100 Favourite SFF Books Not by Cis Men
Apr. 23rd, 2020 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dramaturgcaSo a well-known (dude) sci-fi author posted his list of the 100 best sci-fi novels and it went around on Twitter. His list contained fewer than 10 books by non-dudes. I, being of cranky and contrary mind, immediately decided to put together a list of the 100 best SFF books (I definitely don't read enough sci-fi to do a sci-fi only list) by people who are not cis dudes. I realized partway into the list that what I was compiling a list of what I like in SFF, not an objective best list, so instead, here is my list of 100 SFF books by people who aren't dudes that I think are really good and worth the reading. Dude author divided his list into categories and so have I, but my categories are different than his. Books within categories are in no particular order.
Notes: For books in series, I have chosen my favourite book in the series, but also noted the first book in the series, because I am not at all encouraging people to pick up mid-series. Start at the beginning and go on until you reach the end.
Space Opera
Books in Spaaaaaaace (But not Star Trek novels, they have their own category)
Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie (Imperial Radch #2, first book is Ancillary Justice)
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Becky Chambers (Wayfarers #1)
The Tea Master & the Detective, Aliette de Bodard (Xuya, series is non-sequential)
Once & Future, Amy Rose Capetta & Cori McCarthy (Once & Future #1)
How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse, K. Eason (The Thorne Chronicles #1)
Mars Evacuees, Sophia McDougall (Mars Evacuees #1)
Urban Fantasy
When someone says "Urban Fantasy" to me, I think of a very specific genre with fae and/or witches in cities. Not all of these books fit that category, but I also can't argue with the fact that they're urban and they're fantasy. Classification is hard.
Night and Silence, Seanan McGuire (October Daye #12, first book is Rosemary and Rue)
Indexing, Seanan McGuire (Indexing #1)
The Demon's Surrender, Sarah Rees Brennan (The Demon's Lexicon #3, first book is The Demon's Lexicon)
Deep Wizardry, Diane Duane (So You Want to Be a Wizard #2, first book is So You Want to Be a Wizard)
Darkest Mercy, Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely #5, first book is Wicked Lovely)
The Babysitters Coven, Kate M. Williams
Seven Deadly Shadows, Courtney Alameda
Quicksilver, RJ Anderson (Ultraviolet #2, first book is Ultraviolet)
Bordertown, Terri Windling and Mark Alan Arnold, eds.
Undead Girl Gang, Lily Anderson
Middlegame, Seanan McGuire
Alternate/Second World Fantasy
I love non-our world fantasy. Yes, a lot of it is Western European cognate and there needs to be more that isn't, but there's a lot of good writing out there.
Kushiel's Mercy, Jacqueline Carey (Terre d'Ange #6, first book is Kushiel's Dart. Imriel trilogy #3, first book is Kushiel's Scion)
King of Scars Leigh Bardugo (Nikolai Duology #1. It will help if you've read, at minimum, the Six of Crows duology (Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom) and possibly also the Grisha trilogy (Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, and Ruin and Rising))
Heir to the Shadows, Anne Bishop (Black Jewels #2, first book is Daughter of the Blood)
The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner (Riverside #2, first book is Swordspoint)
Seraphina, Rachel Hartman (Serephina #1)
Swordheart, T. Kingfisher (Swordheart #1)
Sorcery of Thorns, Margaret Rogerson
Ink in the Blood, Kim Smejkal (Ink in the Blood #1)
Castle Hangnail, Ursula Vernon
Unnatural Magic, C.M Waggoner
Prophecies, Libels & Dreams, Ysabeau Wilce (adjacent to the Flora Segunda trilogy, Flora Fyrdraaca, Flora's Dare, and Flora's Fury)
Dealing with Dragons, Patricia C. Wrede (Enchanted Forest Chronicles #1)
The Ascent to Godhood, JY Yang (Tensorate #4, first book is The Black Tides of Heaven)
Shadows and Light, Anne Bishop (Tir Alain #2, first book is The Pillars of the World)
The Afterward, EK Johnston
The Golden Key, Melanie Rawn & Kate Elliott & Jennifer Roberson
Retellings
Mostly but not entirely faerie tales. I love a good retelling and all of these are fantastic
Tam Lin, Pamela Dean
Lady Hotspur, Tessa Gratton (Not completely a sequel to The Queens of Innis Lear, but it's better if you read that first. If I wasn't trying not to put two books from the same series on this list, Innis Lear would be on here, too)
Blanca & Roja, Anna-Marie McLemore
Vassa in the Night, Sarah Porter
The Girls at the Kingfisher Club, Genevieve Valentine
Language of Thorns, Leigh Bardugo (Loosely tied to the Grisha trilogy, enumerated with King of Scars)
Circe, Madeleine Miller
Whiskerella, Ursula Vernon (Hamster Princess #5, first book is Harriet the Invincible)
Finding Baba Yaga, Jane Yolen
Portal Fantasy
Books about characters who travel from this world into another world that is not like our Earth world.
