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Ursula K LeGuin?

/thread

That's what first popped into my head and ofc it is the top answer hah

Sorry, but read "Walk To The end Of The World" by Suzy McKee Charnas,

Fiction

  • Ursula K. LeGuin

  • Octavia Butler

  • Margaret Atwood

  • Tui T. Sutherland (J Fic)

  • Suzanne Collins (YA)

  • Lois Lowry (YA)

Non-Fiction

  • Naomi Klein

  • Margaret Atwood (Massey Lecture)

  • Angela Y. Davis

  • Tanya Talaga

  • bell hooks

  • Robin Wall Kimmerer

Obviously, Mary Shelley. Created the most famous character of all time and the entire genre of science fiction while still a teenager.

I'm a fan of Tanith Lee. She started weird fantasy and Neil Gaiman stole all his best ideas and most of his writing style from her.

Karen Slaughter writes detective novels that make Jack Reacher look like a school boy.

Tana French is Slaughter's Irsih cousin.

Joanna Russ was an out Lesbian back in the 1970s. "The Female Man" is still cutting edge.

I'm curious about your Lee/gaiman idea. I can't see it at all and Don't Bite the Sun is my fav ever.

In "Death's Master" the Demon Prince refers to the Lord of Delusions as "uncousin."

In the 'Sandman' comics there are a lot of little cut-away stories, just like the tale of the teardrop necklace in "Night's Master."

Ah! I've not read Sandman so utterly unaware

They put out the whole comic series in four big printed volumes after the TV show came out. The entire run of the comic.

Get them from your local library; they are worth a read, and if you get them from the library he doesn't get any more money.

There's also always piracy arrrrr.

But yes support your local library.

I meant printed volumes.

Don't steal books form the library.

I meant digital volumes. I agree, support your library, do not steal from it.

nsfw

They asked Stan Lee about digital comic books.

He said comics are like boobs, he'd rather have one in his hand than on a screen.

For sure but if the goal is to have it not financially benefit the creepshit author, digital isn't a bad way to go. I don't necessarily want Gaiman's boobs in my hands.

Thus proving my point.

Haven't read either of these two authors, but by "cut away stories" do you mean stories within the story? If so there is a long tradition of that, going back to the 1001 Arabian Nights, post modern authors like John Barth, etc.

It doesn't make a lot of sense to talk about the authors' styles if you haven't actually read them.

That is true, but I didn't say anything about their styles.

Ursula le Guin is a great SF writer

No love for Jane Austen? Some of her works are all time classic. They could probably compete with top 10 literature work of 17th-18th century.

Another author that's under appreciated would be Gertrude Stein.

Yeah, Jane Austen's easily one of the top 20 English novelists of all time, and one of my personal favorites. She gets kind of a mixed appreciation these days bc the movies made from her novels usually focus on the romance (often in a way that would have scandalized her) and skimp on her commentary about human nature and society's pressures. And plus her prose is just gorgeous and that is difficult to adapt to film. Probably the best adaptation is the BBC 1980 Pride and Prejudice miniseries ( wikipedia , tubi ) which was adapted by Fay Weldon, who was a novelist in her own right. That miniseries turns a lot of Austen's prose into dialogue, which is beautiful to hear in that context, though as a consequence the series is a little slow for a wide modern audience. Really you have to read the books themselves.

She's also incredibly funny (and sometimes savage) which also gets lost in many adaptations, since it's in her commentary and not necessarily in the dialog.

She was not a woman of many words; for, unlike people in general, she proportioned them to the number of her ideas.

Ursula LeGuin

Margaret Atwood

Diana Wynne Jones

and for personal preference, Robin McKinley

Mary Shelley has to be up there for inventing Sci-Fi.

Some would say that was Margaret Cavendish, 150 years earlier. Mary Shelly’s novels are and have been more popular though.

I'm going to have to read The Blazing World now. I'm surprised I haven't heard of it.

Well, if you include Margaret Cavendish's The Blazing World (1666), you would have to put Johannes Kepler's Somnium (1634) and Lucian of Samosata's A True Story (2nd century AD) ahead of her.

I've listened to "A True Story" years ago but can't remember any of it. Reading the synopses, I think all three are closer to fantasy than Sci-Fi. So I still Put Frankenstein as the first true Sci-Fi book.

