Nothing against female Fantasy authors but...

[jhunter626]

fiona mcintosh is pretty bad

[Shell]

No one mentioned Madeleine L'Engle. More geared towards a younger audience but I reread the Wrinkle in Time books a few years ago and found them still enjoyable.

Melanie Rawn has some good stuff...and some really bad stuff.

[Curethan]

Browsing thru my local megastore bookchain, it seems there are more female authors than male nowadays. That kinda blows the initial sexist assumption away. They may not fit your perception of quality, but overall they are the ones getting published and read...

[Urchin]

KJ Parker is a brilliant writer, but so reclusive that some readers probably don't even know she is a she.

[Curethan]

The name is familiar...
Can u give me a title, I need something to read

[Urchin]

The Scavenger Trilogy.
The Fencer Trilogy.

They are both very, very good.

[Bluehot]

I agree with the greenman Lois McMaster Bujold is a great author. Her fantasies are a bit romantic but they are original and compelling. Her Sci Fi is better though. I love the Miles Vorkosigan novels. CJ Cherryh has some great fantasy novels, very intense and engaing from a charachterization perspective. I have just started a couple of Sarah Ash's books and they are good as well.

[Altarego]

Michelle West is the best female author I've ever read - probably one of my favorite authors in general.

She wrote the Hunter's Oath duology and the Sun Sword series. The focus is on a massive back story/history that is only slowly, painstakingly revealed by reading the entire series. They're complex and a bit difficult to get into, but well worth the effort. Read some of the heartfelt reviews on Amazon for perspective.

She also publishes under Michelle Sagara for her "Cast" series. Though no less enjoyable, it is geared to a younger, female audience. It's a very loose interpretation of a street police beat-type storyline set completely in fantasy. They can often be as challenging as her other works.

[noodles0585]

i found janny wurts to be enjoyable her colloboration with raymond feist was pretty good and her a war of light and shadow though i only read the first book as of yet was also enjoyable.

[Cnaiür]

Am I the only one who has trouble getting into their works. It seems like every time I try and get into a book by a female fantasy or sf author I can't. It just isn't interesting at all to me.

Anyone else feel the same?

And Diane Duane is the exception here. She's a fun read.

You shot yourself in the foot with that last sentence. I wish I was here back when you started this topic so I could shoot your other foot.

In comparison to male sf writers, the women sf writers are a tiny minority. And of all those male sf writers how many do you really enjoy? Probably a tiny minority. As many as there are women sf writers in the business.

Here's a couple names I have found to be excellent. Ursula Le Guin and Marion Zimmer Bradley.
For me, MZB is a champion at telling a story. Imho, she blows away almost everyone in the sf/fantasy arena (and outside it), whether they have testicles or not. If you enjoy action packed stories, then stay clear from her. She's all about the characters and how they interact and react to situations and other characters, and to themselves. And her writing is to the delete this post point. Never has an author absorbed me so deeply I forget I'm hungry and forget what time it is or where I am when I lift my eyes off the pages. I compare Scott to her in many aspects, and not the other way around. Its like Scott is her reincarnation, and packed with all this education to mix into a new world to explore.

I know everyone has their tastes. For me, MZB is a queen. If you haven't read anything by her, then I recommend Mists of Avalon, Stormqueen!, The Fall of Atlantis (its 2 books in one) to start off. She has over 50 novels. Enjoy.

[professor plum]

Another nod for Robin Hobb here. One of my favourite authors, period.

[Almighty Tallest]

Robin Hobb
Melanie Rawn
Elizabeth Moon (when she turns to fantasy, never read her sci-fi; The Deed of Paksenarrion is some of the best fantasy I have ever read)
Ursula K LeGuin (obviously)

There are a lot out there. But just like the male authors, you have to slog through a lot of crap before you find a diamond.

[AJD]

Robin Hobb and J.V. Jones are really the only two that I really enjoy and will pick up whatever they write.

I have tried almost everyone else in this thread and they were lacking but...

Compare how many crappy male authors there are out there to how many crappy female authors there are out there and I bet the ratios are about the same.

[Jerako]

I thought there's an interesting phenomenon that wasn't mentioned in this thread.

The idea mentioned of having preconceptions about female authors, before actually reading their books, that affect a negative opinion of their story, has a great deal of merit.

I think, really, just by reading a book you couldn't tell whether the author was male or female anyway.

However, imho, PAIRS of authors, male and female, tend to have fabulous results. Off the top of my head, I think of Weis and Hickman, whose Dragonlance and Death Gate Cycle novels got me interested in fantasy in the first place. I know I've read a few more male/female co-authors, but I can't think of any off the top of my head. I just recall almost always being pleased with the result.

Anyone else feel this way?