List Making Time

Over at Torque Control Niall Harrison has embarked on a project to give more publicity to science fiction written by women (and Goddess knows it needs it). Amongst other parts of the project, he wants people to email him with their lists of the 10 best SF novels by women in the past 10 years. Here are some possibilities:

  • Light Music, In War Times – Kathleen Ann Goonan
  • Silver Screen, Mappa Mundi, Natural History, Living Next Door to the God of Love, The Quantum Gravity series – Justina Robson
  • The Archangel Protocol series – Lyda Morehouse
  • Ghost Sister, Empire of Bones, Poison Master, Banner of Souls – Liz Williams
  • Solitaire – Kelley Eskridge
  • The Speed of Dark – Elizabeth Moon
  • Memory – Linda Nagata
  • The Etched City – K.J. Bishop
  • Mindworlds – Phyllis Gotlieb
  • Maul – Tricia Sullivan
  • Spin State, Spin Control – Chris Moriarty
  • Not Before Sundown – Johanna Sinisalo
  • The Year of Our War – Steph Swainston
  • The Wess’har Wars series – Karen Travis
  • Dreamhunter, Dreamquake – Elizabeth Knox
  • The Burning Girl – Holly Phillips
  • Hav – Jan Morris
  • Spirit – Gwyneth Jones
  • Boneshaker – Cherie Priest
  • FEED – Seanan McGuire
  • The Hunger Games series – Suzanne Collins
  • Who Fears Death – Nnedi Okorafor
  • Carnival – Elizabeth Bear
  • The Green Glass Sea, White Sands, Red Menace – Ellen Klages
  • Warchild, Karin Lowachee
  • Moxyland, Lauren Beukes

There are, of course, many more. I’ve limited myself to books I have read and am considering for my list. Note that the definition of “science fiction” needs to take into account that fact that Perdido Street Station won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, which is why books like The Year of Our War and The Etched City appear here, event though they are often classed as fantasy.

Narrowing this down to 10 is going to be hard.

8 thoughts on “List Making Time

    1. Totally spaced on Moxyland, but remembered and added it before seeing your comment. Walking the Tree is fascinating, but didn’t make the cut.

  1. If Etched City and Boneshaker are in there I don’t see any reason why Jonathan Strange isn’t also.

    I agree wit Neil Gaiman’s blurb on the back; ‘the best novel of the past decade.’

    1. Honestly, I’ll agree to disagree with Gaiman (and a lot of others) but I’d personally classify Susanna Clark as fantasy — with no pejroative connotation intended. Of course, your mileage may vary.

  2. How about Kay Kenyon’s The Entire & The Rose series (Bright of the Sky, World Too Near, City Without End, Prince of Storms). A rather impressive case of world building, in my opinion!

    1. Lou Anders, whose taste I very much respect, is enthusiastic about them. Personally I haven’t read them, so I didn’t include them in the list.

    2. I’ll second The Entire & the Rose. I’m halfway through book 3, City Without End, now and it’s really excellent.

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