April 2025 SFFKit - Women Authors

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This month we are going to be reading books by women. Either science fiction or Fantasy or both There are many female authors of this genre. I will start with a couple of my favorites – Lois McMaster Bujold who excels in both genres and Sharon Lee who is known for her Liaden Universe science fiction books.

These are genres that seem to appeal to both women readers and women authors. Series and stand-alones by women seem to dominate the market. Your choices are wide open this month, just please let us know what you are going to be reading and how the book was. Our Wiki can be found (here: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2025_SF%26FKIT#2024_SFFKIT)

I’ve listed a few female authors that often appear on favorites lists.

C.J. Cherryh
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ann Lekie
Martha Wells
Becky Chamers
Connie Willis
Nnedi Okorafor
Xia Jia
Frances Hardinge

Have fun and enjoy your reads!

I am planning on continuing the Penric series with the 2nd book, Penric and the Shaman

Planning to read one of Kelly Link's story collections.

I'm planning on reading A Psalm for the Wild-Build by Becky Chambers.

>5 whitewavedarling: That was my first read of the year. It was so good and has made my top reads of all-time list, along with the second book in the series. Hope you enjoy it!

I'm not sure what I will read this month, but I have so many possibilities. Two that are jumping to mind are Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb and Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler.

Wow, lots of interesting authors being planned on - I can see I will be adding to my wishlist!

>6 staci426:, Oh, I'm glad to hear it! I've been meaning to read it for ages!

I've got two preordered books scheduled to release this week that are perfect for the category:

The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal
Murder By Memory by Olivia Waite

I may read An Easy Death by Charlaine Harris as it may fit with the MysteryKIT. Alternatively I have lots of series written by women I can carry on with.

I will use this to advance in some of my series, some possibilities are:

The High Lord by Trudi Canavan
The Burning Page by Genevieve Cogman
Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb
Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
A Torch Against The Night by Sabaa Tahir

Perfect! I just started re-reading the Queen's Quarter series by Midori Snyder and either book 2 or book 3 will fit this challenge.

This is going to be the first of many reads for me this month, since I'm reading Nebula finalists in preparation to vote on them by the end of the month:

Braided by Leah Cypess

And I've already finished my second: Katya Vasilievna and the Second Drowning of Baba Rechka by Christine Hanolsy.

I have completed my read of Penric and the Shaman by Lois McMaster Bujold. I enjoyed this novella and look forward to continuing on with the series.

Read The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed. In a pre-industrial setting, the children of a gruesome Tyrant has eloped and disappeared into a dangerous fairy woods where noone comes out again. A woman who lost her parents to the conquering armies, is forced to retrieve thechildren, retracing her unique foray into the forest many years earlier. Traveling through a surreal world with menacing denizens, she contends with gruesome creatures.
It started out fine, but lost a bit of steam, or at least my attention in the second half.

I just read The Dream Gatherer by Kristen Britain, a collection of two short stories and a novella in the Green Rider fantasy series.

I finished Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link.

I finished my re-read of Sadar's Keep and liked it a great deal. Many details I had missed on my first time thru (and there were probably several more over the decades) became much clearer.

May's thread can be found here.

My first read for this KIT is one I did not mention in my post above - Ithaca by Claire North. It is a myth retelling and thus a mix of historical fiction and fantasy, but it definitely has fantasy elements.

I also read The High Lord by Trudi Canavan, the third and last book of the Black Magician trilogy. It is my favourite of the series!

I have completed Goldilocks by Laura Lam, an excellent space adventure story.

Sat down and devoured A Psalm for the Wild-Built last night, and I absolutely adored it. I swear I feel like if enough people read books like this one, we'd be a few big steps closer to making the world a better place. Full review written, and I've already requested the sequel from the library!

I just finished The Dark Archive by Genevieve Cogman, part of a SFF/steampunk series with dragons, fae, alternate worlds, etc.

Starting Waistcoats and Weaponry, a steampunk novel by Gail Carriger

Finished Thornhedge, a Sleeping Beauty variation by T. Kingfisher.

Completed a reread of one of my guilty pleasures, Wild country by Anne Bishop.

>24 whitewavedarling: Yay, another Becky Chambers fan!

Finished a re-read of Exit Strategy . Moving on to Network Effect.

Finished The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley.

I've finished two chunky ones so far this month, both of which were excellent: Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb and The Sword of Kaigen by M. L. Wang.

COMPLETED Waistcoats and Weaponry and Manners and Mutiny, two steampunk novels by Gail Carriger

I finished one more last night, The Otherwhere Post by Emily J. Taylor, which is a YA fantasy.

Thanks to everyone for participating - I hope you found lots of good reading!

My Diary from the Edge of the World

In a world where our myths, from genies and sasquatches to a literal edge of the world, are fact, spunky twelve-year-old Gracie and her family begin a road trip to try to escape the Dark Cloud following them — because a Dark Cloud takes souls away when they die.

This was a wonderful book. The characters were charming, the world was fascinating, and the messages about grief and love were heartwarming. I did cry reading this book, and I would definitely recommend it. Many thanks to RosetheReader for the recommendation!