I enjoy reading fantasy. When I read the post bemoaning a lack of feminist fantasy and romance novels, I went back to my book shelf to look through it with a feminist eye.
It was an interesting discovery on my part. For though I have only been identifying as a feminist for less than a year, every single one of my favorite books has a strong woman in it. They also have at least a remotely happy ending, because I don't read fantasy to be depressed at the end of it. I love these writers, and I hope you do, too.
So, here they are:
Anne Bishop
Awesome! My favorite writer EVER. The central theme in all her books is strong woman saving the world. Be warned, her work is dark, though getting less so. Terrible things happen to the lead characters, but they all learn to live beyond it to happy lives. I love her characters because they are not just good or bad. They all have bits of both. Her worlds suck you in and it's hard to leave.
She has three worlds/series which include The Black Jewels Trilogy, the Pillars of the World series, and the pair Sebastian and Belladonna. All are great, but I would start with the Black Jewels or Sebastian.
Tanya Huff
She has written some of the best dialog I have ever read, being the only writer to ever make me consistently laugh out loud. Her Keeper series has a sarcastic talking cat and a Hell that not only has split personalities, it argues with itself.
Her Valor series has a kick ass female sergeant in a futurist Marine corp.
Mercedes Lackey
She is a very prolific writer, and I really like about half her work.
The Serpent's Shadow has taken elements of Snow White, but is very different. Different enough that I like it and it doesn't make me gag.
The Fairy Godmother explains where the fairy godmothers come from.
I enjoyed the Valdemar series (Twenty or so books, mostly grouped as trilogies around a main character, but most of the characters keep showing up in the later books as well, which is fun to see) as well as the Obsidian Trilogy.
I hope this helps other fantasy lovers, I would like to hear what you think.
WARNING: I have introduced these writers to others, and many have stayed up till two, three, even four in the morning, reading cover to cover.
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Lackey is good, though not on my list of favourite authors (the Obsidian Tirlogy is awesome though, as is the Fairy Godmother).
I'll add: Jaqueline Carey.
An amazingly good author, and her debut trilogy features an atypical heroine--a prostitute (well-educated and highly-paid, in a country where it's considered an art form) who experiences pleasure within pain. A recurring theme is 'that which yields is not always weak'. There's also a few other strong females, of varying types. Not for the faint of heart, though, as it includes a number of sexual encounters, often of a BDSM nature (she can be amazingly descriptive while using as many euphemisms as possible).
Another recurring theme is that there are many kinds of love, so very friendly for the GLBT audience.
I'll also throw in Julie E. Czerneda, who's an SF author (soft SF, at least, with some fantasy elements). Great for those who love world-building--she's one of the best world-builders I've read, with an amazing ability to create alien races both biologically and culturally.
I recommend Katharine Kerr's Deverry series (First novel: Daggerspell). It's an exceptionally good read. It's not written entirely linearly (which some people find confusing, but it's really not) and can be read in any order. It's wonderfully realistic and gritty, and it seems like there's no end to the content. It's also very feminist, progressive, and so forth. Her various sci-fi, Snare, Palace, Polar City Blues, etc, are also excellent.
Reader be ware: there are two versions of her first four Deverry novels. In the first editions, to a greater or lesser extent, she was pushed around by editors and details were changed, and not for the better. Her "revised / author's definitive" editions are recommended.
Marion Zimmer Bradley. I'm not too familiar with her Darkover novels, but her Avalon novels and everything else of hers I've read (including "Tiger Burning Bright", which was written with Mercedes Lackey and Andre Norton) all contain many strong female characters.
I want to add, absolutely everything by Tamora Pierce. She is one of my favourite authors. Also, Pamela Dean's Castings trilogy, which, as well as having awesome female characters, deals with racism really well.
Thanks for doing this post, and to those who've already commented with recs! I only got into fantasy recently, about three years ago, and though I mostly do the Tolkien oeuvre, I've started reading other stuff more. I hear a lot about feminist sci fi but not so much about feminist fantasy, so it's great to get some ideas.
Everything by Juliet Marillier, especially the Seventwaters books; there are 4 now I think.
Second Marion Zimmer Bradley and Tamora Pierce for YA.
Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials. The Sally Lockhart trilogy is amazing, but not really fantasy.
If people are concerned with giving warnings, I'll add that I love the sevenwaters trilogy, but the first book does have a rape scene in it.