In an Absent Dream, Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children #4, first book is Every Heart a Doorway)
The Hazel Wood, Melissa Albert (The Hazel Wood #1)
Labyrinth Lost, Zoraida Cordova (Brooklyn Brujas #1)
Sword in the Stacks, Jen Swann Downey (Ninja Librarians #2, first book is The Accidental Keyhand)
Library of the Unwritten, AJ Hackwith (Hell's Library #1)
An Acceptable Time, Madeleine L'Engle (The Murrays #5, first book is A Wrinkle in Time)
Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik
Dragon's Green, Scarlett Thomas (Worldquake #1)
Extraordinary, Nancy Werlin (The Scarborough Girls #2, first book is Impossible)
The Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern
Historical Fantasy
Does what it says on the tin
The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden (Winternight #1)
The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
Soulless, Gail Carriger (The Parasol Protectorate #1)
Gunsmoke & Glamour, Hillary Monaghan
The Golem and the Jinni, Helene Wecker
Anya and the Dragon, Sofiya Pasternack (Anya #1)
The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Marie Pope
Dark Triumph, Robin LaFevers (His Fair Assassin #2, first book is Grave Mercy)
Sorcery and Cecilia; or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot, Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer (Sorcery & Cecilia #1)
Passing Strange, Ellen Klages
Strange Grace, Tessa Gratton
Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho (Sorceror to the Crown #1)
American Hippo, Sarah Gailey (contains both River of Teeth and Taste of Marrow)
Contemporary Fantasy
Takes place in our world, in our times, but isn't really urban
The Evil Wizard Smallbones, Delia Sherman
Heaven and Earth, Nora Roberts (Three Sisters Island trilogy #2, first book is Dance Upon the Air)
Wild Beauty, Anna-Marie McLemore
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban, JK Rowling (Harry Potter #3, I'm pretty sure y'all know what comes first)
Knight-napped!, Ursula Vernon (Dragonbreath #10, first book is Dragonbreath)
The Mystwick School of Musicraft, Jessica Khoury
The Deepest Roots, Miranda Asebedo
Star Trek
I grew up reading Star Trek novels (and Star Wars novels, but all of my favourites were written by cis dudes) My aunt collected them (and occasionally tries to convince me that I should take hers, since she no longer has space for them. Neither do I, plus, I bought my own used copies at the Library books sales and I don't have room for them either) and there are some fascinating clever plots. Also, a whole lot of published sci-fi by women.
These are all TOS novels except for Mosaic, which is Voyager
Uhura's Song, Janet Kagan
The Three-Minute Universe, Barbara Paul
Ishmael, Barbara Hambly
Sarek, AC Crispin
Spock's World, Diane Duane
Traitor Winds, LA Graf
The IDIC Epidemic, Jean Lorrah
Mosaic, Jeri Taylor
We Defy Category
There's a special provenance in the fall of a sparrow...
That Inevitable Victorian Thing, EK Johnston
Upright Women Wanted, Sarah Gailey
Magic Marks the Spot, Caroline Carlson (The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates #1)
The Rescuers, Margery Sharp (The Rescuers #1)
Provenance, Ann Leckie (Same universe as the Imperial Radch trilogy but unconnected)
Anthologies
Lots of stories in one place!
Queen Victoria's Book of Spells, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds.
The Faery Reel, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds.
Chicks in Chainmail, Esther Friesner, ed.
Snow White Learns Witchcraft, Theodora Goss
Mythspring: From the Myths and Legends of Canada, Julie E. Czerneda, ed.
Comics
With art!
