International Women’s Day: The once and future queens – women writers of science fiction and fantasy

By Christopher Taylor.

It’s no secret that the world of sci-fi and fantasy has rarely been welcoming for female authors: publishers often lacked faith in women, and readers gravitated to male names. Worse than that, even female authors who break through seem more at risk of disappearing from memory (and bookshop shelves). The question of ‘why’ is more than I can answer here, but I think it could boil down to a vicious cycle driven by good intentions: people rightly stating ‘we need more women in fantasy’ seems to lead to a collective delusion that there are none at all. It’s all too common to see people claim H.G. Wells or Jules Verne ‘invented’ sci-fi, without even a thought for Mary Shelley. We also see women pigeon-holed into sub-genres (e.g. feminist sci-fi or romantasy), which leads to publishing trends that exclude women from anything outside of these.

For International Women’s Day, I wanted to give a quick history of the past 50 years of science fiction and fantasy through 10 female authors, sticking to the sub-genres where female voices are missing the most. I can’t stress enough that it was extremely difficult to only pick ten, and there are many, many more, including: Judith Mariller, Trudi Canavan, Karen Miller, Claire North, Sheri Tepper, Doris Lessing, Katherine Kerr, Janny Wurts, Andre Norton, Lois McMaster Bujold, Connie Willis, Anne McCaffrey, Becky Chambers, Stella Gemmell, Anna Smith Spark and Hiromu Arakawa.

Ursula LeGuin – A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)

LeGuin was one of the most important writers of the twentieth century – regardless of genre and gender. Not only did she win numerous awards and honours, she was a prominent literary critic and essayist, and influenced countless prominent authors including Iain Banks, Salman Rushdie and David Mitchell.

LeGuin’s breakthrough novel was a fantasy coming-of-age that crosses the boundaries of children’s and adult fiction: A Wizard of Earthsea. This is the story of Ged, a young mage, as he learns about magic and the responsibilities of having power. Uniquely for its time (and unusual even today), the world of Earthsea is a Polynesian nation, with most inhabitants described as darker-skinned with Taoist-adjacent belief systems, rather than the usual western-European settings and religions. It arguably set the archetype for ‘magic schools’ in fantasy, although it is not a fast-moving adventure of rule-breaking hijinks. Instead, LeGuin combines traditional fantasy themes of magic and evil with a slowly-burning philosophical and moral journey and creates a beautifully written piece of fantasy art. The following year, LeGuin wrote The Left Hand of Darkness, which is a defining piece of feminist science fiction examining androgyny and gender.

CJ Cherryh – The Faded Sun Trilogy (1978-9)

Cherryh might be one of the most prolific mainstream science fiction and fantasy writers of all time, with over 80 published novels across both genres. Her world-building style has frequently been compared to Tolkein’s, creating universes full of coherent language, history, art and psychology.

The Faded Sun Trilogy takes place in the aftermath of a war between humanity and the Mri, who fight on behalf of the mercantile Regul. The Mri, whose honourable warrior culture is based on duelling, have been overwhelmed by the open warfare of humanity, and are about to be double-crossed by the Regul. In a way, this is a precursor to modern ‘cosy’ sci-fi (e.g. Becky Chambers’ A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet), as it is a character and culture study of a human and his two Mri companions, with a minimalist setting and sparse action; Cherryh has a talent for creating psychology that is clearly alien, but still sympathetic. However, the stakes are high, the world and history is broad and rich, and the plot is tense. An excellent entry point to the Alliance-Union space opera universe, which comprises 27 novels.

Margaret Weis (and Tracy Hickman) – Dragonlance: Chronicles and Legends (1984-6)

Weis is the undisputed queen of heroic fiction. The first two Dragonlance trilogies are among the most popular Dungeons and Dragons books, as part of the D&D setting which Weis created alongside Tracy and Laura Hickman: a world that blends classic knights and dragons with unique magic schools, absorbing locations, and meddling gnomes and halflings. The trilogies are full of everything you could want in a fun, action-packed read: heroic deeds, quests, magic, evil empires and wizards, and sacrifice – and lots and lots of dragons. They’re pulpy and trope-y (and a bit silly), but they’re stories told with obvious love and passion.

It’s ironic that D&D was stereotyped as male-only by the media; their original publisher, TSR, did more for female heroic fantasy authors than many publishers ever have.

Robin Hobb – The Farseer Trilogy (1995-7)

Hobb may be the most recognisable name on this list, but her real name, Megan Lindholm, is much less so. Clearly illustrating the sexism of the 90s fantasy landscape, when she struggled to break through under her own name, she picked a gender-neutral pen name, which many people assumed was male.

Hobb created two of the most beloved characters in fantasy – Fitz and the Fool. Her novels chart the life of Fitz from birth to late middle-age, with the first trilogy set in his youth as he learns to be a political assassin in an early-medieval kingdom, while hiding a secret magic. As his path repeatedly intersects with the mysterious and androgynous Fool, Fitz is manipulated and betrayed, suffers tragedy and loss, and finds brief moments of happiness in friendship and family. We are told the story in his older voice, with regret and nostalgia permeating the pages, and you can’t help but fall for him, despite his mistakes. The claustrophobic confines of Buckkeep keeps the focus firmly on the characters and the political machinations, although an external magical threat gradually adds a layer of fantasy tension leading to escalating stakes. Hobb’s writing is nigh-on flawless, and every time she pulls the rug from under Fitz, it will leave you devastated. It’s a relatively small-scale world, but it’s the perfect bridge of classic and modern fantasy, and completely timeless.