Most of Holly Lisle's books, especially Diplomacy of Wolves and its sequels (I don't remember what the trilogy as a whole is called)
George R.R. Martin's "Ice and Fire" books (A Game of Thrones and sequels). Not strictly feminist, but some *seriously* ass-kicking female characters, disabled characters (plural!)...and probably the best epic fantasy out there right now.
Although as a warning, Diplomacy of Wolves contains an indirect reference to a main character being raped, and there is a scene in Game of Thrones that can be read as rape from a modern standpoint (this is high medieval-style fantasy, and in medieval lit it would definitely not be rape, so I'm willing to cut GRRM the slack here). So if this is a trigger for you, maybe skip these books.
I do read more SF than fantasy, but you really can't beat the "Ice and Fire" books.
Whoa, I just want to add that GRRM's Ice and Fire series is really not necessarily feminist friendly. There is an INSANE amount of rape going on left and right constantly without anyone so much as batting an eye in those novels.
Oh, and not to mention the child bride sold by her brother and all the creepy coveting of female bodies (re:Sansa).
I am an enormous fan of these books and, though I understand that you all have obviously read them and aren't saying, "no one should," I feel compelled to step in Georgie's defense here.
Yes, the world is a bit like that of medieval Europe in terms of a lot of things, including the disenfranchisment of women. And yes, the world is primarily a tragic one through the middle of the series in which nigh-endless warfare and unwise governance tear the people apart and leave the truly sadistic free reign to prey on whomever they like without repercussion. But no, there are not many vivid descriptions of sex or violence (in terms of number of pages). Most of them are glossed over and though rape is often referenced as something terrible being done to peasants, it is treated much like the supernatural in the series; it's reserved for those rare occasions on which it will have the most emotional impact.
As to whether it could be called feminist or not, I'm no expert but I would point to the contrast between Aria's and Sansa's lives (and where I'm pretty sure they are going) as case studies of different roles of women in society, and I would also point to the way Tyrion treats women as honestly a really good example of respectfulness ... most of the time ... until a certain point in book 4 of course ... and also it's portrayed as somewhat naive ... *shrugs*.
(this is the thread that made me sign up and post for the first time btw!)
For YA, I would also recommend Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy.
Otherwise, I recommend Emma Bull very highly.
Two others that I thought of immediately were Naomi Novik (Temeraire) and Patrick Rothfuss (The name of the wind). Now, both of those recommendations star male characters and not female characters, but I don't necessarily look for a female protagonist, I look for authorial tone.
Seconding Tamora Pierce *hard*. It's not just her having strong female characters, she's also tackled some very feminist issues (from the start her female characters would talk about contraception, forex, and in her recent books she's also tackled things like domestic violence and rape) and queer issues - there's a trans character in the second Beka Cooper book, and a lesbian WoC is one of the main protagonists in one of her other series.
I would like to add a caveat to Mercedes Lackey: she seems to have (or at least had) some rather odd ideas regarding being single and motherhood - I'm trying to find the short story in which someone says that being forced into an abusive marriage is better than being single because at least in the abusive marriage you'll have kids (seriously, wtf?!) - and she seems to treat a certain type of sexuality as intrinsic to being female. I as an asexual reader have found certain messages about women and femininity in her works very difficult to swallow. Relatedly, I am *not* sure about this one at all, but although she writes about gay men her treatment of female sexuality seems to have heteronormative undertones to me.
Also, not really sure about her treatment of disabilities in fiction. The Bardic Voices series had a character with a cognitive disability in the beginning where the way the main character thought about her honestly made me cringe - and she was clearly being used as a prop to make the main character seem more sympathetic and ~kind~ and ~generous~ for putting up with her - and later on we ran into a stuttering character who was basically one giant collection of most of the stereotypes and tropes I *hate* when it comes to people writing stuttering characters. I can't recall any other disabled characters in her works, so this has not given me great faith in Lackey's ability to write disabilities well.
Which is to say: she's quite feminist as fantasy authors go and better than the average by a long way, but I would not recommend her stories without this kind of warning.
I agree. I didn't want to pick apart anybody else's recommendations, but I'm not a huge fan of Mercedes Lackey. I think it may be a generational dispute as much as anything. She's old school, second wave, and her brand of feminism is less sensitive to intersectionality (that is, recognizing the ways that racism, classism, homophobia, and other systems of opression interact with sexism). It's also more focused on ideas like the sacred feminine and fertility and goddess power.
She is a feminist, and I'm glad she was born and had a hand in the formation of the fantasy genre. Hasn't she organized anthologies by female writers and tried very hard to support other women who want to break into the boys club of fantasy fiction? The genre needed that pretty badly, so she gets a tip of the hat for that no matter what.
