Books: can you recomend any Sci Fi with "Feeeeeeeemales" in it?

[Vault101]

I've been reading a lot of "respectible" literature latley and I feel in the mood for some "Sci Fi" [i/]preferably[/i] somthing with a woman in it

she doesn't nessicaryly have to be the main charachter, (although thats a bonus) ensemble casts are cool, it doesn't even have to pass the bachdel test BUT I would prefer if it [i/]wasn't[/i] a bodice ripper romance in diguise as a sci fi book (for example the "In death" series is literaly a mills and boones with hilariously outdated cyberpunk)

if not just any good sci fi books

EDIT:

also I should list some random ones I'm reading

Ancillary justice
Archangel Protocol
Peacemaker

 

[The Madman]

Neuromancer is interesting if you've never read it before. Often credited as one of the progenitors of the 'cyberpunk' genre it's a good sci-fi noire style story with some memorable characters and lots of neat ideas.

And yes, there's a prominent female main character. Heck, she's even on the cover of the book in some releases.

 

[Hoplon]

Most Iain Banks culture novels have good female characters in them, Consider Phebas, Use of Weapons and Against a Dark Background come to mind prominently.

 

[Vault101]

Neuromancer is interesting if you've never read it before. Often credited as one of the progenitors of the 'cyberpunk' genre it's a good sci-fi noire style story with some memorable characters and lots of neat ideas.

And yes, there's a prominent female main character. Heck, she's even on the cover of the book in some releases.

that neurmancer huh? I've heard of it, (in fact I bought a fancy copy for my mums birthday and she said it was terrible)

Most Iain Banks culture novels have good female characters in them, Consider Phebas and Use of Weapons come to mind prominently.

I've actually been looking at those

I know two that indicates female protagonists in the blurbs however they strike me as "ensemble" novel that have lots of charachters

 

[The Madman]

that neurmancer huh? I've heard of it, (in fact I bought a fancy copy for my mums birthday and she said it was terrible)

What an odd choice of books to buy for your mother... you realize it's pretty bloody and violent right? It's been awhile since I read it, but pretty sure there's even some rape thrown in there too to good measure. Not really the sort of book I typically recommend to my mother, although I'm sure she's read worse since she's a pretty avid reader herself. Still...

But really it's basically just a sci-fi noire story. You know, like Maltese Falcon in a dystopian future and with considerably more violence.

 

[Vault101]

What an odd choice of books to buy for your mother... you realize it's pretty bloody and violent right? It's been awhile since I read it, but pretty sure there's even some rape thrown in there too to good measure. Not really the sort of book I typically recommend to my mother, although I'm sure she's read worse since she's a pretty avid reader herself. Still...

so in other words much better than the 50 shades knock off's that were featured for mothers day?

edit: she didn't like it because of the language and finding it tedious to read

edit2: and now I remember it might have been mothers day instead

 

[The Madman]

so in other words much better than the 50 shades knock off's that were featured for mothers day?

Hah, fair enough. In any case if the premise sounds interesting I'd say the book is at least worth looking into, if nothing else it's not very long and it gives a neat glimpse into the origins of the cyberpunk genre.

 

[Hoplon]

Most Iain Banks culture novels have good female characters in them, Consider Phebas and Use of Weapons come to mind prominently.

I've actually been looking at those

I know two that indicates female protagonists in the blurbs however they strike me as "ensemble" novel that have lots of characters

The first two are indeed, but against a dark background while it has lots of main characters the one you follow is Sharrow and it's her story really.

 

[Darks63]

I'm not sure if your into the Shadowrun world and if you count those as Sci-fi or not. In the original run of books nyx smith's stories always feature a female main character. Another book Lucifer Deck follows both a young orc girl and a female human reporter. In the new novels the first three novels are a trilogy that feature a girl who is new to the shadowrun game. There is prolly a few more but I only own 30 out of the 40 original book series and have only read 12 of them out of that.

 

[Asclepion]

Most Iain Banks culture novels have good female characters in them, Consider Phebas and Use of Weapons come to mind prominently.

I've actually been looking at those

I know two that indicates female protagonists in the blurbs however they strike me as "ensemble" novel that have lots of charachters

They're amazing. Among the best science fiction I've seen.

The Culture books don't actually have a lot of strictly 'male' or 'female' characters. Technology allows them to basically biomod themselves into any body, so the characters often switch genders. Someone from the Culture having a purely male or female identity would be seen as kind of silly. Also, AIs and alien beings are major characters, some with their own sexes (The Idirans are dual hermaphrodites, each side of a pairing impregnating the other, after which they metamorphosize into their warrior form. The Azad have three genders.)

If you do read them, I recommend starting with 'The Player of Games'.

 

[Genocidicles]

edit: she didn't like it because of the language and finding it tedious to read

Yeah that's a problem I've always had with it. Gibson uses a load of made up techno-jargon, and he never explains what half of it means, and the other half is explained in the most roundabout way possible.

