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To cut a long story short my wife is off her feet, due to surgery, for the next few months so she finally has chance to read - she's just about to finish Raymond E Feist/Janny Wurts' ...Of The Empire trilogy with Winter Witch to follow....
so what she has asked me for are any novels, trilogies or series where there is at least one good female lead/heroine...
ooo..just thought, Dragonlance or the Pern novels, never read 'em..reviews and suggestions much appreciated
I suggested she sit down with the PFRPG and run a game for us all...that idea went down like a lead balloon :(
A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R R Martin, i.e. start with A Game of Thrones?
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Terry Pratchetts Witches' Books are excellent, as are the Rose of the Prophet books by Weiss/Hickman.
I also happen to like the Darksword Saga by the same authors, but that one seems to be hit or miss for many readers.
His Dark Materials are a good read, too and definatly not childrens fandasy, despite the youth of the heroine.
The Dark is Rising is childrens / youth fantasy, but still among the best fantasy novels I have read.
I generaly like the novels by Elaine Cunningham, and they all happen to have strong female leads.
The Anvil of the World and The Heart of the Stag by Kage Baker.
I'd recommend C.L. Moore's Jirel of Joiry tales, an anthology of which is available right here. And no, I don't work for Paizo :-).
...what she has asked me for are any novels, trilogies or series where there is at least one good female lead/heroine
I refer you to the following threads:
Fantasy Series with a Strong Leading Heroine?
Fantasy novels featuring strong women
(I hate to disagree with eraserhead, but I bought and read the complete Jirel of Joiry tales as published by Paizo, and all I could say was "What the heck?!?" I mean, just look at that first story!
But so many people have spoken highly of the book, and I don't know of anyone but myself who disliked it, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.)
<Ahem> Anyway, one of my all-time favorite fantasy novels is _The_Anubis_Gates_ by Tim Powers. The main character is male, but the second most important character is female, and she has quite a few adventures on her own in the book, without the main hero. She also saves the hero's life. (But the REAL star attraction of the book is the plot twists...)
Seconded Anubis Gates. It roXX0r.
As I was flipping around, I noticed new activity in this thread which reminded me that the books I am reading now totally fit the bill!
The Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld is, so far (I'm only on Book 2), pretty awesome. And that whole girl-dressed-as-a-boy-falls-in-love-with-boy-who-likes-her-as-a-boy shtick never gets old!
The Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steve Erikson has a plethera of characters and a good portion of them are female. They often have very important roles and get alot of time on the screen so to speak. As Empress, Generals, Emperial Adjuncts, god possessed assassins, etc.
Also, males and females are screwed, killed, tortured or otherwise damned more or less equally.
"Kushiel's Dart" by Jacqueline Carey. First of 3 trilogies.
"Pride of the Chanur" by C.J. Cherryh. First of 5.
"A is for Alibi" by Sue Grafton. First of 22.
"Jhereg" by Steven Brust. First of 10+
The Dresden series by Jim Butcher.
"Soulless" by Gail Carriger. First of 5, I think.
I'm still not done pitching _The_Anubis_Gates_ yet. Now... how can I work it into the conversation again?
And that whole girl-dressed-as-a-boy-falls-in-love-with-boy-who-likes-her-as-a-boy shtick never gets old!
Hmm... I'm at work, where I can't view YouTube videos (or any other streaming media), and I never read the Leviathan trilogy, so I don't know if this is a good comparison, but _The_Anubis_Gates_ has a woman disguised as a man. Another man, thinking her a boy, hits on her... but this disgusts her, and anyway, that was a very minor scene.
But later, when another man mentions to the boy his intentions of marrying the woman (not realizing that the boy IS the woman) she first gets furious at him... and seconds later, starts to fall in love with him.
(I guess that was a spoiler... but only a minor one.)
It also has a man disguised as a very ugly man.
50 Shades of Grey (very popular with de lay-dees i know)
First two dragonlance trilogies (chronicles and legends, i think) the rest of the series bubbles down to campaign fluff, and Dragons of Summer Flame is just a heartbreaking transition from one ruleset to another that wrecked the entire setting for me.
If she's not familiar with it yet, The reprints of the Drizz't saga make for a good organized reading, and there's thirteen books in the main chunk (again, campaign rules transition, stopped at thirteen because i couldn't stand it.)
War of the Spider Queen (6 books, lets drow be badasses again, good for coming down off of Drizz't)
Ive only engaged two books from the pathfinder tales series, but cannot recommend them enough so far. I've consciously chosen to leave all other setting books aside for them.
and a post note,
Pern fell into the 'reaching for stuff' catagory, but i think their overall storyline did tie up well enough, if far fetched.
I wouldn't push the 'run a game for us' but i would 'accidentally' leave a core rule book and either a AP first module or player companion item within reach :)