The F-word discussion

Hi! I’d love you guys suggestions for fantasy and sci-fi books that are feminist leaning. I’m not really a YA fan, but anything else works!

Kindred

I'm not a big sci-fi reader but I loved this book!

I also love love love Bitch Planet, Vol. 1: Extraordinary Machine if you're open to a comic!

I second Bitch Planet, Vol. 1: Extraordinary Machine if you like comics. Or even if you don't know that you do yet.

Woman on the Edge of Time and the Binti series are both pretty great sci-fi's that I think fall easily under feminist and not YA. I'd love these recs too!

This is my genre!! And basically 99% of what I read so I have lots of recs.

Everything by N.K. Jemisin! She is my favorite author and I love everything she's written, but I'd recommend starting with The Fifth Season because I've found it's been more universally loved by others.

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon. Also, The Deep just came out, but I haven't read it yet. An Unkindness of Ghosts was incredible though so I'm dying to get my hands on it.

The Tensorate Series: 3 Novellas by J.Y. Yang is awesome.

Everything by Octavia E. Butler is amazing and feminist. Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents is a great place to start!

I second the Binti trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor.

Circe by Madeline Miller.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore which may be considered YA, but when I read it, I didn't realize it was YA. It doesn't read like YA other than the fact that the main character is young. I LOVED this series though and each book follows a different, amazing, very feminist main character.

The Bear and the Nightingale, the first in the Winternight trilogy, by Katherine Arden.

Jade City by Fonda Lee was so good. The woman/sister in this book is one of three main characters, but her story is very interesting and feminist. It's also the first of the series and she becomes even more central towards the end of this first book and the following book.

Across the Nightingale Floor is the first of a four+ series by Lian Hearn. They're all beautiful reads and switches between main character POV. I love how the relationship between the main man and main woman in this book is very groundbreaking even in their world and they speak to each other about the importance of the type of relationship and world they're building as equals in a world which so often favors men.

:D I'm obsessed with this genre, I also like YA, but I am always excited when someone is interested too! Hope you like these recs!

I'm enjoying Becky Chambers trilogy:

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
A Closed and Common Orbit
Record of a Spaceborn Few


And Sarah, I know that you mention that YA is not your cup-of-tea, but I enjoyed Do You Dream of Terra-Two?

I just finished The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk. It was awesome. A fantasy book with a fantastic feminist aspect - kind of like The Handmaid’s Tale meets Harry Potter with some romance mixed in.