Agatha Christie is definitely one. Agree with Mary Shelley Robin Hobb

Surprised I had to scroll this much to see her being mentioned.

Astrid Lindgren, her books are translated to 95 different languages and sold over 160 million copies. Probably the worlds most beloved children’s book author.

I don't have 'best female author of all time' but I do have favorite writers some of which happen to be female. I don't usually split them by their sex (nor by their height, distaste for bananas, or whatever) as for me they're all in the same 'people who have a great time staining paper with ink making me a happy reader' league but here it is, in absolutely no order beside the first two, as there is them and then there is all the others:

  • Virginia Woolf (the only reason I would love to be able to travel in time is to meet her),
  • Jane Austen,
  • Edit: (how could I forget) Emily Dickinson!
  • Sylvia Plath,
  • Shirley Jackson (if you have not already, go read The Haunting of Hill House, it's considered a classic for reasons),
  • la marquise de Sévigné (she wrote letters and they make for a great read, no idea if it's available in English),
  • Margaret Atwood (imho she deserves a Nobel Prize, next to Woolf and Austen),
  • Mary Shelley (like mentioned by others already, she well deserves to be read and would still have a lot to teach to some contemporary authors too, imho).
  • I love reading Lizza Tuttle. Her horror short stories are different.
  • In the same vein, I also quite like Mélanie Fazzi (who is also a translator of some of Tuttle's stories, btw). But I can't find that much more female writers in that specific genre (a lot more males do come to my mind).

Being French, I realize I have not listed that many French female writers I would consider a favorite. But they are a few I would consider excellent read nonetheless:

  • La comtesse de Ségur (one of my childhood companion next to, say, Verne and Doyle),
  • Simone de Beauvoir,
  • (very) few pages of Marguerite Duras,
  • Fred Vargas.
  • To which I would also add Pauline Réage, because I think her 'Histoire d'O' is well worth reading for anyone into erotica.
  • At one time, I also quite liked Joëlle Wintrebert (scifi) but I have not felt like reading her for a very long time so I could not tell.

Incorrect answer but I'm very excited every time she has a book, Mary Roach.

I met her in person! She's super funny!!

Lucky you! I am 0% surprised she's funny, that combination of smarts n funny is what makes her writing so goddamned good.

The only female author I am familiar enough with to have an opinion on is Anne McCaffrey because of the Dragon Riders of Pern series. Those are in my top 5 all time favorite series', tho. Above Goosebumps but below Neuromancer, LOTR, and Wheel of Time.

I need to get around to trying the Pern books. My mom was a big fan and had all or nearly all of them.

That's how I got into them, too! My mom had the entire series lol

Her other series are great. Tower and the Hive, Acorna, and the Tales of the Barque Cats. One of my favorite authors.

Love N.K. Jemisin's books

I saw her give a talk once. Someone asked her about the environment or climate change, and she said something like "There's like 100 people responsible for most of the problem, and we know where they live."

The crowd loved this answer. The guy moderating the event made nervous noises.

Probably Agatha Christie

No love for Robin Hobb?

I love her, but maaaaan, I've been trying to slog through Ship Of Destiny for MONTHS and like, I just wanna be DONE with the ships and these characters and get back to Fitz and that side of the world. I know, I know, it all ties together, but I don't care, I'm so done with the pirate stuff.

Keep at it! The end of Ship of Destiny ends up paying off. A lot of Hobb books have that kinda “slow burn” thing going where it feels like a slog til the last 30% of the final part of a trilogy and then it goes super hard

Much, and lindholm

Agree with all of the above, would add T. Kingfisher for fantasy, Iris Murdoch for heady philosophical fiction, Agatha Christie for murder mystery, Clarissa Pinkola Estés for empowering fables and explorations of feminine archetypes, Mary Oliver for poetry, and Lady Margaret Cavendish for a great sci-fi novel from 1666.

Agatha Christie. While not quite what I like there is no denying her success.

Marjane Satrapi

Persepolis was intense but beautifully conveyed, full agree.

If you like Star Trek:

DC Fontana

Le Guin

A lot of folk are giving great answers here.

I just want to add Andre Norton to the list. She was a pioneer in Sci-Fi and her fantasy work was great too.

Mary Ann Evans, who wrote as George Eliot. Middlemarch is imho one of the best novels ever written in the English language.

