I like lists, so I wrote a (far from complete) list of amazing sff female authors. I don’t read as much science fiction as I like, so I went to an expert: Beth at Before We Go Blog. She reviews the coolest books, and interviews amazing authors! Check her blog out. Here are some fabulous writers to read, with titles of some of their work next to their names:
Author: Notable Works:
*Katherine Arden- The Bear and the Nightingale
*Margaret Atwood- The Handmaid’s Tale; Angel Catbird (graphic novel)
*Holly Black- The Cruel Prince, The Spiderwick Chronicles (coauthor)
*Kendare Blake -Three Dark Crowns (series), Anna Dressed in Blood
*Anne Bishop- Daughter of the Blood
*Kristen Britain- Green Rider
*Emma Bull- War for the Oaks The Princess and the Lord of Night
*Octavia Butler- Parable of the Sower Dawn
*Jacqueline Carey- Kushiel’s Dart Starless
*Beth Cartwright- Feathertide
*Becky Chambers -The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
*C.J. Cherryh- Downbelow Station The Pride of Chanur
* Cassandra Clare- The Mortal Instruments (series) The Magisterium Chronicles (coauthor)
*Susanna Clarke -Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Piranesi
*Susan Cooper- The Dark is Rising series
*Delilah S. Dawson- (Star Wars) Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire Kill the Farm Boy (coauthor)
*Sarah Douglass- The Wayfarer Redemption trilogy
*Emily A. Duncan- Wicked Saints
*Sarah Beth Durst- Queen of Blood
*Kate Elliott -King’s Dragon
Cold Magic
*Jennifer Fallon- Medalon (The Demon Child trilogy)
The Immortal Prince (the Tide Lord series)
*Cordelia Funke- Inkheart
Reckless (coauthor)
*Christie Golden -Fate of the Jedi series (contributing author)
Vampire of the Mists (Ravenloft series)
*Alix A. Harrow- The Ten Thousand Doors of January The Once and Future Witches
*Elizabeth Haydon- Rhapsody: Child of Blood
*Heid Heilig- The Girl From Everywhere
For a Muse of Fire
*Robin Hobb- Assassin’s Apprentice (Farseer trilogy #1)
Ship of Magic (Liveship Traders #1)
*Kameron Hurley- The Mirror Empire (Worldbreaker Saga #1)
*P.D James- The Children of Men
*N.K Jemisin- The Fifth Season (Broken Earth series #1)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
*J.V. Jones -The Baker’s Boy (The Book of Words #1)
*S. Kaeth- Windward
*Catherine Kerr- Daggerspell (Deverry Cycle #1)
*Katherine Kurtz -Deryni Rising
*Mercedes Lackey- The Oathbound (Vows and Honor book 1)
The Black Gryphon
*Madeline L’Engle- A Wrinkle in Time
*Ursula Le Guin -A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle)
The Dispossessed
*Anne Leckie- The Raven Tower
Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch trilogy #1)
*Devin Madson- We Ride the Storm
*Juliet Marillier- Daughter of the Forest
Wolfskin
*Anne McCaffrey- A Diversity of Dragons
Dragonflight (Dragonriders of Pern book #1)
*Seanan McGuire- Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children series, book 1)
Middlegame
*Robin McKinley -The Hero and the Crown
Chalice
*Erin Morgenstern -The Night Circus
The Starless Sea
*Jennifer A. Nielson -The Traitor’s Game
The False Prince (the Ascendance trilogy, book 1)
*Naomi Novik- Uprooted
His Majesty’s Dragon (Temeraire, book 1)
*Nnedi Okorafor- Zahrah the Windseeker Binti
*Quenby Olson- The Half Killed
*Tamora Pierce- Tempests and Slaughter (The Numair Chronicles #1) Trickster’s Choice (Daughter of the Lioness #1)
*Suzie Plakson- The Return of King Lillian
*Victoria Schwab- A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic #1)
The Near Witch
*Mary Shelley- Frankenstein
The Last Man
*M.L. Spencer- Dragon Mage
*Andrea Stewart- The Bone Shard Daughter
*Mary Stewart -The Crystal Cave (The Arthurian Saga #1)
*Tasha Suri- The Jasmine Throne
*James Tiptree Jr.- Brightness Falls from the Air
*Karen Traviss -City of Pearl
Star Wars Republic Commando: Hard Contact
*Joan D. Vinge- The Snow Queen
Ladyhawke
*Thea Von Harbou- Metropolis
*Jo Walton- Tooth and Claw
*Margaret Weis -Dragons of Autumn Twilight (coauthor)
Forging the Darksword (Darksword trilogy #1, coauthor)
*Martha Wells- The Element of Fire
All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1)
*Connie Willis- Doomsday Book
*Patricia C. Wrede- Dealing with Dragons (The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, #1)
Shadow Magic (Lyra series #1)
*Janny Wurts -Curse of the Mistwraith (Wars of Light and Shadow #1)
That Way Lies Camelot
*Jane Yolen- The Young Merlin trilogy
Sister Light, Sister Dark (Great Alta Saga #1)
Whew! Needless to say, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to talented female sff authors. Who did I forget?
Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub 
Holy cow thats a lot of authors! Do you have a favorite? 😉
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Margaret Weis wrote the Dragonlance Chronicles which were my gateway to fantasy, and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is one of my all-time favorites.
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There’s one problem with this… I’m ashamed how many of them I’ve read so my entire TBR has just exploded 😂 quite a few I haven’t heard of so thank you so much for the recommendations – I can scarcely imagine the work that must have gone into this!
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Ha ha! The plight of the reader. I’ll never get through my tbr.
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Katherine Arden is one of my favorite authors!
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Cassandra Clare is the best!
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So many phenomenal authors! I remember being absolutely blown away by Jennifer Fallon’s Second Son Trilogy when I first read it many moons ago!
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The wonderful thing about this, is there are so many amazing authors that I forgot or haven’t read yet. I’m hoping to keep adding to the list.
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Am reading my very first Naomi Novik book right now, which is turning out to be frigging awesome!!
Great list! 😍
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Thank you! I was looking at your blog posts. You’ve got great taste! I can tell my tbr is going to grow often because of your posts.
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I suspect you’re going to do the same to my tbr (having just been looking at your posts too!) 😀
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Thanks!
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I loved this list but my TBR pile doesn’t 😂😂
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Ha ha ha! Thanks and sorry. 🤣
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Amazon will be sending you royalties later 😂😂 thanks for opening my eyes to more authors though. This was a great list.
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🤣🤣🤣 Thanks!
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Tiptree is always on my TBR. I’m currently reading a re-published collection from her (Ten Thousand Light-Years From Home, which will appear in Penguin classics somewhere in August). If you fancy short stories, I really would like to recommend “Her Smoke Rose up forever” from her. My review’s here: https://reiszwolf.wordpress.com/2015/11/08/her-smoke-rose-up-forever-%e2%80%a2-1990-%e2%80%a2-sf-collection-by-james-tiptree-jr/
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Ooh, thanks!
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Thank you for doing this. Now the curious side of me wants to order them by publishing date, country of author , and who is extant. Maybe later?
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Oh, wow! I don’t have the dedication for that. 😆😆
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I’m catching up on your blog (I forget to check it sometimes 😦 because we are connected on Goodreads).
I’ve read a good amount of these authors (especially Margaret Weiss 😉 )
Marie Brennan The Memoirs of Lady Trent series and Doppelganger duology (have not read her fairy Onyx Court series).
Jessica Amanda Salmonson Tomoe Gozen series (folk lore fantasy)
Carol Severence Island Warrior series (folk lore fantasy)
Sarah Kuhn Heroine Complex series (superhero fantasy)
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Ooh, I’m adding Island Warrior and Tomoe Gozen to my tbr!
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I hope you like them! They’re older works, I hope you can find them.
Too many misspellings – Severance and Weis.
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I hope so too!
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Great list! This is such a good idea. I recently finished the dark is rising and not as many people have heard of it but they should have, it should be an iconic fantasy series! I recently read the last book and I loved that too. Here’s my review of it 🙂 https://hundredsandthousandsofbooks.blog/2020/12/27/dont-judge-a-book-by-its-age-rating-silver-on-the-tree-review/
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Reblogged this on Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub.
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Good list! I would offer Rebecca Kuang (The Poppy War trilogy) as an addition.
And one of my favourite writers ever, who wrote my single favourite book- Tessa Gratton (Queens of Innis Lear). She writes such beautiful, lush stories, and many lgbt characters. I love her.
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Ooh, a new author for me to read!
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Thank you so much! This is an amazing list and I’m blown away to be included on it.
I definitely want Self-published Authors Appreciation Week to be an annual thing!
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I’d definitely add Jennifer Estep to this list for fantasy authors – her Crown of Shards series was great. And I’m a total such for anything written by Sarah J. Maas and Leigh Bardugo.
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I really enjoyed Six of Crows!
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