Six Great Heroines of SFF: Part 2
Yesterday, May 27, I posted the first instalment (i.e. first three) of my personal Six Great Heroines of SFF: namely, Agatha Heterodyne (from Girl Genius Online), Dianora (from Tigana) and Eowyn (from The Lord of the Rings.) There’s a little more background in yesterday’s post, including that these are all heroines originating in books, as opposed to film or tv series—but otherwise, without more ado: Part 2!
And, drum roll:
J is for Jessica from Frank Herbert’s Dune [SFF Genre: Science Fiction]
The main character in Dune may officially be Paul Muad’dib, but his mother, the Bene Gesserit (think: political-mystical secret society; membership, women-only) Jessica, gets almost as much air time. What a character she is: strong, resourceful, smart—and one of the few women characters that I can think of in SFF who primarily
features as a mother. And Jessica is determined that her son, Paul, is going to survive despite extreme odds, even if this means that she has to deny thousands of years of the Bene Gesserit tradition to which she belongs. She plays a very active role in helping Paul survive as well, including fighting a martial arts-style duel. I still recall how much I loved Jessica as a teen reader: her vulnerability and strength, her toughness and love for her son. A mother and a mover-and-shaker at the same time: way to go, Jessica, I thought.
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M is for Mara of the Acoma from Raymond E Feist and Janny Wurts’ Daughter of the Empire (and Empire series.) [SFF Genre: Epic/High Fantasy)
In the first book in the Empire trilogy, Daughter of the Empire; in a world where women traditionally do not hold power, Mara is required by necessity to lead her clan, which through treachery has almost been annihilated, in a fight for political—and in her case actual—survival. Again, Mara is a heroine without superpowers, and with very few resouces at her command: the only way in which she can hope to survive is to out-think and out-innovate her many enemies—in a world where tradition is everything and innovation is frowned upon. Mara has to learn to play the brutal political “game of houses”—but also how to play to win without losing her humanity. Not a cost-free exercise, but Mara, like Dianora, does remain true to herself. She also survives—but it’s mainly because of her smarts and courage, coupled with her humanity, that Mara of the Acoma will always be one of my great heroines of SFF.
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R is for Raederle from Patricia McKillip’s Heir of Sea and Fire, the second in her “Riddlemaster of Hed” (or alternately, “Riddlemaster of Stars”) trilogy. [SFF Genre: Epic/High Fantasy)
In a “Six of” series like this, the last choice is always the hardest to make. There are always so many choices clamoring at you for that last spot—and in fact most of them would be highly deserving of a spot. I think we all know that there aren’t just six great heroines of SFF: that their numbers are legion. But six was the number I set myself, so hey, I had to choose. So why did I choose Raederle?
Firstly, I reviewed the previous 5 heroines and realised that I didn’t have a mage—or anything like a mage for that matter. (Tsk!) And in fact, 3 out of my current 5 (Dianora, Jessica and Mara) are pretty much ordinary gals, i.e. no prowess with either sword or magic. (What was I thinking?) But in fact regardless of magery, Raederle has been one of my favourite SFF characters for a long time. So why is that?
Well, back in the day when I first read The Riddlemaster of Hed, SFF was mainly about boys, right? (OK, I was very young, but still … I’m telling it the way I found it, picking books from the library shelves.) Riddlemaster was no exception, but I sill loved it. It ended on a cliffhanger, too, so I was longing for the next book. But for some reason, the next book took a very long time to arrive where I was living. So it was almost five years later when I finally saw Heir of Sea and Fire in the library catalogue and promptly reserved it.
And then, when I opened up the book, it wasn’t even about Morgon, the eponymous Riddlemaster. But I wasn’t disappointed, because the story turned out to be about Raederle, who’d only been this background figure in the first book—and she was like, you know, a chick, but instead of waiting around the for the man she was interested in to come to her, she set out to find him. (He had gone missing, you see, which made the finding part important.) And along the way she had adventures, and met other interesting young women who were also about getting out there and doing stuff, and not about sitting around at home waiting for life to find them. Oh yes, and Raederle also found out that she had superpowers—and not just small, parlour trick magic, but the real deal: the big stuff. She finds out that she is more than awizard even, she is something greater: magic personnified, as it were.
