Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds

I had so much fun reading The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty. It is squarely in the fantasy genre. Not SciFi like you’re asking for. But I can’t recommend it enough.

Amina is a very rare character: she is simultaneously an older woman, a single mom, a pirate, a lover, and a legendary hero. Chakraborty does an admirable job of balancing all these different aspects of her main character’s personality. The story is bombastic and fun, the supporting characters are charming, the setting is historical and fantastic all at once. This book is incredible, I could not put it down.

I have heard good things about the audio book. I read it in text form though, so I can’t confirm that myself.

• Silo series by Hugh Howie
• Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi (Young adult dystopian scifi)
• Across the Universe by Beth Revis (Young adult)
• Bird Box by Josh Malerman (apocalyptic thriller)
• Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (fantasy, not scifi, but I’m digging up stuff from when I used to read more prolifically)
• Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds. I read this so long ago, and I feel like their were some great female characters, but I can’t remember if any were the protagonist. Each novel shifts around.

The “Broken Earth” series by N.K Jemesin

First book

I liked the Academy/Priscilla Hutchins series by Jack McDevitt. Character drama isn’t necessarily a big part of it, partly because most people act like real humans (for sci-fi) and it’s more about the space exploration angle and, on the series level, about how that changes over time.

The Bel Dame series by Kameron Hurley is good. It starts with God’s War.

Xenobiologist Kira Navárez in To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars might not win feminist awards, but I really liked her, the world building and the story. IIRC, it was relatively clean of overly sexist BS.

Gideon the Ninth?

Takes like 5 chapters for it to find it’s feet but it’s lesbian necromancers and swordfighters in space with a very snarky point of veiw character.

It’s kind of more scifi fantasy but a good time.

Less scifi and more fantasy, I just finished The Priory Of The Orange Tree and I highly recommend

And just want to add A Great And Terrible Beauty as another Fantasy book that is a wonderful read (series)

I see lots of good picks here, a few of my favourites books mentioned… I love The Expanse in particular, but “Pushing Ice” by Alastair Reynolds had a better focus on complex female characters.

Echoing what others have already said here: The Expanse. The depth and quality of pretty much all the main characters is great. And there are several fantastic female characters who are strong, smart, and wonderfully written.

Seveneves, tho it is written by a dude. Great characters tho.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler.

Would fantasy fit the bill? If so I can recommend The Warden and Necrobane by Daniel Ford.

Look, at this point I’m basically just “That guy who recommends the Luna books”, but this is yet another situation where they really are the right answer. Luna: New Moon is your starting point. The series is absolutely bursting at the seams with diverse and interesting female and non-binary characters. It also features some wonderfully atypical male characters who really play around with our understanding of what it means to perform masculinity. I am obsessed with Lucas Corta, iron fisted patriarch whose one weakness is for the beautiful young man who plays bossa nova for him, and I’m equally obsessed with his son Lucasino, the rich kid playboy who has fucked his way through his entire friendship circle, and loves makeup, androgynous clothes and baking.

Anyway, Luna: New Moon by Ian MacDonald. Give it a look.