A couple of days ago on Twitter, Requires Hate tweeted that she would no longer read science fiction with male protagonists. Not a problem, you would have thought – there must be plenty of sf with female protagonists. And so there is. But not as much as you’d expect. The majority of science fiction novels are told from a male point of view. Some might have female POV characters – Gareth L Powell’s The Recollection, for example – but the story is shared with a male character. Sf novels, whether by women or men writers, with a single female protagonist are not that common.
So I tried to come up with list of some:
By women writers:
Spirit, Life and Kairos, Gwyneth Jones (SF Mistressworks reviews of Kairos here and here)
Alanya to Alanya and sequels, L Timmel Duchamp
Ash: A Secret History, Mary Gentle
Arkfall, Carolyn Ives Gilman
Angel At Apogee, SN Lewitt (SF Mistressworks review here)
City of Pearl, Karen Traviss (my blog post here)
God’s War and Infidel, Kameron Hurley (my blog post on God’s War here, review of Infidel here)
Debris, Jo Anderton
Dancer of the Sixth, Michelle Shirey Crean (SF Mistressworks review here)
Correspondence, Sue Thomas (SF Mistressworks review here)
Solitaire, Kelley Eskridge (my review here)
Zoo City, Lauren Beukes (my blog post here)
The Female Man, Joanna Russ (SF Mistressworks review here, here and here)
Winterstrike, Liz Williams (my blog post here)
The Steerswoman’s Road, Rosemary Kirstein (SF Mistressworks review here)
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (SF Mistressworks review here)
Keeping It Real and sequels, Justina Robson
By men writers:
Take Back Plenty, Colin Greenland (my blog post here)
400 Billion Stars, Paul McAuley
Stealing Light, Gary Gibson
The Restoration Game, Ken MacLeod (my review here)
Synthajoy, DG Compton (my blog post here)
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
The Caryatids, Bruce Sterling
The H-Bomb Girl, Stephen Baxter
The Ophiuchi Hotline, John Varley (my blog post here)
I may have got some of these slightly wrong as I’m going on my memory of the books – they might not be as exclusively female POV as I remember them. It’s unsurprising that I can think of more women writers who use female protagonists than men writers. I suspect this would be true for most people. Second, most of the books I could think of were relatively recent. Back in the Golden Age even the likes of Leigh Brackett and CL Moore wrote books with male protagonists.
Anyone else have any suggested titles?
It Doesn't Have To Be Right... 
March 9, 2012 at 12:49 pm
Kage Baker’s The Empress of Mars has one of my favourite female protagonists (or any kind of protagonists) ever.
March 9, 2012 at 1:25 pm
Golden Witchbreed by Mary Gentle
Woman On The Edge Of Time by Marge Piercy
Mission Child by Maureen McHugh
The Year Of The Flood by Margaret Atwood
The Rapture by Liz Jensen
The Heritage by Will Ashon
The Reapers Are Angels by Alden Bell
The Age Of Zeus by James Lovegrove
Against a Dark Background by Iain Banks
March 9, 2012 at 1:38 pm
I’ve read the Gentle, Jensen, Lovegrove and Banks, so I should have remembered them. The Atwood and McHugh are on the TBR.
March 9, 2012 at 2:33 pm
Stephen Baxter’s Voyage has the first woman to land on Mars as the main protagonist (though I recollect that there are other major protagonists);Greg Bear’s Queen of Angels and its sequel, Slant; Greg Benford’s Artefact (though a ‘competant man’ steps into the story and I don’t recollect how far he takes over the action); Orson Scott Card’s Wyrms; C.J. Cherryh’s Rimrunners (and Downbelow Station has a major female POV character, Captain Signy Mallory) (we could count all the Chanur books with the Hani matriarchy, but I tend to think of those as cats first and females second – my copies in LT are tagged ‘cat fantasy’), the Clarke/Gentry Lee extensions to the Rama story; Nicola Griffiths’ Ammonite and Slow River; all the intelligent dinosaurs in Harry Harrison’s West of Eden sequence are female; Gwyneth Jones’ Divine Endurance; Ursula le Guin’s Four Ways to Foregiveness; Rachel Pollack’s Unquenchable Fire; Jack Mc Devitt’s Slow Lightning (and others), Ian McDonald’s Chaga, Kirinya and Ares Express, Robert Reed’s Marrow, Melissa Scott’s Five-twelfths of Heaven and sequels (and quite a bit of the rest of her output) – and those are just the ones I can see from my computer!