Pretty Deadly, Kelly Sue DeConnick & Emma Rios (3 volumes currently in trade)
The Death-Defying Dr. Mirage, Jen Van Meter (2 volumes in trade)
Faith, Jody Houser (6 volumes in trade)
Avengers Assemble, Kelly Sue DeConnick (3 volumes in trade)
Lumberjanes, Shannon Watters, Noelle Stevenson, Brooke Allen & Grace Ellis (13 volumes currently in trade)
DC Bombshells, Marguerite Bennett & Marguerite Sauvage (6 volumes in trade)
Birds of Prey, Gail Simone & Nicola Scott (1 volume in trade, there is more Gail Simone BoP and the stories are really good and I cannot recommend the art)
Ozy & Millie, Dana Simpson (2 collected volumes)
Phoebe & Her Unicorn, Dana Simpson (11 volumes currently in trade)
Notes: For books in series, I have chosen my favourite book in the series, but also noted the first book in the series, because I am not at all encouraging people to pick up mid-series. Start at the beginning and go on until you reach the end.
Space Opera
Books in Spaaaaaaace (But not Star Trek novels, they have their own category)
Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie (Imperial Radch #2, first book is Ancillary Justice)
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Becky Chambers (Wayfarers #1)
The Tea Master & the Detective, Aliette de Bodard (Xuya, series is non-sequential)
Once & Future, Amy Rose Capetta & Cori McCarthy (Once & Future #1)
How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse, K. Eason (The Thorne Chronicles #1)
Mars Evacuees, Sophia McDougall (Mars Evacuees #1)
Urban Fantasy
When someone says "Urban Fantasy" to me, I think of a very specific genre with fae and/or witches in cities. Not all of these books fit that category, but I also can't argue with the fact that they're urban and they're fantasy. Classification is hard.
Night and Silence, Seanan McGuire (October Daye #12, first book is Rosemary and Rue)
Indexing, Seanan McGuire (Indexing #1)
The Demon's Surrender, Sarah Rees Brennan (The Demon's Lexicon #3, first book is The Demon's Lexicon)
Deep Wizardry, Diane Duane (So You Want to Be a Wizard #2, first book is So You Want to Be a Wizard)
Darkest Mercy, Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely #5, first book is Wicked Lovely)
The Babysitters Coven, Kate M. Williams
Seven Deadly Shadows, Courtney Alameda
Quicksilver, RJ Anderson (Ultraviolet #2, first book is Ultraviolet)
Bordertown, Terri Windling and Mark Alan Arnold, eds.
Undead Girl Gang, Lily Anderson
Middlegame, Seanan McGuire
Alternate/Second World Fantasy
I love non-our world fantasy. Yes, a lot of it is Western European cognate and there needs to be more that isn't, but there's a lot of good writing out there.
Kushiel's Mercy, Jacqueline Carey (Terre d'Ange #6, first book is Kushiel's Dart. Imriel trilogy #3, first book is Kushiel's Scion)
King of Scars Leigh Bardugo (Nikolai Duology #1. It will help if you've read, at minimum, the Six of Crows duology (Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom) and possibly also the Grisha trilogy (Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, and Ruin and Rising))
Heir to the Shadows, Anne Bishop (Black Jewels #2, first book is Daughter of the Blood)
The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner (Riverside #2, first book is Swordspoint)
Seraphina, Rachel Hartman (Serephina #1)
Swordheart, T. Kingfisher (Swordheart #1)
Sorcery of Thorns, Margaret Rogerson
Ink in the Blood, Kim Smejkal (Ink in the Blood #1)
Castle Hangnail, Ursula Vernon
Unnatural Magic, C.M Waggoner
Prophecies, Libels & Dreams, Ysabeau Wilce (adjacent to the Flora Segunda trilogy, Flora Fyrdraaca, Flora's Dare, and Flora's Fury)
Dealing with Dragons, Patricia C. Wrede (Enchanted Forest Chronicles #1)
The Ascent to Godhood, JY Yang (Tensorate #4, first book is The Black Tides of Heaven)
Shadows and Light, Anne Bishop (Tir Alain #2, first book is The Pillars of the World)
The Afterward, EK Johnston
The Golden Key, Melanie Rawn & Kate Elliott & Jennifer Roberson
Retellings
Mostly but not entirely faerie tales. I love a good retelling and all of these are fantastic
Tam Lin, Pamela Dean
Lady Hotspur, Tessa Gratton (Not completely a sequel to The Queens of Innis Lear, but it's better if you read that first. If I wasn't trying not to put two books from the same series on this list, Innis Lear would be on here, too)
Blanca & Roja, Anna-Marie McLemore
Vassa in the Night, Sarah Porter
The Girls at the Kingfisher Club, Genevieve Valentine
Language of Thorns, Leigh Bardugo (Loosely tied to the Grisha trilogy, enumerated with King of Scars)
Circe, Madeleine Miller
Whiskerella, Ursula Vernon (Hamster Princess #5, first book is Harriet the Invincible)
Finding Baba Yaga, Jane Yolen
Portal Fantasy
Books about characters who travel from this world into another world that is not like our Earth world.