Steph Swainston – The Year of Our War (2004)

The 2000s were perhaps a low point for publishers supporting debut female authors in sci-fi and fantasy. Swainston was one of the few authors tipped as the next big thing, part of the ‘New Weird’ fantasy sub-genre, but reputedly the pressure from the publisher meant she largely stepped back from writing in 2010.

The Year of Our War is the start of a unique series. A god-emperor and his legion of winged-but-flightless immortal warriors lead mortals in a never-ending war against giant insects, in a bleak world full of brutality where there are no heroes. Our main character is the only immortal who can fly; he’s also a coward and a drug addict who believes he can visit a parallel world where he’s hiding a dead man who might be able to stop the war. This ‘virtual reality’, alongside the fast pace, snappy narration, slang, anti-heroes, sex, visceral violence, and drug use, all add up to make the book read more like a dark cyberpunk novel than fantasy. Swainston takes a no-hand-holding approach to world-building, but if you’re up for the challenge, it’s well worth the effort.

Ann Leckie – Ancillary Justice (2013)

Leckie’s multi-award-winning debut, Ancillary Justice, seemed to herald a shift in publishing attitude towards debut female authors in 2010s. At its core, it is a simple mystery story in a space opera setting which lets us delve into the world and concepts as we go. One strand follows our main character, Breq, isolated on an ice planet, on a mission to find out why her ship was destroyed. The other strand is 19 years earlier, when ‘Breq’, as the ship’s AI, controlled whole detachments of soldiers, which provides some fascinating ‘hive mind’ narrative sequences and discussion about duty, empire, culture, and humanity. Eventually these two contrasting plotlines of adventure and military sci-fi tie together to reveal what happened. One quirky feature is that Breq’s language only contains one pronoun (Leckie uses ‘she’), which leads to some amusing diversions about gender when Breq speaks languages that do have a binary.

VE Schwab – The Shades of Magic Trilogy (2015-2017)

A parallel, magical London in 1819; a swashbuckling smuggler prince who can travel between the worlds; a thief who wants to be a pirate; a dangerous magical artifact; a plot to cause chaos across the worlds. Schwab is an excellent writer who blends elements of young adult storytelling into adult fantasy, always in unusual ways and never at the expense of great fantasy storytelling – no awkward romances or contrived decision-making here. She recently achieved a mass-market hit with The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, which is a genre-bending historical fantasy romance, but Shades of Magic is a much more traditional action/adventure fantasy series that’s well worth a look if romance is not your thing. You should also check out Vicious, a dark, supervillain thriller with a light science fiction concept and that draws from Hannibal, Dexter and The Crow.

Anna Stephens – Godblind Trilogy (2017-2019)

If you want publishers to let women write dark, gritty fantasy, support Anna Stephens. Godblind starts by feeling grim but hopeful, and gradually descends into horror. Fair warning, there’s one extremely gruesome scene, so don’t take this lightly.

A tribe who worship gods of blood and pain plans to invade the kingdom that exiled them to destroy the gods of light. The story follows an escaped captive, a frontiersman who defends the kingdom’s borders from the cult, and an army leader close to the heart of the kingdom. Stephens writes some of the most visceral battle scenes in the genre, as well as some of the most effective portrayals of descent into madness. If you can handle a lot of POVs (the chapters hop around a lot) and some truly gruesome scenes, and you enjoy dark, military fantasy full of grey characters and engaging battles, this is the one for you.

Megan O’Keefe – Devoured Worlds Trilogy (2023-2024)

O’Keefe is one of the finest recent writers of space opera. The Devoured Worlds follows Tarquin, the academic son of one of the most powerful humans alive, and Naira, a spy and revolutionary stuck in the body of Tarquin’s bodyguard. When a ship crash lands, they’re trapped together, and in their attempts to find a way to safety they begin to reveal some of the nature of the infection that is destroying every inhabitable planet. O’Keefe explores concepts of AI, consciousness, and body identity, while at the same time creating a gripping, easily understandable space opera of intrigue, action, and survival. She also gives a masterclass in how to present a mature, natural romance that’s vital to the main plot – many romantasy authors should take note.

Hannah Kaner – Godkiller Trilogy (2023-2025)

And finally, an old-fashioned heroic fantasy brought into the modern age. Imagine The Witcher, but less alpha male, with a more unique concept. In a relatively short first novel (by fantasy standards), Kaner sets up a fascinating world full of minor gods that need to be hunted down before they can cause chaos. In some ways, it will be comfortable and familiar to fans of authors such as David Gemmell or Raymond Feist: there’s a action-packed quest, unique magic, and high stakes, leading to a cliffhanger ending that’s sure to draw you into the trilogy. In other ways, it flips the script. Perhaps the biggest breath of fresh air is that it’s our main female character who’s the sarcastic, anti-heroic, outsider mercenary, and our male knight is the more ‘polite’ character who’s at odds with her. And yet, the characters are convincingly portrayed as male and female, rather than an arbitrary role reversal. Godkiller was a fantastic debut and Kaner is a name to watch in traditional heroic fantasy.