Science fiction books that aged well

I love being able to re-read books. Here are some of my classic re-reads that have stood the test of time.

Elizabeth Moon Hunting Party

If you like a good space opera then this is a goody. I generally pick up any book in the series as Serrano is the kind of character that is a bit like James Bond. She is what some call an Iconic Character. There are so many other books that copy this style as well has the Harrington books that we can call this series iconic. And since the two series are literally months apart when they were published I'll call these two pioneers.

We get a strong female that doesn't need a man to be that awesome person. There is no worry about meeting the Bechdel test in any of Elizabeth's books.

David Weber The Basilisk Station

This is second on the list because frankly, I reckon Elizabeth did a better job with the female characters but otherwise Honor is a fantastic character. I just wish her romances ended a little better but I'll blame the rigid structure of military service for that rather than David. At least Elizabeth steps out of the military for a bit to show off what can be done with romance. While Honor does have romantic entanglements they feel doomed from the start.

Again we get an Iconic character and David only pips Elizabeth by three months at getting this series out ahead of her. I do wonder if Baen thought a male science fiction writer should go first or if one was finished writing before the other. We will never know.

Baen in general has done a good job of having books that age generally well.

Lois McMaster Bujold Shards of Honor

I actually only read this novel recently. Apparently, I wasn't interested when I was younger as my brothers swear they read them back in the day and introduced me to them. I probably would have really enjoyed them back then. This is a nice twist on the falling in love with the captor trope as we have her get away and come back. This is how you do the power play right. We always have him caught as well so we get to have them change roles throughout the story. And this was published in 86 so definitely in an age where misogyny was rife so no one would have blinked an eye at the whole fall in love with your captor trope. But instead, Lois shows us what can happen when you have a strong woman, a smart woman and she even plays with the barbarian trope as well. I think part of what I liked was the romance when Sci-fi romance was still classed as science fiction only. There were some hard science fiction fans that didn't take to this series but I loved it. I still do. I still haven't read the whole series. But they are on my TBR pile.

Anne McCaffrey Crystal Singer

I actually started this series with Killashandra. Blew my mind. Especially back in the day. Having a strong female character that wasn't scared of her sexuality was groundbreaking. I know the bar is pretty low. This is a woman that loves her career and wants to do her best. There are men along the way and she does form an attachment but it is always on her terms. The other books set in this universe are amazing as well like the Ship who Sang.

Killashandra is an amazing character who had flaws and issues but was still able to overcome them to see a future that she wanted. She never took flack from others as she always knew her worth.