Dawn (1987), the first book of Octavia Butler's acclaimed Xenogenesis trilogy, takes place after a war on Earth has decimated the human race, making it necessary to engage in gene-swapping with an extraterrestrial race. The story centers on a heroic black woman and her biracial, half-alien offspring.

Women of Wonder: The Contemporary Years (1995), edited by Pamela Sargent, offers a comprehensive collection of stories by the major women science fiction writers of the 1980s and 1990s.

Off Limits: Tales of Alien Sex (1996), edited by Ellen Datlow, is a fascinating collection of science fiction short stories that take up the theme of sexual relations and relationships between humans and other species.

The Handmaid's Tale (1986), by acclaimed novelist Margaret Atwood, tells a gripping story of surrogate reproduction in a dystopian future where class and gender divisions are exaggerated rather than minimized.

Woman on the...