# Tell me about your favorite strong female characters from NON-fantasy & SF literature. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 19, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396 "2013-03-19T20:53:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mrs.Cake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Mrs.Cake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs.Cake)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/21 "2013-03-20T19:48:35Z")
Sister Magdalen (formerly Avice of Thornbury), a recurring character in Ellis Peter’s Brother Cadfeal books, starts as the middle-aged mistress of a murdered character, becomes a nun, and basically runs and protects a convent through tough good sense and a knowledge of the world that most of the career nuns lack. At one point she organizes a defense against a large group of well-armed raiders who have burned, pillaged, and raped their way through other convents. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/22 "2013-03-20T20:16:09Z")
**Skald** , is “Eve Dallas” from J.D. Robb’s _In Death_ series allowed? Although set just a bit in the future, they are straight police procedurals. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/23 "2013-03-20T20:19:54Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > **Skald** , is “Eve Dallas” from J.D. Robb’s _In Death_ series allowed? Although set just a bit in the future, they are straight police procedurals. I’d say so. Tell me what’s so great about her. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/24 "2013-03-20T20:22:50Z")
Linda Barrett ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/25 "2013-03-20T20:25:04Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Linda Barrett Did you hit submit to soon? A quick Google seems to indicate that you named an author rather than a character. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/26 "2013-03-20T20:31:00Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I’d say so. Tell me what’s so great about her. She overcame great hardship and abuse as a child and became a police detective to make sure the dead got their due. She gives better than she gets, doesn’t tolerate fools, and doesn’t give up. The _In Death_ series is best read in order, because the characters definitely progress and evolve. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/27 "2013-03-20T20:45:12Z")
Sally Stokes, from Kate Ross’s detective novel _A Broken Vessel_. She doesn’t romanticise her own life - she’s a hooker and occasional thief, knows she’s at the bottom of the pile and wouldn’t be doing what she does if she had any conceivable choices, but she’s smart and funny, never lets anything get her down and never lets anyone tell her what to do. Olympias, from Mary Renault’s Alexander trilogy. Yes, she is on occasion batshit crazy, I’m not saying she’s _good_, but you can’t argue with _strong_. A magnificent bastard (not in the technical sense) ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/28 "2013-03-20T21:19:25Z")
> [@MegaBee](#): > > And suddenly two names from Young Justice make a lot more sense. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/29 "2013-03-20T21:30:15Z")
Marian Halcombe in Willkie Collins’ mystery \*\*\*The Woman in White \*\*\*is so much smarter, braver, more insightful, more moral and more interesting than her prettier sister that I’ll never understand why the protagonist didn’t fall for her. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/30 "2013-03-20T21:34:49Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Linda Barrett > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Did you hit submit to soon? A quick Google seems to indicate that you named an author rather than a character. [http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0012342/?ref\_=tt\_cl\_t6](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0012342/?ref_=tt_cl_t6) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/31 "2013-03-21T01:34:08Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > [QUOTE=MegaBee] > And suddenly two names from Young Justice make a lot more sense. 😕 [/QUOTE] Bee’s talking bout the Terror Twins there, Skald. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/32 "2013-03-21T01:43:01Z")
I really thought [Temperance Brennan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperance_Brennan) from the _Bones_ series of books had shown up by now which is why I didn’t check the thread. I’ve only read one book but she seems pretty strong in it and in the show it’s based on, she’s very strong. Although it’s kind of like Castle, except instead of a detective and a writer, it’s a forensic anthropologist and a detective. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/33 "2013-03-21T03:00:12Z")
Adult selection: Mattie Ross, from **True Grit**. I read the novel after seeing the Coen Brothers’ spectacular (in both senses of the word) film adaptation, and the novel’s Mattie is every bit the delightful badass that she is in the movie. It’s a wonderful book with a thrilling protagonist. Children’s Selection: I’ve not read it since I was a kid, but I seem to recall Cassie Logan, from **Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry** being quite the take-no-shit type. Reading Wikipedia’s summary reminds me of a wonderful scene, in which she pretends to befriend a bratty racist girl for the sole purpose of being able, later, to lure her into the woods, beat the crap out of her, and blackmail her into an apology. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/34 "2013-03-21T03:33:16Z")
