Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today, the topic is Favorite Book Heroines.
It was hard to choose just ten but here goes:
1, Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan by Lois McMaster Bujold
We get only three books from Cordelia’s POV but she’s a significant secondary character in the rest of the Vorkosigan series. When we first meet her, she’s an exploration starship captain, in charge of a group of scientists. She’s practical and level-headed, as you might expect. Later, when she’s getting used to quite a different culture, she uses her scientific mind to make it easier. The first book: Shards of Honor, now available in the omnibus Cordelia’s Honor.
2, the Boss by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
We never get to know the Boss’s real name. She explores very old spaceships. She prefers to work alone but during the first book (Diving into the Wreck) she realizes that she needs a team.
3, Irene Winters by Genevive Cogman
Irene is a Librarian in the Library that exists between alternate worlds. Her mission is to save books from various worlds. To do that, she often has to use cover identities and get into places where she shouldn’t be. While she can fight, more often she uses her wits to get out of dangerous situations. The first book: the Invisible Library.
4, Thursday Next by Jasper Fforde
Another quick-thinking heroine, Thursday is a literary detective; she goes into books.
The first book: the Eyre Affair
5, October “Toby” Daye by Seanan McGuire
Toby is a half-human, half-faerie woman; her father was a human and her mother is a Daoine Sidhe. In the mortal world, she’s a private investigator and in the faerie world, she’s a Knight in her own right which is almost unheard of for a half-blood. At the beginning of the first book, Toby loses her husband and daughter. After that, she’s a loner. Or tries to be; during the series, she gathers a quirky group of friends around her.
The first book: Rosemary and Rue
6, Amelia Peabody Emerson by Elizabeth Peters
Amelia is a very opinionated woman living in Victorian times. She loves Egyptology and Egypt. No wonder then, that she married Radcliffe Emerson who is an Egyptologist. Being a woman, she can only be an amateur Egyptologist. She and her husband solve murders while excavating.
7, Modesty Blaise by Peter O’Donnell
In contrast to the other heroines on this list, Modesty doesn’t age or change. She’s a master martial artist and a crack shot. She used to lead a criminal organization, the Network but is now retired. She sometimes works for MI7 but sometimes trouble just finds her and her right-hand man Willie Garvin.
The first book: Modesty Blaise
8, Phryne Fisher by Kerry Greenwood
Another independent and outrageous woman, the Phryne Fisher books are set in 1920s Australia. She’s currently independently wealthy and the first female detective in Melbourne. However, she was poor for a long time so she knows what it’s like and she tries to help poor people, especially women.
The first book: Cocaine Blues
9, Sethra Lavode by Steven Brust
Sethra is the Enchantress of the Dzur Mountain, a very long-lived Dragaeran, and also a vampire. She’s the oldest character in her world. She’s also the most powerful wizard and best military general. However, she had a side that the vast majority of people don’t know about.
10, Colonel Turyin Mulaghesh by Robert Jackson Bennett
In the second book in the Divine Cities fantasy series (City of Blades), Mulaghesh has retired from her governor’s post. However, the prime minister send her to the distant city of Voortyashtan to find out what happened to the PM’s previous spy. Mulaghesh is tortured by her past and must confront it in Voortyashtan. She’s a career soldier and over fifty.
She’s a minor character in the first book, City of Stairs, and the main character in the second book.
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