I have never read one. (Cishet male)
Most of Octavia Butler's books have a female protagonist. She did sci-fi and afrofuturism.
There are several by Ursula K Leguin if you like the genres. I think they're all in the middle of series, though, with the earlier books centering male characters.
Unhinged: Girl Flesh by May Leitz.
Hinged: Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers
Esoteric: This Is How You Lose The Time War by Maxwell Gladstone & Amal El-Mohtar
Spooky: Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield
Arty: The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R Kiernan
Sheesh, imagine reading books written by men
more like "meh", fuckin gottemI fucking love This is How You Lose the Time War
The prose is beautiful and there are some parts of the book that felt like they were written for me
If you want to read it I'd only recommend reading it and not listening via audio book. I recommended it to a friend that tried that and the formatting isn't the best for audio
Yeah it's great, I feel like that Sapphic
fatalism is missing from too many romances honestly.I skipped the audiobook myself, shame it's not great...
It might be okay if you've already read the book but it kinda makes sense the letters format isn't the best as audio :/
Which sucks because the epistolary format is one of my fav things about it too...
Just read this! Yes, the prose was beautiful and I found myself falling for both characters. Had a lot of trouble following the time travel elements but they were secondary anyway.
Dear you've barely read any books written by men in all the time I've known you
What about an enby protagonist?
I'll never stop singing the praises of the Monk and Robot books by Becky Chambers.
Second Becky Chambers. Her Wayfarer series has female protagonists iirc, and they are awesome reads.
The Gideon the Ninth series made it's rounds here a while back, I highly suggest it.
It was like a single fairly active thread, but it was enough for me to see and give it a shot!
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine took home the 2020 Hugo Award. It is basically a sci-fi imperial court drama with all the murder and manipulation and scheming and unclear allegiances that entails.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is a multi-protagonist/perspective novel about a fictional team of people developing video games, one of whom is a woman.
Seconding Empire, it's a banger. The author is clearly a history nerd and cares deeply about the complex effects the imperial-periphery entanglement has on people.
Haha holy shit, a fucking Gabrielle Zevin poster no way! I liked her YA stuff when I was young.
Human Acts by Han Kang, though I am cheating. It has multiple protagonists, and is historical fiction surrounding the very real Gwang-Ju massacre. Depressing and written in a way that truly doesn't care about how you personally feel as long as it gets the point across.
No problem!
Definitely find a trigger warning list, SA, child killing, and grotesque depictions of festering bodies are used to try to truly get the point across. It's done well, but it is a ripping-off the mask sort of situation, laying the events bare and forcing the reader to sympathize with the plight of the pro-democracy protestors and trade unionists.
It has multiple protagonists
I thought about clarifying that this is not a problem but I didn't know how to get my point across.
Blood and Guts in High School by Kathy Acker
Tampa by Alissa Nutting
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
Most of Virginia Woolf's books
Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Seconding, in very different ways, both Acker and Felker-Martin. Read Acker if you want to see language pushed to its limits in order to express the full depth of misogyny and read Manhunt for a fun romp in a world where transmisogyny has survived the apocalypse.
There are a few places where the prose is a bit rougher than it needs to be (she needs to stop describing hair as "pin-straight" for instance), but otherwise a fresh, and incisive take on an otherwise tired genre. I really love the characters first and foremost. All of them are so fully realized and hurt each other in ways that stem from their own history and psychology. And the way the setting allows the true villain of the work to essentially be cisness at its most nakedly oppressive is brilliant stroke. She's also quite good at writing sex, which can't be underestimated. Really just an all around great book.
I actually just saw her in person touring for Cuckoo which, if you haven't read it yet, is another banger
ayooo who are you tho?I absolutely hated it to death the first time I tried, (guess why) but I've come around to it a lot after banging my head against it. I dig that it's pointedly about assimilationism. I would not have taken away that Martin is good at writing sex tho,
woes of being ace igLmao you fuckin SAW HER IRL??? That's awesome no fuckin way. I've been watching Cuckoo a few months, it's on my to-read list very soon!
- ayooo who are you tho?
Just your friendly neighborhood book nerd
Yeah ok but I have never met anyone who's read Manhunt before, how'd that happen?
my comrade in christ
I can still count on one hand the amount of times I've even personally witnessed another human who has read one of these. Where do they live and vibe?
I like my SF and Fantasy, so some CJ Cherryh or Tanya Huff springs to mind. I will say for the latter that her Blood series is apparently something she wrote just so she could afford to stay alive with a disability in KKKanada, but it's still fun. Also if you like something snacky, there's always Bocchi the Rock.
Robin Hobb is well regarded as one of the great fantasy authors and has some. Pretty sure it’s the live ship trilogy but it’s been a while so I could be wrong. It isn’t farseer.
Shards of Honor and Barrayar, both by Lois McMaster Bujold are some very good space opera with a female lead. The series continues after that for a lot more books mostly focused on her son which are also very good.
Unjust Depths by Madiha is an excellent gay communist lesbian serial web novel.
Are you interested in romances? Vast majority of romances are written by women for women
If you're down with sexy time paranormal romances, Patricia Briggs, Kim Harrison, and Laurel K Hamilton are my slop queens.
A Soul to Keep by Opal Reyne - A woman is taken as a sacrifice by the thing in the woods, the thing in the woods does it because it wants companionship.
The Favourite by Alive Coldbreath - you must suppress the burning hatered of feudalism for this one as the main charcters are nobles, but the romance itself is excellent.
You can find both books on libgen.
Also i would like you to tell me your impressions once you have read them.
