older women in sci-fi and fantasy
books featuring older women protagonists, age 30 and up, in sci-fi and fantasy. for books containing multiple povs/protagonists, older fmcs should hold equal weight and presence in the story as other mcs. ideally, aiming for more women centred additions, but open to all suggestions and feedback!
created by cetra
last updated October, 2026
Comments
ooh fun, mara from nettle & bone is 30! in fact, i think a lot of t. kingfisher’s books could fit here hahaha
cetraOP
ah i figured! i think i'm going to limit her books to just a few picks. that being said, i've added Nettle & Bone! thank you :)
haha i was gonna mention t. kingfisher as well!
oh yes, love older women MCs! Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne would fit!
cetraOP
yess Orka is amazing!
OLDER women sksksksks honestly, YES sign me up I will be an 'wise-elder' tyvm. we have seen some sht, we have lived some lives, we are not looking up to someone else (coughtalldarkhandsomman) to 'figure this out' we are taking names and being bossassmthfkrs
Awesome idea for a list!!
Love the list ^^ needed some more with this in my tbr!
Got here from The Last Contract of Isako because I keep accidentally reading books with hyper-competent middle-aged women protagonists :). This list has some gems! I suspect Mary Robinette Kowal's Lady Astronaut books (starting with The Calculating Stars) would make sense here? Unless its alternate history approach isn't quite "sci-fi" enough to count...
cetraOP
ah sorry for the late reply! but yes, i remember considering that book for the list but opted not to add it because i thought it leaned more into alternate history. then again, i haven’t read it for myself haha. i appreciate you bringing it up though!
love seeing the adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi on here :)
Love this, no notes! I’m not sure if this counts, but Voyne (one of the three leads) is over 30 in the starving saints. The other 2 leads are both under 30 though, so wasn’t sure if that was ok!
cetraOP
as long as one of the protagonists is an older woman, then yes it counts! thank you 🙏
Follow up question hehe, do protags who are immortal or just have lotr elf type lifespans count?
ahhh good question! i'm open to suggestions if you have any and if you think that the character embodies an older woman. my concern is that i don't want to add immortal characters or characters with similar lifespans (like the elves in lotr) that are evidently meant to be more youthful/less than 30, since i think that would defeat the purpose. on a side note, a list about immortal characters would be pretty neat!
edited for clarification
Precisely the list I was looking for, thank you!!
This reminds me of a post I once saw about the second Gentleman Bastards book, where someone quoted a review complaining about a badass elderly woman joining the crew. The person was basically baffled — like, how is that a negative? — and said that criticism alone convinced them to read it.
cetraOP
well sounds like misogyny to me 🫠 happy for that person who discovered the series though, i’ve heard great things about it and i’ll have to look more into this badass elderly woman!
Reading the ARC of the Last Contract of Isako and the FMC Isako is in her 50s!
Feel free to say if this shouldn't count since the main character is only partly human (not immortal) and has a naturally longer life span, but still I think she qualifies as being 30s ish in experience and demeanor: the October Daye urban fantasy series by Seanan Maguire, starting with Rosemary and Rue
Maybe because I'm old now, but I love seeing women protagonists who are over 40, or even 50 😂 I'm glad it seems like there are more books being published to fit the list
Thank you for this list! Might I recommend The Girl With a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean. The main character, Mercy Chan, is in her 50s (however a lot of the book also happens in the past when she was younger, so it may not fit!) 😊
cetraOP
i think it still fits the list overall so i've added it! thank you for the rec!
the new Islington, Scion fits!
thank you for the suggestion! i see that one of the main characters is an elderly lady, but i can't seem to determine if she holds equal presence in the story as the primary male mc. it also sounds like first person pov told through his eyes? which is the main reason i'm hesitant to add it to the list :')
Sorry, I misunderstood it had to be from their POV. “Featuring” usually doesn’t mean strictly MC/Main POV to me. I must have missed “protagonists” unless you just added that. My bad! Correct, it is not from her POV but she is in most of the story. Thank you for clarifying!
cetraOP
no worries, you're all good!! protagonists was in the list desc, but i am going to update it with a bit more info so people have more to go by when making recs :)
oo i love this. the mars series by kim stanley robinson features a number of older-than-thirty women characters. some of my favorite characters ever, sometimes i forget they're not real lol. also swan er hong from his novel "2312" is over 100 i'm pretty sure.
Does this include Romantasy, Romance+SciFi, and so on?
What about protagonist?
Does it clearly have to be a heroic character, or major neutral characters / major grey characters count?
If that's fine, then I recommend several books by Michael Crichton:
- Sphere (1 of 3 major characters, neutral)
- Congo (1 of 3 major characters, grey)
- Jurassic Park (1 of several major characters, heroic)
- The Lost World (Primary, heroic)
- Timeline (1 of 3 major characters, heroic)
- Prey (1 of 2 major characters, heroic)
Idk about the list creator but if I came to this list as a reader looking for older women protagonists and there was a bunch of books written by men where the older woman protagonist was only 1 of 3 main characters (presumably 2 are men), I’d be pretty disappointed.
I’m not saying men can’t occasionally write a good protagonist who is a woman but I think it’s something to keep an eye on. Men are so often automatically centred, even in spaces that are supposed to highlight marginalised people.
cetraOP
i am open to all suggestions by any author!! my main idea when creating this list was to feature more women as leading protagonists. i'm okay with adding books that have multiple protags as long as the women hold equal weight/presence in the story. ideally, that would also mean the book centres women and isn't overshadowed by men. that said, i'm not looking to add multiple books from the same author. it was only in the early days of this list when i added a few books from the same author (for example, T. Kingfisher). if there is a particular Crichton book you think best fits the list, i'd be happy to consider it!
That's sound! Thank you! I'd say The Lost World qualifies nicely.
- The Lily And The Crown by Roslyn Sinclair
- Consecrated Ground by Virginia Black
cetraOP
will check these out, thank you!
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