Her writing isn't to my taste, but there's certainly no reason not to check her out if you're exploring feminist fantasy. The local used bookstore should have a lot of her stuff.
I don't feel particularly good about attacking other people's choices, but I had Lackey recommended to me as a feminist author (which she /is/, just, as you point out, more second-wave) and was blind-sided by some of the things in her books because I hadn't been expecting those kinds of problems in her writing. So I figured it'd be good to give people some fair warning to go alongside the rec.
Robin McKinley, Sunshine. Trust me on this one. It's the anti-Twilight.
Robin McKinley! How could I have forgotton?
The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword are also quite excellent.
Deerskin might also be worth reading. I usually don't find rape scenes tastefully done, but Deerskin is about survival and healing and makes salient points about how rape is about power and not about sex. It has a happy ending. It could be triggering, but it could also be cathartic. Be warned that there is an additional incestuous element. I think overall it was empowering (and beautifully written, I might add!)
Oh, she wrote Spindle's End! That was a really good book, its been years since I last read it so I'm not quite sure how it stands as a feminist work of art but it had nearly and all female cast with the princess saving the day at the end ^_^
I'm just going to mention Ratha's Creature and its sequels. Sure, the protagonists are sentient Miocene-ish big cats (which is why I read them), but the titular character, imo, is one of the better female characters I've seen in books...
I'll second Robin McKinley and George RR Martin (although in addition to the scene the original commenter mentioned, just keep in mind that the books also involve a lot of violent medieval warfare, so there are actually a number of mentions of rape - not described in the first person, but stories are told about the violence to women as so-and-so raids so-and-so's lands. It's definitely not glamorized or portrayed as okay, but it could also be upsetting to some).
A big one for me is Robin Hobb. She has three trilogies that all continue one main story - the Farseer, the Liveship Traders, and the Tawny Man. She has a character called the Fool who lives as both a man and a woman. Generally he goes by the masculine pronoun, but he repeatedly lectures the protagonist on how gender is not important, and refuses to box his own identity in. The story's in a medieval setting, but the kingdom in Farseer/Tawny Man has gender equality in terms of who's allowed to rule, and both men and women are sailors and soldiers and etc. There's also a very strong female character in the woman who becomes queen, who has to come from a foreign country while still young and adapt to the new kingdom, lead its people, and eventually go on a mission to save her husband.
The Liveship Traders has the greatest number of female characters and feminist themes. It's in a society where women used to be able to work alongside the men, but things have evolved so that it's a mark of the highest class - the Liveship Traders, who have magic ships (it's less silly than it sounds) - the women stay home and run things. The story deals with the matriarch, Ronica, who's trying to keep her family together; her daughters, Althea - who only wants to sail but finds herself disinherited and constrained by society's expectations of her abilities; to prove her worth she disguises herself as a boy and does drudge labor on another family's ship - and Keffria, who's torn between her family and her controlling husband. She thinks she's happy not to have to worry about being head of the family, but when her husband disappears you see her really evolve and realize that she is better suited to manage things, and despite the challenges of independence she doesn't want to give it up.
There's also a great character in Keffria's daughter Malta. She's smart and willful and beautiful, but she's spoiled and selfish and doesn't understand the problems her family is facing (she's only 12 at the beginning). She's beginning to explore the way her beauty allows her to manipulate men, because she thinks that men have all the power and that's her way to power. (She comments to her mother, "Sometimes I look at a man and think I would be so happy if I could just have him. But then sometimes I don't know if I really want the man, or if I want to be who he is.") When her father disappears and none of her suitors help her, she realizes she will have to make things happen on her own, using her wits. She's also thrown into the company of misogynist foreigners, where the "power" of having men desire her is revealed to be an empty one. Hobb does a really good job of showing how, when properly applied, her selfishness and determination turns to real strength.
meredith ann pierce has great female characters and her darkangel trilogy is especially wonderful.
Check out Catherynne Valente's "Orphan's Tales" duology: "In the Night Garden" and "In the Cities of Coin and Spice." They are some of the most amazing fantasy books I've ever read, and there are many strong female characters and subversive commentary on traditional gender roles.
I also reccomend Lackey even knowing she does have her flaws (and I so agree with you Zaily Lark from the first bardic novel always grated on me).
One male author to throw out there is Eric Flint's 163X series. There are a lot of strong and realistic female charchtars. This is an alternate reality series in this case a town from West Viginia America in the year 2000 is sent to Germany in the middle of the 30 yr war. (Warning though: these books have a definate skew. It is very much written in a American centric and pro-Union frame. While I still liked it others might not.)