What about Catherine Earnshaw Linton a.k.a. Cathy from **Wuthering Heights**. Not even death could keep her down. And keep in mind that this book is not considered fantasy, even though Cathy does appear as a ghost. Of course, a case could be made that Cathy is less the “strong heroine” type, and more the “bat-shit bipolar nut-job” type. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/35 "2013-03-21T03:53:22Z")
Dagny Taggart. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/36 "2013-03-21T04:03:42Z")
Lizzie Borden? She was strong enough to give her parents 80 whacks with an ax. I don’t know that I could do that without exhausting myself. ---
**Author:** ![Renifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Renifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renifer)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/37 "2013-03-21T15:43:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Irene Alder, from the Sherlock Holmes stories. OK, she’s only actually in one story, but she’s still the only person ever to have outwitted Holmes. There’s a spinoff series with her as the central character by Carole Nelson Douglas. The first book is _Goodnight, Mr. Holmes_. Elizabeth Clarry and Bindy McKenzie from Jaclyn Moriarty’s books _Feeling Sorry for Celia_ and _The Life/Murder of Bindy McKenzie_. Don’t be put off by the bright pink covers of these YA books. The character development is phenomenal. Elizabeth Clarry is an introverted girl whose best friend Celia is always in trouble. For a class assignment she writes to a girl in a different school and slowly reveals herself through these letters. Bindy McKenzie starts out as a stereotypical overachiever who is forced to do a class project with seven other students she despises, The Venomous Seven. As she starts to suspect someone is trying to kill her, she comes to see her classmates in a different light and ultimately faces the challenges in her own life. Also on the novel-composed-through-letters theme is _Ella Minnow Pea_ by Mark Dunn. On the fictional island of Nollop, the letter z falls off the sign of a marquee. The officials of the island take that as a sign from God and ban the letter from the language, with comic and tragic effects. Then more letters fall off and the language is censored more and more. Ella Minnow Pea is the woman that saves the day. And the list must include Kay Scarpetta from Patricia Cornwell’s thrillers. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/38 "2013-03-21T16:54:36Z")
Another vote for Temperance Brennan. Unlike the television version of the character (which I like just fine), the literary version does not have Asperger’s. She socializes just fine. She’s strong minded, tough, has a great deal of empathy, a bunch of smarts, and she makes no bones (heh) about taking lovers. She even gets along with her ex-husband. Rose January (nee Vitrac) of Barbara Hambly’s A Free Man of Color mystery series. She’s a free woman of color, the daughter of a demimonde, raised by her father and father’s wife. In the face of the rigid gender roles and blatant, institutionalized racism of ante-bellum Louisiana, she pursues knowledge and intellectual freedom. As a young woman, she’s raped by a would-be suitor trying to force her into marriage. Instead, she manages to convince her father to send her away to school. When she returns, she pulls together enough funding to start a boarding school for girls of color. When nearly all of her students die of yellow fever and her school is destroyed by slander, she retreats for a bit but then returns to help the main character find a missing friend of hers. She eventually marries the main character, but it’s with the understanding that she really isn’t a homemaker. Instead, he helps her re-open her school - where she teaches chemistry, trigonometry, Greek, and whatever else the girls want to learn (including how to make explosives). She is, without fail, gentle, wise, and steeped in wry humor. If she were real, I’d like to think we’d be friends. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/39 "2013-03-21T17:04:19Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Marian Halcombe in Willkie Collins’ mystery \*\*\*The Woman in White \*\*\*is so much smarter, braver, more insightful, more moral and more interesting than her prettier sister that I’ll never understand why the protagonist didn’t fall for her. Yes yes yes. That was such a misfire! You could almost sense Collins thinking to himself, “Wow, maybe our hero ought to go for Marian…” and then chickening out and going for the conventional choice. Quite a disappointment. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396/40 "2013-03-21T17:04:22Z")
**Hope Was Here** , by Joan Bauer. Both Hope and her aunt Addie are wonderful and strong. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-your-favorite-strong-female-characters-from-non-fantasy-sf-literature/653396.md?page=3)