March 9, 2012 at 2:45 pm
I was trying to think of ones with almost entirely female protagonists, which rules out the Baxter. Should have remembered the Griffiths. I wasn’t sure about Divine Endurance – it’s been that long since I read it, though I may be getting confused a bit with Flowerdust, which does have a male POV character. I didn’t think the McDevitt Priscilla Hutchins books were good enough to mention, and the only Scott I’ve read is Shadow Man.
March 10, 2012 at 10:20 pm
Yes, I’d forgotten your rider about the books that are fit to list (your later response refers). Given that and debates I’ve contributed to in other places regrading McDevitt, I fully understand your reasoning…
March 9, 2012 at 2:33 pm
Undertow – Elizabeth Bear
Hammered, Scardown, Worldwired – Elizabeth Bear
First Flight, Grounded!, Sundowner – Chris Claremont
Code Noir, Crash Deluxe, Nylon Angel and Sentients of Orion series – Marianne de Pierres
Friday – Robert A. Heinlein
Podkayne of Mars – Robert A. Heinlein
Polar City Blues, Polar City Nightmare – Katherine Kerr
Beggars In Spain – Nancy Kress
Blue Silence – Michelle Marquardt
Dragonflight – Anne McCaffrey
Time Future, Time Past – Maxine McCarthur
Souls in the Great Machine – Sean McMullen
Familias Regnant series – Elizabeth Moon
Remnant Population – Elizabeth Moon
Judgment Night – C. L. Moore
Spin State, Spin Control – Chris Moriarty
Those Who Walk In Darkness – John Ridley
Silver Screen – Justina Robson
Queen of Denial, Recycled – Selina Rosen
Strange Robby – Selina Rosen
Chains of Freedom – Selina Rosen
The Demon Breed – James H. Schmitz
Legacy – James H. Schmitz
The Lion Game – James H. Schmitz
A Week In the Future – Catherine Helen Spence
The Diamond Age – Neal Stephenson
Vacuum Flowers – Michael Swanwick
Starfish, Maelstrom, Behemoth – Peter Watts
On Basilisk Station etc. – David Weber
The Dark Imbalance, The Dying Light, The Prodigal Sun – Sean Williams and Shane Dix
Freehold – Michael Z. Williamson
Fool’s War – Sarah Zettel
March 9, 2012 at 2:47 pm
I should have got a few of those. But not the Schmitz – if they’re anything like The Witches of Karres, they’re best avoided. Surprised I missed Spin Control as I was discussing it only yesterday. The Claremonts and Heinleins are rubbish. The only de Pierres I’ve read is the first of the Sentient of Orion series it has male POV characters.
March 9, 2012 at 3:03 pm
Just reread the Claremont books [which are actually a bit rocket sciency ;-)] – not remotely rubbish. Neither are the Schmitz.
Certainly better than Debris, or the Caryatids (which is poor).
Friday is rubbish, I agree. :0)
Thought your point was a list. Not a list of stuff that Ian approves of. 🙂
March 9, 2012 at 3:41 pm
I can’t speak for the Schmitz, tho I thought The Witches of Karres was awful. Wasn’t much impressed by the Claremonts either.
Debris was a bit meh, but The Caryatids was one of the best books of 2009.
You should know by now that all lists of books on this blog are lists of books I approve of 🙂 (unless they’re lists of bad books, of course)
March 9, 2012 at 2:39 pm
And as I remember them
Pick any Melissa Scott book pretty much, given she was mentioned – Dreamships, Burning Bright, Trouble and Her Friends, etc. etc.