Also thanks once again for posting this rtb82feministing! I have found a lot of authors I want to read here.
Sorry I meant to say Zailyn instead of Zaily
Sorry I meant to say Zailyn instead of Zaily.
omg!
I can not believe no one has mentioned Laurell K. Hamilton and her Anita Blake- Vampire Hunter series. Ass kicking girl, for sure!!
I am so glad to get insight into all these authors!!
Thanks everyone!
Oh god, no. Sorry, but Anita and Laurel Hamilton are as anti-feminist as you can get. Sure, Anita is a woman and she's physically strong, but both the author and the character hate women. Anita (and Laurel, on her blog) is constantly talking about how tall, blonde, feminine women (such as her friend Ronnie in the books) are terrible people, and that Anita (and Laurel, on her blog) are always talking about how masculine things are so much better than the feminine (although the series doesn't truly get bad until about book #10, an early example of this is Anita's refusal to wear a dress in her friend's wedding. Alone, it might be subversive, but coupled with the rest of her woman-hating thoughts, it's ridiculous). Anita (and again, the author) is always saying she is better than other women because she hangs out with men, she thinks like a man, etc.
Even worse is how the author treats sex. Anita calls a character who was raped by her boyfriend as someone having "buyer's remorse." Anita herself rapes characters while under her supernatural "ardeur" and has killed at least one other character because he wouldn't sleep with her. Reviews for the newest book even say that she's committing statutory rape with an underage teen boy.
So, no thanks. If you enjoy it, you enjoy it, but let's not pretend it's feminist just because the main female character is strong.
Please can I recommend 'The Scars of Obsession' by Darryl Bowen. ISBN 978-1-4349-9317-5 It is an awesom tail of Joe Average (Sean) who falls for a young woman who is a member of a cult of Female Supremacists. Its funny, explicit and enlightening. Full of fantasy that leaves you asking...is this fantasy or did it really happen? It contains newly researched material that delves back to Pre-history and mans original purpose to Provide, Protect and Serve. The modern conception of cave-men clubbing their would-be wives on the head and dragging them back to their cave is a farce and wholly wrong. Before man found he could corrupt the law of nature, to own the land and the animals on it he revered woman as the life giver. The temples of Stonehenge and Avebury were built to worship Mother Earth herself. Ur was her name and it was in the British isles (the furthest west) where Ur made her last stand against the encrouchment of so called civilisation. She lost but was never fully eradicated from the human conciousness and managed to live on in words we still use today. Words such as Mother, girl, her and of course Earth which all bear the sound of Ur's name...anyway I am revealing too much from this book, read it and see what you think and how it makes you feel. It is a fantastic read that will put you through many human emotions but most assuradely, laughter, arousal, sadness and enlightenment. I am looking forward to the sequel as the charracters and storyline certainly deserve it. Get to it folks. the 'Scars of Obsession' you won't put it down until you've sadly finished it. Yours Truly Severin1964
YES on Tamora Pierce.
I'd also recommend Patricia C. Wrede's "Enchanted Forest Chronicles." They're a children's series, but I still love them--they're basically satirizing fairy-tale tropes. The first book starts off subverting the "useless princess kidnapped by dragons" trope by having a princess run away to live with dragons to escape an arranged marriage, and offering to duel all the knights that come to "rescue" her herself because her awesome dragon hostess has better things to do with her time. Then they solve crime. It's great.
Technically not fantasy, due to lack of actual magic, but certainly not very reality-based, is the historical swashbuckler "Bloody Jack" series, which is about a London street urching who disguises herself as a boy to be a cabin boy on a merchant ship and winds up, like, being a pirate queen and solving murder mysteries and taking over a slave ship with a bunch of Boston schoolgirls and running a showboat in the Mississippi and getting press-ganged by the British Navy and all sorts of completely ridiculous swashbucklery stuff. It's a lot of fun, although she tends to wind up in creepy near-rape situations, which is probably historically accurate but... they're a little creepy. Also her BF is useless. Otherwise they're great.
Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books are pretty good urban fantasy (she's a telepathic waitress who solves murder mysteries! with vampires!); she can be a bit of a snob but overall she's pretty badass, even with physically being the tiny breakable human surrounded by vampires and werewolves and stuff. The vampires & sexuality stuff is kind of fucked up because that's pretty much the entire basis of the vampire myth, but it's fucked up in a much more complicated and acknowledged way than, y'know, Twilight.