In an Absent Dream, Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children #4, first book is Every Heart a Doorway)
The Hazel Wood, Melissa Albert (The Hazel Wood #1)
Labyrinth Lost, Zoraida Cordova (Brooklyn Brujas #1)
Sword in the Stacks, Jen Swann Downey (Ninja Librarians #2, first book is The Accidental Keyhand)
Library of the Unwritten, AJ Hackwith (Hell's Library #1)
An Acceptable Time, Madeleine L'Engle (The Murrays #5, first book is A Wrinkle in Time)
Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik
Dragon's Green, Scarlett Thomas (Worldquake #1)
Extraordinary, Nancy Werlin (The Scarborough Girls #2, first book is Impossible)
The Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern
Historical Fantasy
Does what it says on the tin
The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden (Winternight #1)
The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
Soulless, Gail Carriger (The Parasol Protectorate #1)
Gunsmoke & Glamour, Hillary Monaghan
The Golem and the Jinni, Helene Wecker
Anya and the Dragon, Sofiya Pasternack (Anya #1)
The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Marie Pope
Dark Triumph, Robin LaFevers (His Fair Assassin #2, first book is Grave Mercy)
Sorcery and Cecilia; or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot, Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer (Sorcery & Cecilia #1)
Passing Strange, Ellen Klages
Strange Grace, Tessa Gratton
Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho (Sorceror to the Crown #1)
American Hippo, Sarah Gailey (contains both River of Teeth and Taste of Marrow)
Contemporary Fantasy
Takes place in our world, in our times, but isn't really urban
The Evil Wizard Smallbones, Delia Sherman
Heaven and Earth, Nora Roberts (Three Sisters Island trilogy #2, first book is Dance Upon the Air)
Wild Beauty, Anna-Marie McLemore
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban, JK Rowling (Harry Potter #3, I'm pretty sure y'all know what comes first)
Knight-napped!, Ursula Vernon (Dragonbreath #10, first book is Dragonbreath)
The Mystwick School of Musicraft, Jessica Khoury
The Deepest Roots, Miranda Asebedo
Star Trek
I grew up reading Star Trek novels (and Star Wars novels, but all of my favourites were written by cis dudes) My aunt collected them (and occasionally tries to convince me that I should take hers, since she no longer has space for them. Neither do I, plus, I bought my own used copies at the Library books sales and I don't have room for them either) and there are some fascinating clever plots. Also, a whole lot of published sci-fi by women.
These are all TOS novels except for Mosaic, which is Voyager
Uhura's Song, Janet Kagan
The Three-Minute Universe, Barbara Paul
Ishmael, Barbara Hambly
Sarek, AC Crispin
Spock's World, Diane Duane
Traitor Winds, LA Graf
The IDIC Epidemic, Jean Lorrah
Mosaic, Jeri Taylor
We Defy Category
There's a special provenance in the fall of a sparrow...
That Inevitable Victorian Thing, EK Johnston
Upright Women Wanted, Sarah Gailey
Magic Marks the Spot, Caroline Carlson (The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates #1)
The Rescuers, Margery Sharp (The Rescuers #1)
Provenance, Ann Leckie (Same universe as the Imperial Radch trilogy but unconnected)
Anthologies
Lots of stories in one place!
Queen Victoria's Book of Spells, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds.
The Faery Reel, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds.
Chicks in Chainmail, Esther Friesner, ed.
Snow White Learns Witchcraft, Theodora Goss
Mythspring: From the Myths and Legends of Canada, Julie E. Czerneda, ed.
Comics
With art!
Pretty Deadly, Kelly Sue DeConnick & Emma Rios (3 volumes currently in trade)
The Death-Defying Dr. Mirage, Jen Van Meter (2 volumes in trade)
Faith, Jody Houser (6 volumes in trade)
Avengers Assemble, Kelly Sue DeConnick (3 volumes in trade)
Lumberjanes, Shannon Watters, Noelle Stevenson, Brooke Allen & Grace Ellis (13 volumes currently in trade)
DC Bombshells, Marguerite Bennett & Marguerite Sauvage (6 volumes in trade)
Birds of Prey, Gail Simone & Nicola Scott (1 volume in trade, there is more Gail Simone BoP and the stories are really good and I cannot recommend the art)
Ozy & Millie, Dana Simpson (2 collected volumes)
Phoebe & Her Unicorn, Dana Simpson (11 volumes currently in trade)