So as a young but already avid SFF reader, Heir of Sea and Fire was a watershed work for me: one where the woman and her journey were the centre of the book, not confined to the periphery, and one in which the woman had power, but also integrity, honor and courage—i.e. a very far cry from the “weak as women’s magic” and “wicked as women’s magic” that had shocked and alienated me so much in A Wizard of Earthsea (much as I otherwise loved the book.)
Two other aspects of Raederle’s story particularly spoke to me: one was that, although her power initially frightened her—for good reasons—she had to learn to understand, accept and embrace it, rather than giving it up (i.e. she’s no Arwen.) The second was the genuine friendship, camaraderie and friendship between the women in the story, which resonated with my own experience of the world, rather than those stories where women are always competitive, backstabbing and manipulative (e.g. the sort of relationships that I discussed in relation to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, here.)
So there it is—or rather, here they are, six of my great heroines found within the covers of SFF:
- Agatha Heterodyne (Girl Genius)
- Dianora (Tigana)
- Eowyn (The Lord of the Rings)
- Jessica (Dune)
- Mara of the Acoma (the Empire series)
- Raederle (Heir of Sea and Fire: The Riddlemaster of Hed series)
All these heroines are drawn from those I found inspirational in my SFF reading and formative in terms of my own writing aspirations. But there are so many more—and just in case you thought I was just being diplomatic about that “almost” list, here’s a few that could very easily have had a spot (I hope in alphabetical order):
- Alanna (Tamora Pierce’s “Lioness” series)
- Amat Kyaan (Daniel Abraham’s Shadow In Summer)
- Aravis (CS Lewis’s The Horse & His Boy)
- Hari/Angharad (Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword)
- Jame (PC Hodgell’s Godstalk)
- Jenny Waynest (Barbara Hambly’s Dragonsbane)
- Katniss (Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games)
- Lyra Belacqua (Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass)
- The two Morgaines:
- CJ Cherryh’s Morgaine in The Chronicles of Morgaine; and
- Marion Bradley’s Morgaine in The Mists of Avalon
- Peri (Patricia McKillip’s The Changeling Sea)
- Signy Mallory and Elene Quen (CJ Cherryh’s Downbelow Station)
- Samiha (Mary Victoria’s Samiha’s Song)
- Starhawk (Barbara Hambly’s The Ladies of Mandrigyn)
- Tattersail (Steven Erikson’s Gardens of the Moon.)
And many more …
So how about you? Who’s not on this list that you think definitely should be? 😉
Honoured to be on your list, Helen. I feel the same way about Malian… can’t wait to see what she does next, and how she grows!
Not just on the list, but pretty high on it because I think Samiha is a really interesting and not-just-your-usual SFF character. Probably the main element that held me back from having Samiha as one of the six (yes, that close) is that without knowing what transpires in “Oracle’s Fire” (but soon, I know), I can’t really talk in terms of her finished story. But as you say with Malian I am looking forward to the finding out.:)
Heh heh! You can tell me when you read OF whether you saw it all coming… or if the final denouement is a complete surprise.
I am very much looking forward to Oracle’s Fire, not least becasue at the end of Samiha’s Song the evolving story had this great sense of possiblity—as if it could go any way at all. And so, a sense of mystery: the very best lead in to a final-in-series.
Your ‘six great heroines of SFF’ is an interesting list. I’m familiar with Agatha H and Eowyn but it’s been such a long time since I read Tigana and Riddlemaster I feel I will have to re-read them to remind myself of the two characters you refer to from those books. I hate to admit it but I haven’t read either Dune or the Empire series…but intend to do so (honest).
Definitely agree with many of the characters listed on your ‘almost made it’ list, such as Aravis, Hari, and Jame. I really liked Tattersail in Gardens of the Moon and could never really understand why she became a bit player in the rest of the Malazan books.
Some other interesting (not sure if I would classify them as ‘great’) female SFF characters I’ve come across are:
Elfrid from ‘The Princess of Flames’ by Ru Emerson
Mosca Mye from ‘Fly by Night’ by Frances Hardinge
Jez from ‘Retribution Falls’ by Chris Wooding
I always feel that Tigana and the Riddlemaster series repay another read: there is so much to both books. I had forgotten Elfrid from The Princess of Flames, but she is a great character. And as you with Dune and the Empire trilogy (both of which I thoroughly recommend by the way), I shall have to look into Fly by Night and Retribution Falls—although a character with a name like Mosca Mye just has to be great, one feels …:)
I see 3 CJ Cherryh characters already but am still compelled to nominate Pyanfar Chanur & Ariane Emory.
