Fantasy/ sci fi with strong female characters?

Cafe Society
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The thing about Robert Jordan… well, do you remember the X-Files? Remember how when it started it seemed like something special, taking old sci-fi ideas and tropes and making them seem new again, with well written characters and audacious plot twists? Remember how it seemed to have this vast epic feeling, as if the entire series was rushing towards some massive, earth-shattering conclusion that would change the way we thought of the genre?

Remember how you started to feel - somewhere around season 5 - that there WAS no master plan, no pre-planned resolution, and that the producers had just fallen in love with there own myth and were drawing things along, aimlessly, for purely mercenary reasons? That the writing was getting stale, the plots repitative, and the character progressively stupider? That eventually you couldn’t even see the early, good episodes without getting oddly furious?

Well, Jordan’s Wheel of Time is exactly the same, only the female characters aren’t as well written.

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I’d suggest The Bone Doll’s Twin and Hidden Warrior by Lynn Flewelling.

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Oo! Ooo! Flewelling! For sure! And certainly Tanya Huff. Start off with Summon the Keeper, and then move to her vampire books.

Hambly has many, many books, but I have to disagree with phouka and say NOT to start with the Silent Tower. Start with Sparkhawk in The Witches of Wenshar, if you can find it. I liked Sparhawk a lot more than I liked Jenna. But really any of her books will do.

I see you have only read one McKillip. Sometimes her books are hard to get into because her style of writing is so unique (and I think gorgeous) it’s hard to figure out just what she’s saying. But any of her newer works – Alphabet of Thorn is my favorite – are really good reads and not quite as hard to read as her Sorceress and Cygnet books. Definitely check those out, they are the ones with the ornate covers.

I am so thrilled that you have all this wonderful reading ahead of you! I wish I could forget every book that I have read and start all over with Hambly, McKinley, McKillip, Czerneda, Tepper, Lackey, Huff, Tanith Lee (Biting the Sun only), Kritzer, Trudi Canavan…the list goes on. You are so lucky :slight_smile:

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The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind has very strong female characters, from all different walks of life. There is even an 8 year old girl that will make you weep at her bravery.

Of course, his books are written from a very objective view point, that there is “truth”, and it can be known. If your philosophical view points differ, you may not appreciate his work.

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Woo-hoo! I’m on the second page, posting for the second time, and I still get to be the first one to mention Isaac Asimov’s Dr. Susan Calvin from his Robot stories. Not the babe in last year’s popcorn movie – the real Dr. Calvin, robopsychologist, the heart of his Robot stories, the subject of Harlan Ellison’s which directly adapts several of Asimov’s stories into a never-made treatment of Asimov’s characters using *Citizen Kane * as its template. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: the illustrated screenplay of the same name.

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On the other hand… as much of a fan as I am of dear Susan… she rated pretty high on the ‘horrible bitch-o-meter.’ On the other hand, that was usually portrayed as how she coped with maintaining a high-ranking (and uniquely qualified) position at a huge company, surrounded by a good-ol boy’s club who were patronizing and… well, harass-ive, if I can use that not quite word.

I might have brought her up myself if the OP hadn’t specified that not being a horrible bitch was a criterion. :smiley:

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See, I don’t think of Susan as a bitch. Just a competant character who can be, at times, be a supremely bitchy juggernaut.

I have the I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay right here, and Harlan Ellison says that wrote her lines with Joanne Woodward in mind for the role. I also think Laura Innes portraying Susan Calvin is a match made in heaven.

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The “Morgaine” series by C.J. Cherryh.

Gate of Ivrel
Well of Shiuan
Fires of Azeroth
Exile’s Gate

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I will throw in:
Juliet E. McKenna’s Tales of Einarinn novels (I love Livak)
Michelle West’s Hunter’s Oath and The Sun Sword novels

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Some more recommendations:

The Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb. Ship of Magic is the first one of this series. I love her characters, and the premise of the books are very interesting.

Dragon Prince by Melanie Rawn. Dragon Prince is the first book of this series. Sioned is another of my favorite characters.

Exiles also by Melanie Rawn. *The Ruins of Ambrai * is the first book of this series. I actually liked it better than Dragon Prince, but it is unfinished.

Skolian Saga by Catherine Asaro. Primary Inversion is the first of this series. I started out loving this series but she shifted from Science Fiction to romance after the third or forth book. (I forget which book that was, but it’s the one with the man wearing the too small shirt.)

