Secret Sauce of Storycraft 13.4K subscribers · Nov 14, 2025

Criminally Underrated SciFi (written by women)

Reviews16

Floating worldsCecelia Holland
Loved it

There is a lot to love in this story and it was very well written. While no one can be up to the pros of Ursula Leguin and the dispossessed, I really think that people out there who love the dispossessed might really enjoy this female perspective story.

Fool's warSarah Zettel
Loved it

This book was very unique. Not only do we have a Muslim main character who is also female, but the idea of having these ships fools and what they really are, there is a lot of really intriguing conspiracy, espionage, worldbbuildinging.

GrassSheri S. Tepper
Loved it

This book has everything, including that slow worldbuing, politics, we have religion, we h even have some philosophy in this story. I mean, chapter 10, incredible, but there's so many interesting ideas, and it's the interaction between the native life and the humans on the planet that makes this book so intriguing.

InfomocracyMalka Older
Loved it

This story is really interesting and if you feel a little bit overwhelmed by politics, don't. Other than the first couple of sections while we're worldbuilding in this story, this is an easy to follow fun adventure that is really well done.

MoxylandLauren Beukes
Loved it

The world building on this one is incredibly bleak, but almost unforgettable. I really loved this one so much more than a lot of other cyberpunk books that I've read and definitely is one that deserves to be on your list.

This one was very clever and there's quite a lot of worldbuing. , there are a couple of areas of slog in this story, but I am very interested in picking up more books by Justina Robson.

SurvivalJulie E. Czerneda
Loved it

This story was really interesting because we have kind of an unwilling hero who ends up getting a lot more information than she's ever trained or planned for.

This is one of the most mucusfilled stories I've ever read. It is a very unique, very different community than I have ever read before and definitely needs to be more talked about on book.

The last one on the list that is not a favorite of mine, but also something that I haven't heard a whole lot of people talk about is Tomorrow's Kin by Nancy Crest. This story is a really interesting one, but definitely doesn't focus on the aliens as much as on the interfamilial drama between Dr. Marion and her family.