Women in fantasy part 2

There is something magical about celebrating women who write fantasy (and sci-fi) stories; they offer a different perspective on the genre (as diversity usually does) and certainly offer a different sensitivity and tone to these worlds.

This time, we have a super line up, starting with a queen of sci-fi and continuing with veterans and new voices of fantasy and sci-fi (or a combination of both of them!).

Octavia E. Butler

Octavia E. Butler is a pillar of sci-fi and fantasy stories. I confess I did not experience any of her books just yet and I want to make sure that I cannot wait to get to experience her stories. In fairness, she is mostly known in the sci-fi world.

I love her bio - she lost her father early in her life and found herself lost in fantasy and writing which prepared her for writing sci-fi.

She is also a very important representative (if not even the pillar) of the African-American community and I just cannot wait to read what she has to offer!

Among her stories, I feel that Xenogenesis series might be a great fit and I cannot wait to get my hands on her content!

Jennifer Roberson

Jennifer Roberson is a prolific fantasy author and she has been in the game since the ‘80s (in fact, on her Goodreads profile she says that her career spans over 40 yeas so far!). I know her storytelling through the series Tiger and Del, genuinely one of my favorite couples in fantasy; a couple that is better together, no one is better than the other (or more powerful than the other) and they sore by being together. The story also tells the story of how they met and how they fall in love, in a few great installments!

She is one of the first modern fantasy authors; she is also one of the women who wants to explore gender equality and she has done this in a great way!

Now, Tiger and Del are not the only books Jennifer Roberson ever wrote; there is an older series called Chronicles of the Cheysuli and this story focuses on shapeshifters (and it is a magic ability that I enjoy the most these days) and I want to explore a secondary world where this ability is front and center.

Shannon Chakraborty

Shannon Chakraborty is one of the new voices in fantasy and there is good reasons for it. First, she offers a different perspective than other authors. She is not the one writing about western medieval times; she chooses to write about medieval times in Middle East and Africa. This is just a bold choice and it pays off really well; her ability to provide us with a dimensional work is just uncanny. Also, she is one of the authors that focuses the most on djinns and I love quite this choice.

She completed the first series called The Daevabad trilogy; in transparency, I did not make it pass the first book (mostly because I get tired of stories focusing on love only and that was my impression at the end of the first book); yet the world building and magic system was truly strong.

She also wrote another book, kicking off a new series, called The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi and that was an absolute delight for me (my review here). Not only the choice of a woman leading a pirate crew is well done but the best part of the story, for me, is that her strength is her leadership and the ability to bring the best in her people. And I genuinely liked the introspection Amina shares while making decisions.

Kameron Hurley

Kameron Hurley is probably the most underrated author in this list despite having won plenty of awards in the sci-fi and fantasy space. I read her The Worldbreaker Saga (with The Mirror Empire,  Empire Ascendant and The Broken Heavens) last year and it took me by complete surprise.  I loved how imaginative this was; in fact, she is the queen of sci-fi fantasy for me (and her only peer in this category, for me, is Mark Lawrence). Her characters (and she chose a character with disability as one of her main characters) and her story and world building just blew my mind. Multiple parallel worlds executed incredibly well! Absolutely great work and, if you enjoy strong women leaders and a strong sci-fi component in this fantasy story, then this series is perfect for you!

Outro

Did you read from these authors? What is the series that you would want to recommend? What are the stories that your fellow readers should experience?