Nobody mentioned Margaret Atwood yet! The Handmaid's Tale is excellent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid%27s_Tale

Also Mary Shelley for Frankenstein !

It is a good book (I'm too much of a chicken to watch much of the show).

It is very immersive and a difficult read, but masterful storytelling.

I honestly think it should be required reading.

I tried reading The Handmaid's Tale several years ago and struggled to get into it, I felt like it kept jumping around but it wasn't immediately obvious right away. I think I ended up giving up about 25% the way through which I've never done with any book. I'd seen the show too which I thought would have helped. Maybe I'll give it another go sometime.

I read it recently and I liked it but I felt I would have been confused at the beginning had I not seen the show first. The early chapters keep what's happening kind of mysterious. It's about a third of the way in we find out about the ritual rape. Like in the show, there are ALOT of flashbacks and the present day story is slow moving

Yeah, I want to say the first half was pretty difficult reading. Very experiential and kinda postmodern. It's almost like being in shock.

It's also pretty difficult emotionally.

Amazing that it was written so long ago. I only made it about halfish into the first season of the show.

I'm disappointed that no one has mentioned Lois McMaster Bujold yet.

Toni Morrison

Angela Carter

Virginia Wolfe

Shirley Jackson

Octavia Butler

I don't know about "of all time" but "The Coming Plague" by Laurie Garrett should be required reading.

https://www.lauriegarrett.com/the-coming-plague

I don't read books that often, so I don't know if she's necessarily the best but I'd have to say Cornelia Funke. Inkheart, while I have yet to actually finish it, is the only normal book that I remember actually liking. It's currently the only book I own a copy of that isn't a manga.

I really liked her Dragon Rider as a kid

Tamsyn Muir comes to mind for her excellent locked tomb series

This has been living rent-free in my head since I started reading it a month ago, and now I'm rereading it already.

Ann Leckie and Becky Chambers are definitely up there

Henriette Walter. Her works on French linguistics are both fascinating and informative.

Iris Murdoch. I've only read The Sea, The Sea, but it's one of the books that got me into literature when I was a teenager. I really need to get around to exploring more of her work.

Miles Franklin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Franklin

My first picks have already been mentioned, but I think these women have also been influential

Flannery O' Connor, Shirley Jackson, Emily Dickinson

I'm voting for Julian May (yes, she was female). Her best series of books were the Saga of Pliocene Exile and the Galactic Milieu trilogy (in 4 parts).

I have no idea what this question is asking but I like Donna Tartt

Many great authors mentioned. I'll add: Marilynne Robinson is magic. Harper Lee. Zora Neale Hurston!!! I'll also add Charlotte Bronte bc Jane Eyre is such a great read.

On alive authors, I think Nina Allan and Niviaq Korneliussen are worth a try.

In terms of books written for children, Gail Carson Levine is a good one. She is famous for Ella Enchanted (the book is very different from the film) and some other fairy tale books. She also wrote books for Disney in the Tinkerbell book series.

Off the top of my head Andre Norton is completely overlooked in this thread. Like… what?

Mercedes lackey.

Cj Cherryh.

Katherine Kurtz.

Tanith Lee, Mary Gentle, Melanie Rawn deserve mentions. (MZB I haven't been able to read since learning...) Anais Nin was mostly intentionally writing trash but is fun

Some people are about to lose their marbles but just going by the numbers: J. K. Rowling.

She authored the 4th best selling single book of all time and the best selling book series of all time, by quite the margin.

I'd say that would be considered "most successful"

"Best" is very subjective

Sure, but when you asking about a specific profession, that seems the most obvious way to interpret that question.

Unless OP just wants to find a nice female author to hang out with (in that case we should probably exclude all the dead ones).

Could also just be to start a discussion or find new authors to check out

Financial success is a poor measure for the worth of artists of any stripe. If anything, it has an inverse relationship.

Pretty sure a lot of artists that are just scratching by would disagree, but fair enough.

Counterpoint: If success is what we base this on, then E. L. James (50 shades of grey) is a very good author.

Sure, if you’re talking about insurance salespeople or stockbrokers. But in the creative field, things are a little deeper.

Best is always subjective when it comes to art, but I think she is squarely in the safe zone for wearing the label.

