Several of CJ Cherryh's books are SF with female leads: The whole Chanur series; Rimrunners; Cyteen; the Morgaine cycle is a little more fantasy, so that may not work.
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Ooooh! Have you ever read either Hellspark or Mirabile by Janet Kagan? If not, I highly recommend them.
The new Charlie Jane Victories Greater than Death is very sci fi (sort of Star Trekky)has a female protagonist, and is good. And was being given away by Tor recently, I think? Like subscribe to a newsletter and get a copy of this book kind of deal. I already had my copy so I didn’t pay much attention
I just read Chuck Wendig’s Miriam Black series and she’s a female protagonist but is it SF? I think it’s probably more horror.
Vacation read: hmmmmm. This suddenly feels like a pop quiz that I am unprepared for. I will think about it some more.
I keep forgetting that I want to rec The Unravelling - it’s way far future sci fi so society is pretty much completely different, humans are pretty different, and explores some interesting ideas with that, among them vids, fic and shipping. I mean, that’s not a big part of the story but I was delighted to find them at all.
Jesse - SB Divya’s Machinehood, Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti, Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire …
(I mean yes I love it when people read Updraft also! ❤️)
These are all excellent recs.
Thanks for all of these!
Jesse, if you haven't picked up Ann Leckie's "Imperial Radch" series, I highly recommend it. My current tagline - "In the end it's only ever been one step, and then the next" - is from the final book in the series.
Nicola Griffith's Ammonite, N.K. Jemisin's "Broken Earth" and "Inheritance" trilogies, Le Guin's The Telling, Sue Burke's Semiosis (haven't read Interference yet), Kate Elliott's Unconquerable Sun . . . .
Jesse, have you read anything by Becky Chambers? She's become one of my favorite recent SF writers. A Closed and Common Orbit is probably the closest fit for this challenge, and is also my favorite of her books so far (though I haven't read her latest yet). It's a sequel of sorts to her first book, but you don't need to have read the first one to understand or enjoy the story, though it does spoil a fairly big plot point from the first book.
hippocampus, some of my recent faves are Circe by Madeline Miller, Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia, and Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid.
I have not read any of these books!
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue was wonderful. It is not, however, a happy, light romp.