The Little Country, Jack of Kinrowan , and Dreams Underfoot all by Charles DeLint. His work is classified as urban fantasy, and he tends to be very inconsistent. When he is good, I think he is one of the best out there. Otherwise, he is barely readable.

Deverry by Katherine Kerr. These can be hard to follow because of her ‘twisty plotlines’ but I adore the characters and the premise of the books.

And finally,
Thursday Next by Jasper Fforde. Another series that I adore, I have read the first 3 several times now.

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The Kushiel Trilogy by Jacqueline Carey. Phedre no Delaunay is strong of will more than strong of strength, but if you have to go through what she does, you’d have to be.

…Hell, I’m having trouble thinking of a female in those books who isn’t strong.

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I third Octavia Butler(try Wild Seed) and Sherri Tepper (although she has her own problems with male characters) and would like to bring up the prolific and talented Ursula LeGuin.

OtakuLoki and I disagree on Heinlein (as Otaku already knows). His female characters are strong, certainly, but they aren’t women. Except for plumbing, they are men in drag, and a bit disappointing if you are looking for a role model for your daughter.

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Mmmm, Melisande was almost enough to make me switch sides. fans self

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[nitpick]World War I, not World War II. Maya, the lead from The Serpent’s Shadow appears in the book, and the sanitarium from The Gates of Sleep is mentioned, as was the San Francisco fire from The Fire Rose. Which was a nice way to tie them together, I thought, without being obnoxious about it.[/nitpick]

It’s only a small nitpick, you see.

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Well, heck, if we’re including comics, go grab Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons’ Martha Washington stuff, especially the first series (“Martha Washington Goes to War”). Martha kicks so much ass, you’ll either find yourself intimidated into curling into a tiny fetal ball or bowing down in worship before her greatness.

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CJ Cherryh’s Chanur books. The girls go to space, the boys stay home and breed. :smiley:

Wow, someone else read Delia Marshall Turner’s Nameless Magery! Did you read the sequel, Of Swords and Spells?

The Morgaine books were great, but the premise really freaked me out. That’s one of my special terrors – that I won’t just end someday. Yes, I’m weird.

Hmm. goes to look at shelves Kristen Britain’s Green Rider and The First Rider’s Call.

Amy Thomson’s The Color of Distance and the sequel.

Denise Lopes Heald’s Mistwalker.

Uhm. I can’t remember if Jirel of Joiry was a bitch or not, but it seems to be considered pretty seminal heroic fantasy, IIRC.

Nth the recommendation of the Abhorsen books, although I loved the first one the best. Sis and I were a little disappointed in the last one, although it was still really enjoyable.

Ursula K LeGuin is awesome. But if you read the Earthsea books, for Og’s sake, SAVE YOURSELF and don’t read Tehanu. Ever. I hated that book so much.

Uhm. Her style’s too rich and decadent for my taste, but some people like Tanith Lee’s books.

Emma Bull and Will Shetterly’s Bordertown books (Life on the Border, Nevernever, Bordertown, Finder, etc)

Tanya Huff’s Quarter books. Don’t read The Quartered Sea. That one blew rocks, coming off having read the other books in the bunch. :frowning:

Uhm. Eric Flint. Mother of Demons.

Salinda Tyson. Wheel of Dreams. Love this one to bits.

Debra Doyle and James MacDonald’s Mageworlds books if you want some good space opera.

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R.A.Salvatore’s Cleric Quintet has a very strong female lead. Hell, she does far mroe ass kicking than anyone else in the books…and she rarely uses more than jsut her hands and feet!
Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman also have strong female leads. Their classic Dragonlance Chronicles series has two very strong females, and even their other series are pretty good at shying away from the ‘damsel in distress’ theme.

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Most of my favorites have been mentioned –His Dark Materials, most of Le Guin’s work, Guy Gavriel Kay (although I think Fionavar Tapestry is awful, the worst by far of anything i’ve read by him), etc. So just one more recommendation:

The Scar, by China Mieville, has a fascinating woman at the core of it. His earlier book, Perdido Street Station, also has interesting women, but not as the protagonist.

Daniel

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Damn you for getting to McKenna before me. Wish she’d write more books, not necessarily even in that series.

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It’s okay for the nitpick. My history is shaky, I admit, and I was thinking of putting WWI but I ended up putting WWII.

And you people keep putting books that I was thinking of and come back to find is now listed!! Hmph. pouts
Ah well, my TBR list is growing again, I don’t mind… much.