The best science fiction novels with kick ass female characters

Jazz Bashara, Andy Weir’s bad-ass female MC in Artemis, is one of my favorite female sci-fi protagonists of all time. Jazz is a “moon-girl” who makes her living on the Moon’s first city by using her job as a porter to smuggle contraband onto rocket deliveries via a childhood pal on Earth. An apostate Muslim, Jazz is wicked smart, funny as hell, and has a morale code that defies logic yet, somehow, makes complete sense. Weir brings his signature sense of humor to this character without dumbing her down or sexing her up. He takes us on a great adventure as she blows things up, especially her relationships, and then tries to repair the damage without getting deported from the Moon or, worse yet, disappointing her father. 

Brandon Sanderson has written some amazing female characters, but my favorites are in his Reckoners series. He litters the books with all varieties and female badasses. They are good, they are evil, and sometimes, they are both. In this world where a strange red star suddenly appears, arbitrarily granting superpowers (and evilness), Megan is a frontline fighter against the “Epics.” The knives she hides up her skirts aren’t the only secrets she keeps, but you’ll have to read the books to find out what she’s really up to. On the Epic side, Regalia can manipulate water and uses it to submerge Manhattan. She can see through any surface of water, can make water-based duplicates of herself, and often battles using water tentacles. These are just two of Sanderson’s crazy cool female sci-fi characters in this series.

I love The Host because it has two female heroes, but one is a parasite inside the other. When a parasitic alien race, the Souls, invades earth, Wanderer is placed in the body of Melanie Stryder. When implanted, Souls are supposed to completely subsume the host, but Melanie Stryder won’t give up her mind or her body that easily. Melanie is a hero because of her strength and willingness to sacrifice anything to maintain her autonomy. Wanderer is a hero because of her empathy and willingness to defy the construct of her society and forge a new path. The book is the most interesting portrayal of the capacity for sentient beings to develop empathy against all odds that I’ve ever read. It’s also a remarkable portrayal of a most imaginative female bond.

I love a book where the character finds strength she never knew she possessed. Cassie is just a regular high school kid until the Others arrive. She thinks she has to depend on others to survive the alien invasion, but after her little brother Sam is recruited into the military’s resistance force, Cassie realizes that she’s capable of far more than just cheerleading.

As a fellow “fake it ‘til you make it” girl, I love Cassie’s willingness to put on a brave face and her “I can handle this,” facade, until she finds out that she actually can handle it. Cassie is resourceful and intelligent, and while she’s not ruthless, she’ll do what she has to to protect those she loves.

Atwood’s Offred is an interesting choice for a list of strong female sci-fi leads because her arc takes time and she’s not a hero in the aggressive sense of the rest of my heroines. But this honest rendering makes the terrifying world Atwood has built and the story of the women oppressed in Gilead more realistic. An ordinary woman placed in an extraordinary situation, Offred is sympathetic and kind without being a doormat. Her gallows sense of humor brings Gilead to life in a bearable way. It’s easy to judge Offred as passive or weak, but she’s a hero because she remains true to herself despite being terrorized and brainwashed. With her as our narrator, we continue to have hope that, someday, Gilead will fall.