The Clockwork Rocket – Greg Egan
Century Rain – Alastair Reynolds
Pushing Ice – Alastair Reynolds
Diving into the Wreck and sequels – Kristine Kathryn Rusch
March 9, 2012 at 2:46 pm
Pushing Ice, yes; but isn’t there a male POV character in Century Rain?
Not read the Egan.
March 9, 2012 at 3:21 pm
The detective guy gets some time from memory as setup – but this just said female protagonist, and she was clearly the major character.
March 9, 2012 at 2:46 pm
The Infinite Battle – David Bischoff
Sliding Void – Stephen Hunt
March 9, 2012 at 2:48 pm
The Hurley books are out because Rhys gets chapters, and the Robson books are out because Zal does. (Among others; other men get occasional chapters here and there as well.)
Others off the top of my head: Song of Time by Ian R MacLeod; Embassytown and The Scar by China Mieville; The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers; Air by Geoff Ryman (and The Child Garden, I think); Colony by Jillian Weise; Evolution, Ark, and Voyage, by Stephen Baxter; Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor; Double Vision and Sound Mind by Tricia Sullivan; Far North by Marcel Theroux; Lifelode by Jo Walton (I think); Watermind by MM Buckner (I think); Blonde Roots by Bernadine Evaristo; UFO in her Eyes by Xiaolu Guo; The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall; Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi; The End of My Y by Scarlett Thomas; The Fade by Christ Wooding; Hav by Jan Morris; Bareback by Kit Whitfiel; The Cassini Division by Ken MacLeod (I think); Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds.
March 9, 2012 at 2:51 pm
I had an inkling some of the books I’d named had male POV chapters. What about earlier Robson ones – Silver Screen, Mappa Mundi? Doesn’t Baxter’s Voyage have male POV too?
Some of your others I should definitely have remembered – especially since I’m currently reading Embassytown, and have read The Testament of Jessie Lamb…
March 9, 2012 at 2:58 pm
Oh I think you’re right about Voyage, there’s the guy who builds the MEM, isn’t there?
March 9, 2012 at 3:06 pm
Almost everything by Octavia Butler counts – Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, the Xenogenesis trilogy (okay, one of those has a human/alien hybrid POV), Kindred, Wild Seed, Mind of My Mind, Fledgling, Clay’s Ark.
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany.
Passage and Bellwether by Connie Willis. Doomsday Book ALMOST counts, but the modern chapters are male POV.
An Evil Guest by Gene Wolfe.
One of the Helliconia books by Brian Aldiss had a female POV. I can’t remember which.
Friday by Heinlein counts, though it’s not terribly PC, and maybe I Will Fear No Evil, which is about a man’s mind transferred into a woman’s body, depending how you fall on gender issues. Podkayne of Mars too.
Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi.
There’s a huge list of female SF protagonists here, though that doesn’t guarantee female POV:
http://www.cybermage.se/tag/formidable-female-protagonists/
March 9, 2012 at 3:44 pm
Should have thought of the Delany. I’ve not read any Butler, tho I had planned to. Didn’t want to mention the Heinleins as they’re not very good. And I wanted to avoid men writing men-turned-into-women POV characters, which would also include John Brosnan’s The Opoponax Invasion and Sean Williams’ Astropolis trilogy.
March 10, 2012 at 10:18 pm
There’s a whole can of worms out there regarding men-turned-into-women characters – but it’s bad enough in real life (specifically feminist politics), without considering how the subject gets treated in fiction.
