The Valdemar novels by Mercedes Lackey. I’d recommend starting with the Arrows of the Queen trilogy, then By the Sword, then the Magic’s Price trilogy, then Mage Winds.
The Hero and the Crown is young-adult, but very, very good. You pretty much won’t go wrong with Robin McKinley’s writings.
The Golden Compass looks like it’s young-adult, but it’s really an adult fantasy with a child as th protagonist. Complex, immensely imaginative, and beautiful.
The Scar, China Mieville’s second Crobuzon novel, has a female protagonist. She’s a librarian, I think. This is some dark, weird stuff.
I second the Hobb and McKinley sugestions. McKinley’s The Blue Sword is also very good (sort of a loose sequel to HatC, but works well as a standalone)
Also, an obligatory nod to Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, though the depiction of women really suffers in later books.
For myself, I recommend the **Kushiel ** trilogy, and the **Wayfarer Redemption ** (first and second trilogies).
I’d reccomend any book by Martha Wells, especially the books set in Ile-Rien. I’m currently reading the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy and enjoying it. All her books have strong female protagonists. All of them are worth reading. They are fantasies but there are no elves or dragons.
Patricia Briggs writes more traditional fantasies. While she uses the traditional props like witches, knights and dragons, the scope is much more on the personal level. She also has a subtle and snarky sense of humor, which is rare in fantasy.
Dave Duncan’s series about the King’s Blades is also very good. The underpinning of the series is magic but the books rarely deal with the magic head on. Magic is the basis of their society but the books range from political thrillers to swashbucklers to, in one memorable book, romances. The protagonists are all male but the women are treated realistically and often play prominent roles in the books.
Lois Bujold’s Chalion series, 3 books so far, are wonderful fantasies with strong female leads that examine a lot of the traditional elements from a different perspective. I’ve not read the 3rd book yet, but the first 2 or as good as her science fiction. I think she’s the best writer writing SF today, do this is very high praise. She also did a Rennaissance type fantasy called The Spirit Ring.
Many posters will mention Terry Pratchett and his Discworld books. Read them, especially the books about the witches. There may not be a better character in modern fantasy fiction than Granny Weatherwax.
I do not know if they are still in print, but Tanya Huff had a pair of fantasy books (a duology?) that I adore: Child of the Grove and The Last Wizard.
The Black Swan by Mercedes Lackey was great - not at all like her Valdemar novels. The Valdemar novels are excellent too, I was just getting tired of the setting.
I KNOW these are not in print, but if you see them at a used book store snap them up: Julie Dean Smith, 4 books in the Caithan Crusade series. Call of Madness, Mission of Mage, Sage of Sare, and The Wizard King. I have been told they are similar to the Dernyi(?) series but I’ve not read those.
The Once and Future King by T.H. White. Also his the Sword in the Stone (which, as a separate book, is very different from the chapter of that name in TOaFK) and The Book of Merlin
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and its little-known sequel, The Moon of Gomrath by Alan Garner. Glory Road and Magic, Inc. by Heinlein The Complete Incompleat Enchanter by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt (and maybe the continuations by Christopher stashieff)
King Arthur by John Steinbeck (yes, that John Steinbeck!)
The Conan stories by Robert E. Howard
The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump by Harry Turtledove
Just saw this. I recommend the Seven Waters Trilogy by Juliet Marillier.
Also, Eragorn and Eldest (don’t remember author’s name).
Mary Stewart’s Touch Not the Cat --not a series, but good nonetheless.
Stewart’s Arthurian trilogy: The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills and The Last Enchantment are excellent. Not so, the fourth book in that series, The Wicked Day --very lame.
The Pern series (young adult, but not dumbed down at all) has a good female protagonist. Sorry, suck at author’s names.
Royal Assassin is the second Assassin book. The first one is Assassin’s Apprentice.
I love Barbara Hambly. She might have too much magic in her books for your taste, but you really owe it to yourself to at least read Dragonsbane. There are sequels to that book, however, it’s a stand-alone novel and I really don’t recommend the sequels because she was getting over the loss of her soulmate when she was writing them. Her other books are pretty much consistently good, though.
Other than that, I agree with most of the other posters. Except for Mercedes Lackey. I don’t feel that Lackey is very good at all, and I’ve read various works by her.
:dubious: That’d be Anne McCaffrey. It’s also science fiction, like the Darkover novels (by Marion Zimmer-Bradley).
I’d also recommend the Guardians of the Flame series by Joel Rosenberg (first book is The Sleeping Dragon), and at least the first of the assassin novels by Steve Brust (Jhereg, I think?)
Sacred Ground is another good Mercedes Lackey fantasy. So is The Fairy Godmother, but it has more magic.
If you’re willing to put up with some spectacular sorcery in return for a strong female lead I recommend The Spellsong Cycle books by L. E. Modesitt Jr, beginning with The Soprano Sorcess. A modern female Assistant Professor of Music ends up in a medievaloid world where song and music make magic. The land of Defalk is strongly patriarchal, and being invaded by even nastier people. Since she is unwilling to be subjugated or killed, she decides to resist. Her training and talents grant her nuclear-range sorcery, so the results are pretty messy.
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull is a good Faerie-in-the-real-world book with a female protagonist.
The Frost trilogy by Robin Bailey is good; the protagonist is a female mercenary. The magic gets high end at times however.
Beauty by Robin McKinley is a good retelling of the fairy tale.
Several of Patrica Wrede’s Lyra books have strong female leads; Shadow Magic and Daughter of Witches come to mind.
Patricia Wrede also wrote Mairlon the Magician and Magician’s Ward; they are young adult but good. The protagonist is a ( just post Napoleon, but in a magic using world ) London street urchin who passes for a boy.
If you don’t mind blood-and-gore, vampires and ( in later books ) sex, there’s the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. The protagonist is female but not “girlie”. Example : When one bad guy calls her “Bitch”, her response is to say “That’s Ms Bitch to you.” and shoot him in the head.
Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword and Sorceress books are full of short fantasy stories, all with female protagonists.
The absolute 100% best fantasy series I have ever read is A Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin. It manages to be epic in scope while still having utterly convincing and human characters. It also very distinctly does NOT follow the principle of Important Characters Always Survive. Be warned.
It doesn’t really have a single main character, but about 30 to 40 percent of the main characters are female, some good, some bad, some weak, some strong.
Book 4 is (finally!) about to come out.
I would also recommend this one. You were looking for female protagonists and there are at least four in this series along with a number of female supporting characters. Their strength runs the gamut from “wuss girl who you want to reach through the pages and slap yourself” to “commander of an army of dragons”
Magic runs through the book but it’s so low key as to not even play a role in book 1.
I think this satisfies both your requirements and, for my money, it’s the best fantasy series on the market today. I’ll be first in line when book 4 comes out in about six weeks.