Ooh, female sci-fi author. I like! Octavia Butler’s Lilith’s Brood series is one of my favourite series.
Is there a specific book I should start with? Or series?
I’m not. We’re looking for good stuff here. 
OP, whoever told you B5 wasn’t any good is a…not very well informed person with hideous taste. Yeah, the first season is kinda rocky, but 2-4 are some of the best SF ever aired, even with the dated CGI. And it is by far more quotable than any other series save Star Trek.
Funny you should ask–there’s a difference of opinion on the subject. 
ETA: And yes, anyone who doesn’t acknowledge the clear superiority and awesomeness of Babylon 5 either never watched it or keeps their taste in their mouth. Just sayin’.
I was the biggest fan of Babylon 5 when it aired. Really big. It has not aged well as a TV show, but the story is still solid. Also, it has Vorlons.
“You don’t frighten easily”
*“I work for Ambassador Mollari. After a while nothing bothers you.” *
Elric the Technomage and Vir Cotto, *The Geometry of Shadows *
Any show that quotes William Butler Yeats is tits in my book.
Other than Vikings, it’s one of the only shows I’ve watched that was(pretty much) written by one person.
I’ll put in another vote for Babylon 5. Some of the first-season episodes were skippable, and many of the fifth season, but the second, third, and fourth seasons between them only have one bad episode (and I’ll bet that all of the B5 fans here are guessing the same episode even though I haven’t named it).
Wonderfalls by one of Joss’s collaborators … Tim Minear I think. Quirky and genuinely funny. And it has a pre-Firefly Kaley, as sort of a bad guy though. Also a pre-Eureka Fargo.
That link goes to an article about Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series, not Octavia Butler’s Lilith’s Brood series. It’s a little ambiguous which the requester is asking for, but maybe it is Bujold.
I tried to like B5; it seemed right up my alley. The first season, the first few episodes, were so blah that I never gave it another chance. One day I imagine I will.
OP, if you like Butler, and you’re excited by female SF authors, I even more strongly recommend Ancillary Justice. Also, another book recommendation: the tremendous fun of A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, a space opera about the journey, emphasizing how people from vastly different species manage to get along.
Yes it is about the Vorkosigan series–I keep forgetting the technotards at this board can’t manage nested quotes so it cuts off the first quote re the Bujold books.
I dug into my memory and came up with “Grey 17 is Missing”.
I’ll echo the votes for “The Expanse”. Since you’re a reader, I recommend reading the books first of course.
Beyond that, I really enjoyed the “Old Man’s War” series by John Scalzi, and I’m getting a kick out of the Bobiverse trilogy by Dennis Taylor. Also the Dire Earth Cycle by Jason Hough is pretty good as well, although it’s more near-future type stuff until the second series of books (there are 5, divided into 3 and 2).
[Moderating]
SmartAleq, I’ll charitably assume that your use of “technotards” was directed at the creators of the message board software, not the users of the forum, and that this hence does not count as a personal insult against other members. It is, however, very easy to misinterpret that way, and the use of “tard” as an insulting suffix is also, in itself, offensive to those with mental handicaps. Do not use either this construction or this term again.
Most of what I would recommend - B5, Rick and Morty, Cowboy Bebop - has already been recommended. I’m only up to Ep.4 of The Orville but am enjoying it thus far (and would enjoy it more if Seth would stick a sock in it sometimes).
B5 can be spectacularly uneven, and slogging through the first season can be hard. But when it’s good - and there’s a lot of good in Seasons 2-4 and the latter half of Season 5 (i.e. anything not involving the soul-destroying Byron) - it’s phenomenally good and definitely worth the initial slog. The Londo/G’Kar character arcs alone are worth the price of admission.
As for Lexx: I liked it but I can understand why people wouldn’t. The protagonists are not particularly likeable and often leave vast swaths of unintended destruction in their wake, so heroes they ain’t. I know people say it’s all about the sex but there’s not really as much as they claim. And it’s certainly quirky in the same way that Farscape is and quite unpredictable, which is a bonus.
And of course there’s always Doctor Who.
For Bujold, I would start with Shards of Honor and then Barrayar (which you may be able to find in an omnibus edition called Cordelia’s Honor) and then go on to the Warrior’s Apprentice.
Grey 17 is a huge stinker; I think even JMS admits it. However, it is not alone in the final season or two. There is another one where the maintenance crew observes the main cast and it is a huge misfire.
Any episode strongly featuring the Byron storyline was terrible, too. However, season 5 is still worth it.
I’d skip more episodes in S1, honestly.
My wife and I just finished watching Defiance recently (recommended by Guanolad upthread). There was a lot of really good world building, in my opinion. Earth is terraformed and a number of alien races crash land when an ark ship crashes or something. The St Louis area becomes the town of Defiance where everyone lives together in an uneasy alliance. A lot of it is very goofy and tropey with the stories but solid acting by just about everyone all around really carry the show. There’s a snarky alien doctor who kills me every time she opens her mouth, the main hero is mostly a bunch of action hero clichés but played very well by the actor and has some surprising depth and an adopted alien daughter. There is also frequent PG13-esue sex (no nipples, minimal butts…) and there’s a bittersweet goodbye at the end.
Opinions vary considerably on that one, and I actually rather liked it. But in any event, it’s in season 5, not 2-4 like I was referring to.
n/m. Wrong episode.