Some of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books have female leads, and all of them have pretty badass women in them. The Tiffany Aching subseries (which is usually shelved in YA instead of with the rest of the books), Equal Rites, the Lancre Witches subseries, and Monstrous Regiment are female-led, and the Night Watch subseries (the cop drama one) has some great women on the Watch. (The Rincewind books are a little scant on women but they're still pretty funny.) Also, the first few Death books are just about Death (who is a dude), but then he has a granddaughter and they become increasingly about her. Also, Pratchett's just hilarious.
I can't believe that no-one has mentioned the empire trilogy yet. (Daughter of the Empire, Servant of the Empire and Mistress of the Empire - I must dig them out to re-read). Co-authored by Janny Wurts and Raymond E. Feist the main character is an intelligent, strong willed woman who un-expectedly finds herself thrust into power. Admittedly, the majority of the cast is male, and there are some abuse scenes, but ultimately the main character is amazing (as a teenager, she was my hero . . . )
Also strongly recommend the Obernewtyn chronicles by Isobel Carmody, which again stars several strong willed, intelligent women.
Lois McMaster Bujold - Her new series (Charion) is fantasy, but Shards of Honor although strictly speaking science fiction will always be one of my favourites.
Elisabeth Moon - Sheepfarmers Daughter, Another author who writes both sci fi and fantasy
Kelley Armstrong - Good urban fantasy writer where each book focuses on a different female character.
Kate Elloitt - Jaran trilogy.
Illona Andrews - More urban fantasy
Lisa Shearin - Raine Benares Trilogy
Melanie Rawn, Michelle M Sagara, Patricia Briggs and no one has mentioned Anne McCaffery who although old school is definitly feminist, particularly in her early work, and has excellent female characters.
I loved the Dragonriders of Pern series when I was younger and still do like them. But when I reread them as I grow older a few things pop out at me. Especially in the first one Dragonflight. Lessa is pretty much treated like a child. She is talked down to, sometimes slaped and shaken, and usually portrayed as irrational. Also most of the things that she does for the good of Pern is usually credited to F'lar.
I don't like to go behind someone and talk shit about the choices that they put forth. But I reread this series last week and it struck me how much these themes were going on.
Anyways I was trying to rake my brain about a book I read when I was younger. I don't know the author or the title. I just remember that it was a fantasy series that was set on a different planet, with a terranian type feel to it. The main part of it was that men and women's gender roles had been replaced.
Probably not really that good but it killing me to remember what this book was. If you know of anything that sounds similar could you let me know.
I also loved the Dragonriders of Pern series, but... what you said, and let's not forget the rape scene in Dragonquest (seriously, it explicitly says Brekke is *struggling* against F'nor). The later books are better, and I do adore Lessa as a character, but there is some seriously skeevy stuff here and there.
I think the Menoly books (Dragonsinger, Dragonsong) are pretty feminist, and they're more recent, right?
Its true some of the Pern books have some sexist stuff in them, questionable rape scenes, etc. Sometimes its hard to divide what is a portrayal of sexist action in a backwards society, and what is condoning that sexism. I think a lot of it falls into the former category, but some of it falls into the latter as well (like that Brekke and F'nor scene, which went over my head when I was younger). I loved the Pern books in middle school, but I wouldn't recommend them all equally.
Have you read her Freedom Landing's series? There's a whole lot of rape in that. Twice the main character ends up getting way farther than drunk on some sort of stronger version of alcohol, and gets pregnant that way (TWICE) and apparently its ok because her actual boyfriend is an alien and can't impregnate her. Oh and it seems like her alien boyfriend was thinking of raping her when they first met, too, because that's what all the aliens do. Its implied that the men she was with those times she got pregnant were equally drunk so maybe they weren't really at fault, but they knew she was in a relationship with someone else... Anyway, even if they were also out of their minds on this drug, the whole thing is played off later like its fine because its for the good of society for her to be pregnant, not like its an icky invasion all around.
The main character is very much a strong woman who stands up for herself and fights off men when the situation is clear, but the "gray" rape scenes are very strange.
I believe that the Menolly books along with the last of the harper hall series was written before The White Dragon. Which is the last of the
Dragonriders of Pern trilogy. I did like those books a lot as I was growing up.
I never read the Freedom Landing series, but it does seem to be a theme with her books.
Yeah, that for some reason slipped my mind when I was writing my post. But reading it now still makes me uneasy. I think that they had so much potential, but because of some issues that the writer has they couldn't live up to that. It make you sad to read or watch something that you loved as a child to only see how disgusting it really is.
Errr...Rack not rake my brain.