pern along with her Ship Who Sang series. And now I can't remember if it was McCaffrey and Liz Moon who wrote Sassinak together or if it was Mercedes Lackey and Anne McCaffrey.
Giddy. Giddy with joy over here. <3
@401matthall @GeePawHill
I could be wrong, but I thought Sassinak was all Anne’s work. Can’t find the physical book so I’ll have to finally get Calibre set up on my new computer to check.
But after the original Ship Who Sang, all others in that series are collaborations. BTW, Mercedes is working on a new book in that series but I don’t know when it’s supposed to be released.
Another Anne collaborator on that series was Jody Lynn Nye.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sassinak
OK... This might come across as a I-told-you-so, pretty please with sugar on top, don't take it that way. I had to look this up because it's been a _hot minute_ since I've read this and I do _not_ trust my own memory anymore.
It does look like Sassinak was Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon. Next book in the series was with Jody Lynn Nye and then back to writing with Elizabeth Moon for the third book in the series. Kinda all over the place.
Well, now I'm tempted to see how well these hold up against my adult expectations because, like I said, it's been a _loooong_ time since I've read these. I also never read Dinosaur Planet which apparently is the same series/universe as Sassinak.
I also can't remember but I feel like the Pern series and Sassinak were the same universe.
Now, I'm all giddy and excited about all the memories that're bubbling up. <3
GeePawHill
Lori Olson
Matt Hall