Pfft. Rowling's sold an estimated 600-650 million books (22 titles). Agatha Christie sold an estimated 2-4 billion books (86 titles).

now do a count per years of release and calculate how many jk rowling would sell if her books were out for the same amount of time?

or is the bible the greatest piece of fiction ever?

Interesting. I guess there is a lot of metrics and rules to apply to make a count. Still, she's like 2nd?

4th, apparently after Christie, Barbara Cartland, and Danielle Steel. What entertains me is in 5th is Enid Blyton with 800 books!

7th of male and female authors.

Definitely one of the greats. Her characters have a life that is missing in quite a few of the other greats. Her world building and story telling are fantastic, especially considering she didn't do the kind of historic world building Tolkien engaged in before even telling his stories. J. K. Rowling definitely belongs on the list of great authors in general, not just great female authors.

Is this bait or are you fr rn??? Quit glazing lmao, her works are mid at best and there's so many better authors (mentioned in this thread so you don't even have legitimate claim to ignorance) to whom you're doing a massive disservice by calling JKR "one of the greats."
Bro really thinks twitter posts about how wizards didn't know about plumbing centuries after the technology existed and would instead shit on the floor is somehow "fantastic" worldbuilding lmfao 💀

The wizards had indoor plumbing starting in the 1700s. Most of the world didn't have indoor plumbing until the 1800s. It would be hard to read the books and not know Hogwarts had plumbing. Your bad example notwithstanding, yes the wizards are ignorant of a few things that make no sense even though they use magic for every mundane thing, and it makes less sense since children would have to completely rely on their parents for any magical utility until they were pretty much grown. It doesn't take away from the story, but if she did the worldbuilding like Tolkien, she probably would have noticed this and made small adjustments.

does shitting on the floor exist as a major plot point in the series? No?

you are letting your hate for a person obscure the objectivity behind the comments you are replying to.

Average potterhead level of reading comprehension.

I was responding specifically to a claim that JKR is "one of the greats" partly on the basis of her worldbuilding by pointing to a clear example of abysmal worldbuilding she's done…? If the worldbuilding were really that brilliant, you'd expect some of the newer works set in the wizarding world to receive better than a lukewarm reception. Even before she outed herself as a fascist piece of shit nobody was tripping over themselves to catch Fantastic Beasts, and the general consensus was that her tweets about potter lore were pretty embarrassing.
And yeah, I'll stand by my claim that her works are mediocre on their own merits (or rather, the lack thereof) and that there's no shortage of better written material by others in the genre for which she's famous. Some of these other authors are mentioned in this very thread.
We're discussing her qualities as an author here, this isn't about my hatred for her as a person, you're the one who brought that up. You are letting your nostalgia for an IP's long-past glory days obscure the objectivity behind the comments you are relying to.

It's just obvious from your way of speaking that this is a rewriting of history, yes you have mentioned some poor world building she has done outside of her literature, that is almost entirely irrelevant to the books she has written.

Calling her works 'mediocre' is once again, objectively incorrect and in my opinion (this is an assumption) is fuelled by your own personal feelings towards her.

Cope + Seethe + Potterheads stay losing

see how obvious it was?

bro you've been sealioning this whole time while yourself absolutely failing to bring any facts to the table to help you argue your point, there's absolutely no benefit to engaging you in good faith. Mald harder.

if you say so

Ellen Booraem (YA, she's great at writing books from a totally different angle), Oyinkan Braithwaite (she's only written two books so far but they're great), Katharine Kerr.

A lot of greats have been mentioned already, so I’ll add Han Kang to the mix.

metacommantary: "

Who is the best X of all time?"

All answers are about am*rican or british X.

This thread also made me realise that I do not read that many woman-writ books.

answer:

I enjoyed books by : Ursula K. Le Guin, JK Rowling, Patricia Ann McKillip, and Kathy Reichs.

Does there really have to be a post complaining that English speaking countries are over represented on every post like this that is in English?

I'm sorry. That's a thorn in my ass I guess.

If you set your language to your native one you'll stop seeing these posts.

I'll stop seeing any posts.

Sorry, but we also don't want you to go. The last thing we need is less diversity. You know the are country/language centric instances.

Thanks for kind words. I enjoy my english centric experience and will stay.

All answers are about am*rican or british X.

Maybe you have not read my answer?

you are probably right

Post the same question in a comm that uses another language that you speak and see what answers you get there.