Top 10 Fantasy and Sci-Fi Books by Women: 2021 Edition – a strong case of indecision

2:27 pm | | Comments 6

We’re voting for our favorite books by women over on r/Fantasy. I’m really struggling to narrow my vote down to just my top 10 fantasy and sci-fi Books by Women. Unfortunately, we mean favorite of all time, so I can’t pick just 2021 releases, and it means all spec fic, so I can’t even narrow it down to just fantasy.

My vote for the 2019 edition:

  • Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold – keep or maybe replace with Curse of Chalion?
  • The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip – keep
  • The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison – keep
  • Touch by Claire North – mmm not sure
  • The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker – keep
  • Temeraire by Naomi Novik – mmm not sure
  • A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan – keep
  • Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden – keep
  • Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin – keep
  • Harry Potter by JK Rowling – remove

And these are just some of the great books by women I’ve read since then:

  • Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
  • Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
  • Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
  • The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
  • The Books of Ambha by Tasha Suri
  • Lady Astronaut by Mary Robinette Kowal
  • The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
  • The Dark Abyss of Our Sins by Krista D. Ball
  • Murderbot by Martha Wells
  • Dawn by Octavia Butler
  • The Reborn Empire by Devin Madson
  • The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

So here I am, having to cut down 20 to 10. Firmly stuck on how to do that. Do I just go with the recency bias? Do I try to split them up into subgenres and pick one of each? How do you narrow do lists?

(this post originally had links to Goodreads, but WordPress ate that version and I’m running out of blogging time for this afternoon)

If you like post with me woeing about not being able to pick just 10 favorites, also check out r/Fantasy Top Novels Poll: My 10 (+) favorite Fantasy and Sci-Fi books of all time

Comments

  1. peatlong says:

    You could just do a draw of 10 at random, then look at the ones which are left out where you go “Absolutely not, they have to be in” and work out which of the 10 you’ve got left in you could leave out?

  2. Tammy says:

    I always go with my gut when trying to make best of lists, but cutting a list in half seems really hard! I have no advice, sorry 😁

  3. RAnn says:

    Interesting List; will have to bookmark it for future reference

  4. Dianthaa says:

    That advice worked out really well, here’s my final list:
    – Lady Astronaut by Mary Robinette Kowal
    – The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
    – The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden
    – Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
    – Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
    – The Dark Abyss of Our Sins by Krista D. Ball
    – Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
    – Murderbot by Martha Wells
    – The Books of Ambha by Tasha Suri
    – The Broken Earth by N.K. Jemisin

  5. Dianthaa says:

    Thank you, hope the booktempting works

  6. Dianthaa says:

    My gut has too much love to share. I was finally able to narrow it down last minute using Peat’s advice.

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