‘I know I have the body of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king’
23 February 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Female Fictional Characters, The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten Heroines, Top Ten Tuesday
This week over at the Broke and the Bookish the Topic for Top Ten Tuesday is:
Top Ten Favorite Heroines From Books
This was more difficult that I imagined mainly because I found myself with quite a lot to choose from so narrowing it down was difficult.
- Lady Trent from Marie Brennan’s A Natural History of Dragons. I love this series and Lady Trent is an excellent character who refuses to be restrained by the demands that polite society of age would place upon her.
- Mercy Thompson from Patricia Briggs series of books about werewolves and shapeshifters (well and plenty of other characters from the supernatural world). I really like Mercy she’s a gutsy character and certainly not a damsel in distress – but she’s not stupid and not afraid to ask for help when she needs to.
- Miriam Black from Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig. I just really like Miriam. She comes across as a hard assed, foul mouthed so and so but underneath it all she is softer than she likes to imagine. I think that being able to predict a person’s death simply by touching them has given her a harder exterior than most and pushed her to a fairly solitary life but she always tries to do the right thing. Even if it doesn’t sometimes feel like that.
- Suzume from M L Brennan’s Generation V. I love this character. Suzume is a Kitsune which means she’s actually a fox that can turn into a human. She’s got such a great sense of humour, she can stick up for herself and she stands by her friends.
- Eowyn from Tolkien’s Lord of the Ring – who with the help of a hobbit helped to bring down one of the worst enemies of the final battle ‘I am no man’!
- Atlanta Burns from the book of the same name by Chuck Wendig. Another fantastic character with a dark and sad past, scarred by past events who is still not too scared to stick up for those in need.
- Shara from Robert Bennett’s City of Stairs. Such a wonderful character. Intelligent and witty and able to calmly analyse a situation even under threat. A book loving woman who’s motto could be ‘the pen is mightier than the sword.
- Wydrin from Jen William’s Copper Promise. She’s a sell sword come rum swigging pirate. Sassy, smart, clever with her twin swords – she’d give Jean Tannen and his sisters a run for his money!
- Lisbeth from Stieg Larsson’s Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Lisbeth is another young lady with a sad past. Analytical and calm she isn’t afraid of her own company and her knowledge of computers and hacking help her to tackle her enemies.
- Spring from Angus Watson’s Age of Iron – a young character, mysterious and enigmatic. I can’t tell you much about her because it would definitely contain spoilers for the book.
That’s my top ten – like I say, I had a good few more but have contained myself!
Finally read the City of Stairs so definitely agree with Shara! And of course, Eowyn! ❤
Share was an excellent character I really liked it and Eowyn – well, she is no man1
Lynn 😀
Oh I love Eowyn! I was actually thinking about The Lord of the Rings when trying to think of some heroines but she never came to mind… I would have loved to include Galadriel or Arwen but they only play a minor role in the actual book…
Great list! 😀
Thanks – I think you could have definitely mentioned Galadriel or Arwen – they both play a part after all! Anyway, I can’t resist a mention of LotR.
Lynn 😀
I know the feeling! It’s like I try to include it in every list I make :p
Eowyn is a truly awesome choice.
She is a great character and I love that Tolkien, even though you might think he didn’t really use a lot of females – he still made them strong and capable.
Lynn 😀
A great list. I’ve only met about half of these.
I was tempted to but Lizbeth on my list, but I didn’t. I like her as a character, but I’m not sure she’d be someone that I’d want to be friends with. 😉
I must admit that Lizbeth really grew on me! I know she wasn’t a perfect character so I can absolutely appreciate not everyone liking her but I couldn’t help myself. I think she’d definitely be difficult to befriend.
Lynn 😀
Never read any of these books but they seem amazing.
MY TOP TEN TUESDA! ❤
That must be a first for my list! Thanks for stopping by.
Lynn 😀
Really good list! You mentioned a lot of books that are on my TBR pile but I haven’t read yet. But yay for Atlanta Burns! I picked her too:-D
She sprang to mind first tbh – but I have only recently read the book so no surprise I guess.
Lynn 😀
I admit I may have fallen in love, just a little bit, with Suzume. But how could I not? She could run circles around me, physically and mentally, what more could I ask for?
Suzume is ace! She’s just such a good character.
I don’t think you could ask for more tbh!
Lynn 😀
I added Copper Promise to my Goodreads tbe a while back but I had no idea it featured a sellsword- pirate girl! Wow. Moved it higher up in my list.
Great list and awesome book haul, btw!
The Copper Cat is one of my favourite characters at the moment – Copper Promise and Iron Ghost are excellent – i think you’d really enjoy them. Will await your thoughts.
Lynn 😀
I have a rather huge stack of TBR books but I hope I will get to those two this year!
Ooh what a fantastic list 🙂 I’ve only read about half of these so my TBR has just increased!
Cora @ Tea Party Princess
That is one of the things about TTT your tbr groans under the strain!
Lynn 😀
Interesting choices, really pleased to see Eowyn and Lisbeth on your list. I really like this topic I think I might have to do my own list 🙂
Yes! Do a list – I’d love to see your top 10 heroines.
Lynn 😀
Thank you, Lynn. A whole list of heroines and writers whom I had (mostly) never heard of. Wonderful!
I hope you pick some of them up and more to the point – enjoy them.
Lynn 😀
Lisbeth! ♥ (I haven’t actually read the books, and don’t know if i could stomach them, but i’ve seen the (Swedish-American) film and loved her.)
Booyah, I have read every single book on your list! And I can’t agree more with a bunch of them. 1-4 is already a dream team 🙂
That’s a good idea – a dream team of fantasy characters!
Lynn 😀
Mercy is pretty amazing. So is Anna, but there’s just something extra special about a shape shifting coyote among werewolves.
Mercy is just great – I really like her!
Lynn 😀
[…] for Top Ten Tuesday I picked my top ten favourite females of fiction – today I thought I’d match that with 10 super […]
The only one I’m familiar wit is Lisbeth because I watched the film adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
I did something similar to this with anime!
I think Lisbeth is such a great character! I really enjoyed those books!
Lynn 😀
Eowyn and Lisbeth are great choices. I haven’t read some of the other books but I’m sure they are too! I would add Katniss from Hunger Games – bold, brave and just generally awesome!
Thanks Laura – everybody loves Katniss don’t they? I think anyway!
Lynn 😀
I’ve read the first five on your list and heck yes excellent picks. I should add some of those others to my read list. The Copper Promise is on there at least 🙂