Give her the address of the Baen Free Library. Maybe she will find something she enjoys.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Charles Sheffield.
It’s a love story at heart but has some very hard sci fi elements (having to do with open vs closed universe, big bang stuff).
So good.
One of my introductions to fantasy was Robin Hobb’s Farseer trilogy, beginning with Assassin’s Apprentice. It’s very accessible and reads like a fairy tale. It’s not particularly violent, there’s no sex, and there are dragons and villains and heroes. She wrote two other trilogies set in that world, if it turns out your mom likes it.
A couple of SF books I read recently and enjoyed are Eifelheim by Michael Flynn (already mentioned for another book) and Hunter’s Run, a collaboration that included George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. Those two are a bit more thought-provoking than Hobb’s books, but again, there’s no explicit sex or violence.
Daughter of the Forest, by Juliet Marillier.
I forced my bookgroup* to read this (wah wah wah, we hate fantasy novels) and they all loved it. It’s a retelling of the Irish myth of the 7 swans.
There are two sequels, which aren’t as good but are still worthy reads (and are wholly original stories, not based on myths/legends, but still connected to the same characters).
*actually I had to bribe them with free copies of the book.
Go find pretty much anything by Judith Merkle Riley. Historical fiction, fantasy, and a good dose of wicked humor to boot. Fabulous stuff, especially the Margaret of Ashbury books.
ETA: My mother was the one who originally recommended these to me, so there you go! She’s 71.
When my mother was in hospital with cancer I got the chance to make her read all those books she said she’d happily take my recommendations on when she had the time (although she was in her early 50s so maybe a slightly different mind set). Anyway, I would recommend Dune by Frank Herbert, any of the books by Ursula Leguin (“the Dispossessed” and “the Left hand of darkness” are her best books, IMO), Pterry and his Discworld back catalogue (good one to start on would probably be Mort or Wyrd Sisters), agree with suggestions of the Rama books as I loved them as a teenager, Neil Gaiman’s books are good too (probably “American Gods” would be a good one).
Julian May’s Pliocene Exile books might do the trick, if they’re still in print.
Thanks all for the suggestions.
There are some here that I personally love, but don’t click with what I think Mom would like. The Hobbit (kind of daunting as a first book), the Pern novels (the series that hooked me on the genre, but a bit juvenile), Douglas Adams, the Barrayar books (love them, but they can get a bit bogged down in “Space Battle” mode).
I’ve read The Sparrow, and while it was almost riveting, the story line takes some twists I don’t think I want to introduce to Mom.
Don’t know what I didn’t think of Clarke and LeGuin. Good stuff there. I’ll have to dig out what I own.
And lots of stuff I now want to check out on my own. Maybe if she’s good, I’ll end up loaning her some of the stuff I’m about to discover.
For light reading, Piers Anthony’s Xanth or Incarnations of Immortality would be good.
And you just can’t go wrong with Pratchett’s Discworld.
O really like Prince Ombra for non-traditional fantasy.