Fantasy Series with a Strong Leading Heroine?

[Jessica Price]

memorax wrote:

I can't recommend the Empress Trilogy by Karen Miller. I'm all for strong female characters. Yet as one reads more of the series the main character comes across as a nutcase imo. Infecting one of the make characters with a magical form of a STD. Making him sterile. Just so he does not get someone else pregnant with the Chosen Child. Killing her first child love interest simply because of prophecy and/or she does not approve of his choice. In front of him. With the live interest being pregnant. It's the only series which made me wonder if the author had some sort of mental health issues. Only read if you can find used or receive as a gift.

I don't think Hekat is really intended to be a heroine any more than, say, if you wrote a book about a ruler like Caligula or Nero, he would be intended as a hero. (See also TV series like The Borgias or The Originals.)

That said, "strong female lead" doesn't necessarily automatically entail "hero." (It doesn't necessarily even entail "warrior." Just as it doesn't necessarily have to mean "good," it also doesn't necessarily have to mean "physically strong.")

I'd say Hekat is a strong female lead, but it's a trilogy of books that's basically about a villain.

[Joseph Wilson]

Lord Snow wrote:

People have recommended Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson already. I would also like to recommend Warbreaker and Elantris by him, since both have female leads (both have multiple POVs, but in each case 50% are female) that are strong.

Just want to jump in and say, "YES!" to this.

[Quark Blast]

On the premise that repeated recommendations ought to merrit more consideration:

Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Trilogy - It's been mentioned like a dozen times up thread... and now mine is one more :)

Citing the obligatory exception to prove my premise:

I have read Stephen R. Donaldson's Mordant's Need series - The Mirror of Her Dreams and A Man Rides Through - and it definately meets the criteria established by the OP. However, the story gave me a severe case of the mehs. YMMV

[Calex]

The Green Rider series by Kristen Britain, The Elfhome Series by Wen Spencer, The Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews, and just about all of Patricia Briggs novels focus on strong female leads.

[cmastah]

The 'queen of stone' novel by Keith Baker (set in Eberron). There are actually several strong female characters (the MC, the scary three sisters (that for the longest time were thought to be mere myths to scare children) that nations are sending their diplomats to talk to and a secondary character who joins the MC). It SAYS it's part of a trilogy, but each book in the trilogy is a standalone and barely (if EVER) brings up stuff from the previous book. I was personally VERY interested in the character interactions....but I do admit that the story can be a TAD dull.

[The Thread Necromancer]

thejeff wrote:

OTOH, Red Sonja is probably best known for the chain mail string bikini, which is more of an eye candy thing.

While I don't have a problem with the "eye candy" part, ...

thejeff wrote:

She also has an origin of being raped and on praying to the Goddess for revenge being given incredible skill in the handling of swords and other weapons on the condition that she would never lie with a man unless he defeated her in fair combat.

That may have been acceptable at the time, but it seems incredibly skeevy today.

... her origin was bad then, and hasn't gotten better with age. Dynamite re-conned that whole bit away as soon as they got the chance.

But, I am still looking for thoughts from this thread ...

[David knott 242]

Whited Sepulcher wrote:

Try the Princess novels by Jim C. Hines, the main characters are the princesses from fairy tale... with a twist*! Cinderella marries her prince Charming and now must protect her kingdom, etc... with the aid of Snow White (who uses mirror magic) and Talia (Sleeping Beauty, the faerie gift allowing her to be an unnatural warrior, her backstory is particularly twisted). What Mr Hines does with the character backgrounds is really interesting. Red Hood, an assassin feared throughout the realms.

*sorry couldn't help but channel Shamalayn there. ;-)

I would actually recommend nearly anything by Jim C. Hines.

The lead character in the Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse series is female, and the female members of her crew tend to be more memorable than the male members.

The lead character in the Libriomancer series is male, but his female sidekick is the one you really don't want to get into a fight with.

[ksafimova]

I'm still in search of such a book, I think I'm reading something from the suggested in this thread.

[Cole Deschain]

Since this has necro'd to the surface...

The Crimson Empire series by Alex Marshall/Jesse Bullington is chock-a-block with interesting and flawed characters, but the lady of the hour is Cobalt Zosia. He also wrote a historical fantasy novel called "The Enterprise of Death," whose protagonist is a lesbian Moorish necromancer in Europe right before the Protestant Revolution really kicks into gear. You can imagine how easy THAT is for her.

Best Served Cold has gotten some love here. Good. Red Country has a contender in a POV spot as well. Abercrombie's new trilogy has some capable women like Savine dan Glokta and Rikke of the Long Eye in POV spots (and they're easily the most compelling POVs in the first book, although Orso catches up to them in book 2)

The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, by Kij Johnson, is also strongly recommended.