7 Kick-Ass (Mostly) Fantasy/Sci-Fi Female Characters

Here’s a list of seven of the best strong female characters in fiction… ever.

Yeah, I know… we all have our favorites. And I’m sure we could find a dozen lists of seven female heroines that for assorted reasons make the grade.

But if you want tough, strong, smart, and forces to be reckoned with, these women of fiction are contenders. They are unique, they live in delicious worlds, they have beauty, brains, and skills.

Seven protagonists, seven beauties, two from the past, two from the future, one from the future of the past… and most of them adept at instruments of mayhem. Most are not quite female superheroes… but they are super.

And one thing is certain: if you read their stories you’ll never forget these female fantasy names.

1.) Eowyn

Lord of the Rings’ Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien

What’s not to admire? Smart, can swing a sword with the best, and bears an uncanny resemblance to Liv Tyler in the movie version. Oh, and elf ears. This one stays young and beautiful for a long, long time…as long as she stays ahead of the orcs.

2.) Lisbeth Salander

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson

What Eowyn does with a sword, Lisbeth does with a search engine. Nah, doesn’t hack orcs…she hacks into hidden things of people with dark secrets… and passionate. Not a fantasy or science fiction heroine… but she should be. She’s too good to be from a real world…

3.) Ayla

Clan of the Cave Bear, Jean M. Auel

Tough, strong, smart, and beautiful. This one is deadly with a blade or a staff, and responsible for half the early innovations that created the basis for civilized humanity.

4.) Katniss Everdeen

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

The heroine grows in this one. An epitome of the reluctant savior, she wants to run but stays and fights anyway.

5.) Akatiel

Akatiel: Angel in Time, Randolph S, Stewart

Speaking of reluctant, Akatiel goes from victim today to victor millennia ago. Really. Her ancestors ruled the jungles of Central America, she’s bent on conquering the world long before that. And she just might be able to do it.

6.) Star

Glory Road, Robert Heinlein

If anyone created the prototypical modern heroine, swashbuckling femme fatale, and mastered a good old adventure tale to boot, it was Heinlein. Star’s role as Empress of the Twenty Universes almost seems anticlimactic to her part in chasing The Egg down the Glory Road.

7.) Offred

A Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood

Okay, Offred compromises a bit. It simply makes her more human… and we fear for her all the more.

But she rises through it all, and comes through at the end.

And BONUS!, a female antagonist too wonderful to leave off the list: Annie Wilkes

Misery, Stephen King

Again, science fiction or fantasy? Naw. But Annie is deliciously wicked with an insane innocence about her. So wrapped up is she in her own little world, she’s created a universe where logic and compassion are easily discarded. This antagonista makes the grade.


Originally published at randolphsstewart.com.

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