When I was a teenager (in the 80s) I loved me some science fiction. I mostly read Asimov and Heinlein and collections of Hugo winning short stories.
As I got older I think I left those guys behind because the sexism and the clunky writing got more apparent.
Don’t bother recommending Connie Willis because I already found her, read everything she ever wrote and am eagerly awaiting whatever she comes up with next.
Does she have a peer?
Did Douglas Adams and Helen Fielding perhaps have a love child?
A little more obscure, but Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah (together or separately) write some pretty good stuff, including the Sime/Gen series (which is now being republished in Kindle format after many years).
Is “girly” here understood to just mean female, or something else? It’s been a while since I’ve read Connie Willis, but I don’t recall thinking of her as attitudinally “girly.”
I think I mean more than just female. You’re right Connie Willis isn’t all that girly, but she’s girlier than Ursula K. LeGuin. I suppose I’m also looking for a lightness of touch, a sense of humor. My favorite of Connie Willis is “To Say Nothing of the Dog” which probably is her “girliest” (much discussion of Victorian women’s clothes) and funniest.
I just read “The Dispossessed” - it was one of the best books I’ve read in a long, long time. They might not all be gems, but I completely endorse that one.
I haven’t read much Octavia E. Butler, but what I have read, I have really liked.
I have never found Robert Silverberg particularly sexist. His Majipoor series is wonderful.
I hear you on the sexism - I got a bunch of old science fiction books at a garage sale, and while the stories and writing were great, the sexism was hard to swallow.
Definitely Lois McMaster Bujold - start with Cordelia’s Honor, which contains two novels about Cordelia Naismith and Aral Vorkosigan.
I loved Kage Baker’s In the Garden of Iden, which has a different twist on a time travel story, and is set mostly in England during the reign of Bloody Mary. I don’t like the direction Baker eventually took the series, but the first few books are good.
Tanya Huff has already been mentioned - she writes mostly fantasy, but her Valor series is good military sci-fi starring a female marine sergeant. Lots of humor, and gender equality is really her thing.
I liked the Honor Harrington books, but they get kind of cheesy after a while.
Joe Haldeman’s Forever War books aren’t girly, but there’s gender equality and a nice, mature romance.
Sherri S. Tepper covers some themes, and provides some perspective you don’t usually see from “traditional” male sf writers. You might want to check out The Gate to Women’s Country as an exploration of ecofeminism, but I highly recommend any of her work. I was introduced to her work through her novel Grass, which, although part of a trilogy including Raising the Stones and Sideshow, works well as a standalone story.
Not “girly” per se, but it you’re looking for good character development, you might check out Orson Scott Card. I find his books very emotional, and I’m a guy. Ender’s Game would be a good first choice.
I found her True Name series to be uninteresting for the most part, but I love her stuff after that. I’m currently rereading Gate, as a matter of fact. Tepper was a top official in Planned Parenthood, and most of her books do address the subject of humans breeding, or overbreeding.
I just read A Brother’s Price by Wen Spencer. VERY feminist…few boys are born or survive infancy. I believe the numbers are about one person in ten is male. Males are kept secluded, and are expected to do most of the housework and child rearing. They are property, and are sold or swapped for marrying purposes. A man’s value is in his beauty, his chastity, and his family’s health. Most males are not even taught how to read.
Even though you might not like most of what Ursula K. Leguin writes, you should at least give the Earthsea trilogy a try. There are additional books in the series, but the trilogy is the one that appeals to most people.
Just say NO to Mercedes Lackey.
Tanya Huff might be exactly what you’re looking for, as might Carrie Vaugn.
Vonda McIntire (or is it McIntyre?) is more hard SF than fantasy.
I love Le Guin (obviously) and loathe Tepper (admittedly based on only one book, but still). So take that as a guide for what I write. The Sparrow doesn’t especially have a great sense of humor, but it’s incredible science fiction, some of the best I’ve ever read. I’d put it up there with Le Guin. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is decidedly fantasy, not science fiction, but it’s got an awesome sense of humor, very clever and intelligent stuff. It begins slowly, but oh does it ever pick up. I think it compares favorably to To Say Nothing of the Dog, with a reasonably similar sense of humor.
The ones I’ve read are more fantasy, albeit urban and comtempary rather than your medieval type questy stuff, but I adore Emma Bull and I the wiki page says that Bone Dance is more Sci-Fi. Actually, very tempted to order that now…
James Tiptree Jr. (pen name of Alice B. Sheldon) is highly regarded as a female author who examines issues related to gender and power. She tries to be Very Profound and personally I find her eye-rollingly unreadable (Teh earthmans r teh suxxor! Teh mans r teh suxxor!), but if you’re into Very Profound stuff you might want to give it a shot.