I'd recommend Engines of God by Jack McDevitt.

It's about a group of archaeologists studying long dead alien civilizations, the protagonist being their female pilot. It's part of a series, but I haven't read any of the others so I can't vouch for their quality. Engines of God finished up quite nicely so you could treat it as a standalone if you had to.

 

[WindKnight]

Anne Macafferies books are a good bet, with her first novel Restoree specifically written as an attack of the way female characters were treated in 50's sci-fi novels. Most of the Dragons of Pern books have prominent female characters, and some main characters (personal favorites are Dragonsong and Dragonsinger, the first two I read. The heroine from those books was arguably my first crush). Also, don't be fooled, they may come off as fantasy at first, but they are Sci-Fi through and through (Pern is a colony world, with its name meaning 'Parallel Earth, Resources Negligible').

Also, check out The Ship Who... series, especially the first one, The Ship Who Sang, about 'brainships', children born with crippling deformities who are trained to be installed into spaceships, witht he ship becoming their own body.

 

[Asclepion]

I can also recommend Saturn's Children, about a sex robot turned secret agent in a robot society.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn%27s_Children_%28Stross_novel%29

 

[DJjaffacake]

The Gaunt's Ghosts books by Dan Abnett are really good military science fiction, even if you're not into 40k (they tone down the ridiculousness), and they feature numerous women fulfilling exactly the same roles as the men. The only caveat (besides the military science fiction part if you're not into that) is that they're not there from the start. There's one female inquisitor in the second book, and only in the third and fourth books to peristent female characters get introduced. Once they are introduced though, they're treated as real soldiers. Luckily, book three - Necropolis - is the best book in the series (not that the others aren't great, Necropolis is just even better), and each book is a self contained story, so you could quite easily start there. Of the top of my head, I think two of the women introduced in Necropolis get POVs (Abnett does the switching between multiple characters' POVs thing).

Edit: Oh yeah, I thought of one other caveat: Abnett is quite happy to kill off beloved characters, which can lead to you losing interest if you find yourself running out of characters you like.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

The Honor Harrington series has a rather large female cast, including the eponymous title character. It's set in a future that plays along the lines of the Napoleonic Wars with Space England (with a ruling queen) and Space Revolutionary France dukeing it out with spaceships that fire 'broadsides' due to the gravity drives used.

Spoiler: Then

The Napoleon analogue gets nuked (literally) and the story goes completely off the historical track.

Multiple females, including several primary viewpoint characters, most tellingly when referring to an unknown opponent or person most characters assume that they are the same gender as themselves, all from a series that started in 1993.

Safehold is another, but that's more 'female personality in a cybernetic body stuck on a medieval world' and she converts it to male early on. There are several supporting females and eventually

Spoiler

A backup personality of the female Federation Officer in question is loaded into another cybernetic body to help out and remains female to help break the women can't fight stereotype

This series is more blackpowder weapons, age of sail with the sci-fi aspects mainly the robotic spy system the protagonists uses and how the world came about. (a deliberately lost human colony in order to hide from genocidal aliens who can track advanced technology).

Both series are being written by David Webber and the first Honor novel On Basilisk Station is avalible on the internet for free here: http://www.baenebooks.com/10.1125/Baen/0743435710/0743435710.htm?blurb

 

[Jandau]

Bujold's Vorkosigan books might qualify. They are awesome books, solid sci-fi, and even though the protagonist is male (though fairly unconventional as a character), she writes great female characters.

 

[Old Father Eternity]

From my limited collection ... the 'Shoal Sequence' by Gary Gibson could qualify I suppose, women play a pretty important part in the Dune series (especially considering the Bene Gesserit), I am certain that Asimov has quite a few titles where women are important characters, either protagonists or part of the main cast ... the Uplift series by David Brin perhaps, "The Fade" by Chris Wooding (sorta a mix between sci-fi and fantasy?)

ed:The recently started Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer is supposedly pretty good

 

[Thaluikhain]

Erm...Matt Farrer's Calpurnia trilogy?

He's one of those authors that seems to think that just have a 40k logo on it isn't an excuse to be rubbish.

Though, it's mostly sci-fi in name only. The setting is sci-fi, in that stuff goes on on other planets and spaceships, but it could just as easily be on Earth and surface ships.

 

[LongAndShort]

It falls more towards 'speculative' than 'science' fiction, but The Disappearance trilogy by John Birmingham is a decent set of novels. Basic premise is that a wall of energy (never explained, not really important) falls across North America and basically wipes out the USA (except Alaska, Hawaii and the area around Seattle), a chunk of Cuba and a chunk of Canada on the eve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq (so the bulk of it's combat forces overseas). With the world's only super power effectively gone, shit promptly hits the fan.

Ensemble cast, including some strong female leads who by the third book (Angels of Vengeance) dominate out attention.