Okay, you knew you were going to get the Bujold rec here, because Cordelia!!!! (And Alys Vorpatril. And Dru. And Ekaterin, but that comes later.)
But also, off the top of my head, although this is kind of hard because I group SF and F together in my head so I have to filter out the Fantasy: Pyanfar Chanur in C. J. Cherryh's Pride of Chanur books (who, true, is Hani, not human, and the Hani social structure is like that of a lion pride).
Hmm. I'm not certain where the main character of Peter Watts' Starfish would fit exactly. She's tough, but partially because she's extremely damaged. But, that's the point, and Lenie doesn't fit the "hur hur. Hot damaged chick" problem that I've heard people legitimately critique when it comes to River Tam. Tochol Susumo (Janet Kagan's Hellspark. Actually, everything Kagan's written has awesome female characters. Kagan is out of print and hard to find, but I recommend her so hard. Abebooks etc.) At the very least, Herris Serrano and Esmay Suiza in Elizabeth Moon's military sci-fi series starting with Hunting Party. (This is another series I read all out of order.)
And you really can't leave out Ursula Le Guin and Octavia Butler's characters of course.
(And as much as I think the books are crap and she's completely wooden, David Weber's Honor Harrington is kickass wooden).
Also, Women in Science Fiction have a strong tradition, if often an ignored and/or erased one, starting with Mary Shelley. Other important names: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, James Tiptree Jr. (aka Alice B. Sheldon), Joanna Russ, Andre (Alice Mary) Norton, Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler, Margaret Atwood (although she won't admit it most of the time). http://feministsf.org/authors/wsfwriters.html
And one I really need to find and read more of: Suzette Haden Elgin
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sarken
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-01 03:44 am (UTC)But also, off the top of my head, although this is kind of hard because I group SF and F together in my head so I have to filter out the Fantasy:
Pyanfar Chanur in C. J. Cherryh's Pride of Chanur books (who, true, is Hani, not human, and the Hani social structure is like that of a lion pride).
Hmm. I'm not certain where the main character of Peter Watts' Starfish would fit exactly. She's tough, but partially because she's extremely damaged. But, that's the point, and Lenie doesn't fit the "hur hur. Hot damaged chick" problem that I've heard people legitimately critique when it comes to River Tam.
Tochol Susumo (Janet Kagan's Hellspark. Actually, everything Kagan's written has awesome female characters. Kagan is out of print and hard to find, but I recommend her so hard. Abebooks etc.)
At the very least, Herris Serrano and Esmay Suiza in Elizabeth Moon's military sci-fi series starting with Hunting Party. (This is another series I read all out of order.)
And you really can't leave out Ursula Le Guin and Octavia Butler's characters of course.
(And as much as I think the books are crap and she's completely wooden, David Weber's Honor Harrington is kickass wooden).
Also, Women in Science Fiction have a strong tradition, if often an ignored and/or erased one, starting with Mary Shelley. Other important names: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, James Tiptree Jr. (aka Alice B. Sheldon), Joanna Russ, Andre (Alice Mary) Norton, Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler, Margaret Atwood (although she won't admit it most of the time).
http://feministsf.org/authors/wsfwriters.html
And one I really need to find and read more of: Suzette Haden Elgin