My Top 40 Female SFF Writers

[First posted 14 February 2010]

Never being one to shy away from a challenge, I have responded to @hagelrat's suggestion that I make my own list by creating this... My Top 40 Female SFF Writers!

This is a personal list, based on books and authors I have encountered over the years (yes, I have read every one listed here) and is not a comprehensive list of female authors in the SFF genre. There may be what some consider to be 'glaring omissions', but this is MY list. If a particular author is not included it is for 2 reasons:

• I have never read any of her books e.g. Carol Berg
• I have read at least one of her books but didn't enjoy it e.g. Robin Hobbs

Of course there are some real favourites in there, authors that I would read every word they ever committed to paper. Jacqueline Carey and Anne Bishop fit in that category, Sherri Tepper and Anne Rice to a lesser extent. Some new authors are included too; Kaaron Warren, N K Jemisin and Aliette de Bodard are 3 writers I have discovered in the last 2 months and are worthy of inclusion. Others are what I consider 'comfort' reads... I know exactly what to expect but enjoy the worldbuilding or lead characters e.g. Kelley Armstrong, Sherrilyn Kenyon or Michelle Sagara.

So, here it is, in no particular order: 

My Top 40 Female SFF Writers 

1. Sherri Tepper – Grass

2. Jacqueline Carey – Kushiel’s Dart

3. Anne Bishop – The Black Jewels trilogy (one volume)

4. Anne Rice – The Mayfair Witches

5. Octavia Butler – The Parable of the Sower

6. Marian Zimmer Bradley – The Mists of Avalon

7. Katherine Kerr – Palace

8. Joan D Vinge – The Snow Queen

9. Ursula le Guin – The Left Hand of Darkness

10. Kaaron Warren – Walking the Tree

11. Jaine Fenn – Principles of Angels

12. Margaret Atwood – A Handmaid’s Tale

13. Elizabeth Moon – The Speed of Dark

14. Angela Carter – Nights at the Circus

15. Storm Constantine – Storm for the Sacred

16. Anne McCaffrey – The Ship Who Sang

17. Catherynne M Valente – Palimpsest

18. Juliet Marillier – Daughter of the Forest

19. Sara Douglass – Battleaxe

20. Connie Willis – Doomsday Book

21. Tanith Lee – The Secret Books of Paradys

22. Nancy Kress – Beggars in Spain

23. N.K.Jemisin – The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

24. Karen Miller – Empress

25. Jennifer Fallon – Medalon

26. Sherrilyn Kenyon – Acheron

27. Mary Doria Russell – The Sparrow

28. Starhawk – The Spiral Dance

29. Maria V Snyder – Poison Study

30. Julian May – The Many-coloured Land

31. Faith Hunter – Bloodring

32. P D James – Children of Men

33. Michelle Sagara – Cast in Secret

34. Aliette de Bodard – Servant of the Underworld

35. Alex Bell – The Ninth Circle

36. Elizabeth Haydon – Prophecy

37. Celia Friedman – Black Sun Rising

38. Wendy Alec – The Fall of Lucifer

39. Kelley Armstrong – Bitten

40. Justina Robson – Living Next Door to the God of Love

What do you think? Have I missed any you consider to be conspicuous by their absence? Feel free to comment, but remember, this is my own personal selection! I am, however, very open to suggestions for new authors to try...