recommendations!

[slylilgoblin]

I just finished A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin (which is the pseudonym of Catherine Webb), and it got me  wondering if anyone has any recommendations for fantasy/sci-fi written by women. I'm really interested in how female authors use fantasy, since it's so incredibly dominated by the "lord of the rings, burly Strider-type saves little woman

Comments

[trompelol]

Anne McCaffrey has been writing sci-fi/fantasy since the 60s, but it kind of shows. I missed it when I read all her books when I was 13, but some of her sex/gender stuff makes me cringe a little upon rereading. Dragon Flight's main couple comes from a "Rape = Love" moment, between a spunky 20ish girl and her 35ish rescuer/teacher/commander. Even though her female characters are often strong women, they're all but referred to as raging bitches in the text. :[

I love Diana Wynne Jones dearly, but she doesn't write enough female characters.

Madeleine L'Engle usually has female leads. I remember Meg from A Wrinkle in Time, etc. took no shit, loved math, and I think became a physicist!

Tamora Pierce is the only author who comes to mind as regular writer of characters-who-happen-to-be-female, sadly. :(

[slylilgoblin]

yeah, I'm a little leery of touching any really old stuff, with female authors and in general. I've also never read any mercedes lackey, but she's sooo prolific and a lot of her covers look really cool (judging a book by its cover = a totally okay thing to do), so maybe I will one day. But also with prolific authors I never know where to start. Bleh.

Meg is so cool! I heard she gets a little lamer in the other books, but she's so badass in A Wrinkle in Time (which is the only one I've read, hurr hurr). I remember being introduced to the word "belligerent" because of her.

I really love Tamora Pierce. Because it's true, all her books have female characters, but it's more about people who just happen to be girls. And it's plot driven, not gender driven. Which is really what I'm more interested in. Gossip girl + dragons can gtfo of my fantasy books.

[pandarus]

Er - hi! I realise this is MONTHS late, but out of curiosity I just LJGoogled 'Kate Griffin', as I'm presently reading (and loving the hell out of) 'A Madness of Angels'. Thus I stumbled across your post

[pandarus]

I have heard lots of good things about Octavia Butler's SF, but I've not read any yet myself

[slylilgoblin]

oh my god, this is FANTASTIC and just what i'm looking for! Wow! Thanks so so much