I see so many booklovers writing that they would like to read more fantasy novels by female authors but they struggle to find the books. I am here to help! Over the past couple of years my female to male authors ratio has been essentially 99:1 so I thought I’d share as many as I can to help those looking for inspiration. I haven’t loved all of these, but reviewing/ranking these women is not the intention of this post. The first section I have loosely divided into sub-genres and are all books by female authors that I have read/started reading and want to continue. Then I have listed some ‘Honourable Mentions’ which are books by female authors I have on my radar either on my Goodreads tbr shelf or on my physical bookshelves.
Disclaimer: I’ve stuck to adult fantasy rather than YA as it’s not really a genre I read any more & I’ve only included the works that I’ve read (or started reading…) – most of these fabulous women have written many, many more works so please don’t think this is definitive of their work. To avoid repetition I have not listed the series/books I would like to read by authors whose work I have already sampled in my main list. I’m sure there are many more that I haven’t managed to include here so please do let me know your recs if you see anyone missing!
~ Fantasy / Epic Fantasy ~
Robin Hobb
Realm of the Elderlings: Farseer Trilogy, Liveship Traders Trilogy, Tawny Man Trilogy, Rain Wild Chronicles, Fitz and the Fool Trilogy
Jen Williams
The Winnowing Flame Trilogy, The Copper Promise Trilogy
Jacqueline Carey
Phedre’s Trilogy, Imriel’s Trilogy, Agent of Hel (Urban Fantasy)
JV Jones
Sword of Shadows
Rebecca Roanhorse
The Sixth World
Marie Brennan
The Memoirs of Lady Trent, Onyx Court
Janny Wurts
The Wars of Light and Shadow
Trudi Canavan
Black Magician
Emma Newman
Industrial Magic
Samantha Shannon
The Bone Season
SA Chakraborty
Daevabad Trilogy
Christina Henry
Alice
Naomi Novik
Uprooted, Temeraire
Anne Bishop
Black Jewels, The Others
Jennifer Estep –
Kill the Queen
Erika Johansen
Queen of the Tearling series
~ Fairy Tale-esque ~
Juliet Marillier
Sevenwaters, Heart’s Blood, Blackthorn & Grimm
Patricia A McKillip
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
Madeline Miller
Circe, Galatea
Natalie Haynes
The Children of Jocasta
Margaret Atwood
The Penelopiad
Catherynne M Valente
Deathless
Angela Carter
Book of Fairy Tales, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
Katherine Arden
Winternight Trilogy
~ Romantasy ~
Amanda Bouchet
Kingmaker Chronicles, Nightchaser
CL Wilson
Weathermages of Mystral
Bec McMaster
Legends of the Storm
Rachel Alexander
Receiver of Many, Destroyer of Light
~ Paranormal Fantasy ~
Gail Carriger
Parasol Protectorate, Custard Protocol
Nalini Singh
Guild Hunter, Psy-Changeling
Karen Chance
Dorina Basarab series
Chloe Neill
Chicagolands
Genevieve Cogman
The Invisible Library
Deborah Harkness
All Souls
~ Urban Fantasy ~
Karen Marie Moning
Fever series
Ilona Andrews
Hidden Legacy, Kate Daniels
Kelley Armstrong
Cainsville, Rockton, Women of the Otherworld
Thea Harrison
Moonshadow
Patricia Briggs
Moon Called
Sherrilyn Kenyon
Dark Hunter
Jeaniene Frost
Night Huntress
Kate Mayfield
The Parentations
Laini Taylor
Daughter of Smoke and Bone
~ Honourable Mentions (Authors & books I have on my shelves but haven’t read yet) ~
Kate Elliott – Black Wolves, King’s Dragon
CS Friedman – The Coldfire Trilogy
Ann Leckie – The Raven Tower
Katharine Duckett – Miranda in Milan
Robin Mckinley – The Door in the Hedge and Other Stories
Ilana C Meyer – The Last Song Before Night
Fonda Lee – Jade City
Jane Yolen – Sister Light, Sister Dark
Melanie Rawn – The Ruins of Ambrai
Tanith Lee – Night’s Master
Jeannette Ng – Under the Pendulum Sun
Lynn Flewelling – The Bone Doll’s Twin
Sandra Newman – The Heavens
Tessa Gratton – Lady Hotspur
Stella Gemmell – The City
Rachel Aaron – Heartstrikers
Kim Wilkins – Daughters of the Storm
Aliette de Bodard – Dominion of the Fallen series, Obsidian and Blood series
Ursula K Le Guin – Lavinia
Lucy Hounsom – Starborn
NK Jemisin – Broken Earth series
Gail Z Martin – The Summoner
Jean M Auel – The Clan of the Cave Bear
Pat Barker – The Silence of the Girls
Katharine Kerr – Daggerspell
Claudia J Edwards – Taming of the Forest King
Juliet McKenna – The Tales of Einarinn
Sam Hawke – City of Lies
Lois McMaster Bujold – The Curse of Chalion
Asuma Zehanat Khan – The Blood Print
Michelle West – The Hidden City
Joanne Harris – Runemarks
