Last month, there was an article published on Tor.com,
The 10 Best Completed SF and Fantasy Series (According to Me) by Drew McCaffrey. There was a disclaimer that the list didn't include stand-alones, series that weren't yet complete, or any mention of books the writer hadn't yet read - though he did mention that there were a lot of diverse stories being published these days, he just hadn't read them. So his list was completely devoid of books by women, except J. K. Rowling, devoid of recent books, except Harry Potter, and devoid of any books that were based on non-Western cultures (or, in other words, not Medieval England inspired stories).
I just think the list as a whole is ridiculous, to be honest. In my opinion, including J. K. Rowling is a little too easy; she's well known and popular, and as the only woman, also kind of a token? Thrown in not to not be shouted at for not including any women. Otherwise, it's a list of old books by old white men from years ago. What was the point of this article? If you're not giving us anything new, why bother? Go back a number of years, and I'm sure you'll find a list of very similar titles. Nothing new, nothing diverse. A number of people complained about the article on Twitter, and I think for good reason. About the lack of women, about the lack of diverse voices. And sure, if he's not read them, he can't mention them, but maybe he should have held off on writing such an article until he had other stories to recommend? Rather than giving us more of the same thing we hear over and over.
Rather than continue to complain and talk about how problematic it is, I thought I would create a list of SFF, most written by women, inspired by non-Western cultures, by diverse authors, that should be highlighted.