March 9, 2012 at 3:28 pm
Grimspace etc. – Ann Aguirre
Chaining the Lady – Piers Anthony
Sunrise Alley etc. – Catherine Asaro
The Interplanetary Huntress – Arthur K. Barnes
Queen of Angels – Greg Bear
Orbital Burn – K. A. Bedford
Hydrogen Steel – K. A. Bedford
Ragamuffin – Tobias S. Buckell
Quest for the Well of Souls, Exiles at the Well of Souls etc. – Jack L. Chalker
Glory – Alfred Coppel
Doomstalker etc. – Glen Cook
Animatronica etc. – J. D. Crayne
Babel-17 – Samuel R. Delany
Stealing Light – Gary Gibson
The Legend of Banzai Maguire – Susan Grant
Marsbound – Joe Haldeman
Darkship Thieves – Sarah A. Hoyt
The Engines of God etc. – Jack McDevitt
The Outback Stars – Sandra McDonald
Starfarers etc. – Vonda N. McIntyre
Paragaea – Chris Roberson
The Sagan Diary – John Scalzi
Queen of Candesce – Karl Schroeder
Saturn’s Children – Charles Stross
The Snow Queen – Joan D. Vinge
Evolution’s Darling – Scott Westerfeld
Slave Trade etc. – Susan Wright
Bitter Angels – Sarah Zettel
March 9, 2012 at 5:01 pm
This made me look at my own books. Two are exclusively female pov: Memory, and Skye Object 3270a (YA), while Tech-Heaven has a rare, brief alternate viewpoint. All the others but one are split.
March 9, 2012 at 5:12 pm
Clearly the books are out there. They need to be a lot better known. If the average sf fan’s idea of a female protagonist is Heinlein’s Friday, then they definitely need to start reading more books…
March 9, 2012 at 8:24 pm
My memory may deceive me, but there’s also:
The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five – Dorris Lessing
The Sirian Experiments – Dorris Lessing
Memoirs of a Spacewoman – Naomi Mitchison
Consider Her Ways – John Wyndham
Turning Point – Lisanne Norman
The Monstrous Regiment – Storm Constantine
Again, I’m late to this, but what all this proves is that there are plenty of novels with a female POV out there but making lists is a peculiarly male trait.
March 9, 2012 at 8:30 pm
Needing to be reminded may be a male trait. There have been plenty of complaints that the books don’t exist, but there’s plainly a lifetime’s worth of reading available.
March 9, 2012 at 10:56 pm
Do Killishandra (Cheryh) and Witch World (Andre Norton) count?
March 10, 2012 at 8:19 am
Killashandra is actually by Anne McCaffery. It’s the sequel to The Crystal Singer. But yes, it counts. Not sure about the Norton as I’ve never read it.
March 10, 2012 at 8:49 am
Witch World, or at least the first one has a male lead.
March 10, 2012 at 12:00 am
The first few things that spring to my mind are already listed here, but a few more…
Diving into the Wreck and City of Ruins by Kristine Kathryn Rusch– the latter is on my Hugo nominating ballot this year.
Spaceling by Doris Piserchia
Crystal Singer and Killashandra by Anne McCaffrey
March 10, 2012 at 12:31 am
Diadem from the Stars et al by Jo Clayton
Skeen’s Leap, Skeen’s Return, and Skeen’s Search, also by Jo Clayton
The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey
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March 10, 2012 at 7:25 pm
Ash has email exchanges between a man and a women in between the parts of the main story, so I don’t know if that disqualifies it.
A few more:
Suzanne Collins – The Hunger Games and sequels.
Gaie Sebold – Babylon Steel. It says “fantasy” on the cover but could be read as SF if you squint at it in the right way.
Ian Watson – Alien Embassy and God’s World are both first-person-female.
March 10, 2012 at 7:27 pm
Oh and I forgot one – I haven’t read it but apparently Alexei Panshin’s Nebula winner Rite of Passage has a female first-person narrator.
April 20, 2012 at 3:10 pm
Her name is Mia, and she’s one of my all-time favorite female leads.
March 12, 2012 at 12:57 pm
If I memory serves, the Uglies trilogy by Scott Westerfeld.
March 27, 2012 at 9:50 am
The Snow Queen series by Joan D Vinge springs to mind.
Also Friday by Heinlein, and Marrow by Robert Reed.
March 27, 2012 at 10:41 am
Is The Snow Queen exclusively female POV? Isn’t there a male POV character. I vaguely recall the same being true of Marrow as well, but I may be mistaken.
As for Friday, well, I was limiting it to good books…
March 28, 2012 at 6:17 pm
Its been a while since I read it, but certainly the 1st one in the series is from the Queen’s POV. Marrow again I read a while back so will have to check. Friday…point taken LOL!
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