~ & okay, if you insist… my female YA reads ~
Sarah J Maas – A Court of Thorns and Roses, Throne of Glass
Marie Rutkoski – Winner’s trilogy
VE Schwab – Shades of Magic, Monsters of Verity
Leigh Bardugo – Grisha Trilogy, Six of Crows
Erin Morgenstern – The Night Circus
Mary E Pearson – The Remnant Chronicles
Eleanor Herman – Legacy of Kings
Renee Ahdieh – The Wrath and the Dawn
Holly Black – The Cruel Prince, Tithe
Tahereh Mafi – Shatter Me
Morgan Rhodes – Falling Kingdoms
Maria V Snyder – The Chronicles of Ixia, Soulfinders, Study Series
Kiersten White – And I Darken
Victoria Aveyard – Red Queen
Kiera Cass – The Selection
Amy Tintera – Ruined
Lara Thalassa – Rhapsodic
Suzanne Collins – The Hunger Games
JK Rowling – Harry Potter
This is such a good post. I think I still tend to read more male authors so I’ll definitely be adding some of these to my TBR. 🙂
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Thanks! If you ever need any recommendations, let me know 😄 i never made an intentional choice i’ve just noticed over the past two years i’ve read very few male authors. I think Adrian Tchaikovsky, Bradley Beaulieu & Guy Gavriel Kay are the only ones i’m kind of auto-buy/keeping up to date with. I think that’ll change this year as i’d like to read more McClellan, Wooding, Abercrombie & Ryan. It’s good to have a mix 😄
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As soon as I saw the blog post title I was like “MUST READ LATER!!”. I have noticed that I don’t seem to be very drawn to work by male authors… I think last year I read about 18 books by men versus just over 50 by women (although this does include all my rereads, haha). Like you, it’s not something I set out to do; it just happened!
I’ve heard of a lot of these authors, but there are also many I’m not familiar with, and same for books/series. For example, I didn’t know that Jacqueline Carey has an urban fantasy series! Also, is there a subdivision within urban fantasy? Because I think of Kate Daniels and Fever very differently to DOSAB, for example. 😛
This is definitely a blog post to refer back to – thanks for writing it!
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It was really hard to refrain from listing all of their works 🙈 but so many of them cross fantasy subgenres so it would have got confusing. They’re all ridiculously prolific though. I’ve thought of a few more that i’d forgotten too, oops.
Yes that felt odd for me too. There are a few that i struggled to place. For example, alternative history – does that count 🤔 can definitely fall down a rabbit hole! I didn’t like putting Gail Carriger in Paranormal because there are so many intense vampire stories and i wouldn’t say those books are… they’re more fun, steampunky reads that have a few vampires that need bopping on the head with a parasol 😂
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OK, your last sentence made me laugh. 😂 It is a real struggle to categorise books sometimes though. I tend to go with what Goodreads says, but I’m not sure how accurate that is!
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OMG WHAT A GREAT LIST!!!! I have Rebecca Roanhorse on my TBR for this year. And there are so many other ones on here that I love too.
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Thanks! Ahh i really liked Trail of Lightning! I’m super excited for the sequel this year so i hope you like it too 😄
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This is such a good list! I absolutely love Naomi Novik, adored Anne Bishop and liked Jennifer Estep and I definitely need to read Robin Hobb soon-ish. On my TBR are absolutely also Madeline Miller, Juliet Marilier, Katherine Arden and Catherynne M. Valente. Great list and thank you so much for sharing! c:
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I’ll have to check some of these out!
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This is an awesome list! I love so many of them, like Robin Hobb, Jacqueline Carey, Naomi Novik, Juliet Marillier, Katherine Arden, Margaret Atwood….
I couldn’t even think of many to add! Probably only one of my favourite authors, Jennifer Fallon (Demon Child trilogy, Second Sons, Lyre Thief, Tide Lords Quartet), Tamora Pierce & Charlie N. Holmberg
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Ooh thanks for the recommendations 😍 i will definitely look them up!
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