Of course, Vonarburg is a well-known figure around here, at least to fans of SF (and unless I'm mistaken, she's actually Belgian (or French, or Swiss - I can't be sure, but I think it's Belgian) even though she's lived in Québec for decades now). She gets some mainstream exposure not so much for her books (though they sell well and some have made the best-selling lists) but because she is treated like the local expert on all things SF, so she appears as such often on radio/tv shows and as a speaker at conferences (at university and such).

Tyranaël is one of her best known works for sure (and a series in the tradition of the American "Golden Age" like Dune of Foundation, with a feminist or at least feminine twist), but I wouldn't say it's her magnum opus. Things get more complex and fleshed out as she goes along and I pretty much enjoyed it (though I was annoyed on occasions), but I read it once in the late 90s, so my memory is a bit fuzzy.

Chroniques du pays des Mères is both more popular and received more critical acclaim here and it's the one that at least established her reputation in the field abroad, even though it wasn't enough to launch an international career (which she doesn't really seeks beyond Francophonie... too much efforts to invest in that to have a small chance of success, when she prefers to write, she explained) Her newest series that mixes alternate history/fantasy (set in an alternate Europe, with a very different culture as God didn't send his son as saviour but rather twins, a son and a daughter) is a more mature and interesting work than Tyranaël I would say (but I have not read it all for now).

Generally speaking I find her ideas interesting, and I find it refreshing to actually read good french prose in SF - which is a rarity (and beside, female voices in SF are few)