I don’t believe GRRM is nearly so sentimental, but if Arya Stark grows up to become the 1st Lady Commander of the Kingsguard – or Queensguard – don’t say no one saw it coming.
Will, I am possibly not quite so much a fan of Ariane Emory as you, but am with you 100% on Pyanfar Chanur. The only thing, you see, is that I am planning another post on non human heroes/heroines/protagonists soon and feel fairly certain that Pyanfar and all the Hani spacers in fact have a reasonable claim on that … 😉
You know, I realised that I didn’t have a single ASOIAF female character on my list and yet I think that Daenerys, Arya, Sansa and Brienne, to name just a few, are all great characters. I think the reason I may have—almost subconsciously—omitted them is because the series is so much in balance still in terms of character evolution. As you so rightly note, GRRM is not a sentimentalist, but I think we both know that anything at all could happen, to any character.
Jessica is magnificent, but I think she would be a hard mother to have. The Riddlemaster series has been a favorite of mine for years, I love Raedurle! Some of my favorite heroines lately are Eona from Alison Goodman’s novels and Clary from the Mortal Instruments. Eona is just awesome, and Clary is a likable, nearly normal person who can be quite tough when she has to be. Great list!
You’re right, there is a certain amount of tough love with Jessica, but then again, the circumstances are extreme as well! The Riddlemaster series is definitely a ‘top’ trilogy for me, too, but I haven’t read any of the Alison Goodman novels. I shall look out for them now, though. I enjoyed the Mortal Instruments and also The Clockwork Angel although I was not 100% sure about the new book, City of Angels—I felt it was maybe a bit too much the same as the Mortal Instruments series …
Ok so I just found this blog in looking into you as an author (being as I’m in the middle of Heir of Night right now). I picked up the book as a random buy; one of my local Borders Books was closing and everything was on sale. I’m loving the book! But somehow I felt compelled to add my two cents here as none of my personal favorite’s have been mentioned. So here goes, my favorite heroines, in no particular order…
Lessa – Anne McCaffery’s Dragonriders of Pern
Elspeth – Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar
Jaenelle – Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels
Wren – Terry Brooks’ Heritage of Shannara
Phedre no Delaunay – Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Legacy
Now maybe I missed some criteria somewhere, but those are my thoughts. And thanks, now I have some new books to read as I don’t know all those that have been mentioned. 🙂
Shelby—thank you for dropping by and I hope you continue to enjoy Heir. I am also very sad about the Borders (although I read this morning that there may be a partial buyer for some of the stores which would be great news.)
The 6 heroines was not an exhaustive list so now I am smacking my forehead and going: “How could I forget Lessa and Elspeth?” But I haven’t read the Terry Brooks or Jacqueline Carey, so clearly I have some reading to do as well. I’m going to be doing 6 heroes sometime soon and also 6 non-human protagonists so I’ll hope you contribute your suggestions for those as well.:)
I would like to add Keladry (Procter of the Small series by Tamora Peirce). As much as I love Alanna, Kel is even more of a hero to me. She did so much without the support of magic or the gods and protected others because it was right. She wanted to be a knight so she could protect others. One of my favorite moments from the first book is when she decided to go into page training even though they put on probation, b/c even if they kick her out after a year she’ll know more than she did now and will be that much more able to protect those around her. How awesome and selfless is that? And yet she’s not a spineless wallflower either.
If you want some suggestions for non-human protagonists I would suggest Hriss from McCaffrey’s Doona books. He’s great and it’s wonderful to have a series where the humans meet the aliens and while everyone doesn’t get along, they don’t end up at war with each other.
Thank you for commenting Rowanmdm—I have been meaning to read the Keladry series for ‘ages’ without quite getting to it yet: you have encouraged me to try harder! But I have been a huge fan of Tamora Pierce since reading “Alanna the First Adventure” and I love the way she just keeps on writing great characters and great books. Although I probably already have my six for the non-human protagonists, I will definitely check out the Hriss–because a preference/ranking can change ‘just like that’ when you encounter another great character.:)