For previous posts and future FFF topics check out my Friday Favorite Five page here.
Favorite Five Female Protagonists
Oh, why did I pick this topic? It’s so tough because there are so many wonderful characters to choose from. I’m going to try to stay within the realms of speculative fiction here (otherwise my list would probably be dominated by Jane Austen characters).
- Sophie Hatter from Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones.
Sophie is such a great character. She’s a great combination of bold and vulnerable. I love how she doesn’t just take Howl’s crap and gives as good as she gets. She’s resourceful and does the best she can when thrown into a really crappy situation. A lot of people would have given up under her circumstances. But Sophie persisted.
- Phedre no Delaunay from Kushiel’s Dart by Jaqueline Carey
Honestly, Phedre can be kind of a hard character to love. She’s the narrator of her own tale and you have to sometimes question the validity of some of her statements. She’s more than a bit arrogant concerning her D’Angeline heritage at times and tends to solve problems with sex. That being said, she’s very smart and does a great job of putting her education to use. And she doesn’t only solve problems with sex–she’s actually great at solving problems in other ways too because she thinks outside of the box. She’s stubborn, but she’s also resourceful. And she’s loyal to a fault.
- Margaret of Ashbury from A Vision of Light by Judith Merkle Riley
Judith Merkle Riley is one of my favorite authors of all time and I’ve written about her books and characters before. She wrote such great female protagonists! Margaret of Ashbury is a medieval woman with some modern sensibilities. She’s always questioning why the world is the way it is. Why can women do some things and not others? Why are there so many hypocrisies? She just wants to live a simple life, but she always seems to get swept up in adventures. She’s kind and caring, but not above pointing out life’s absurdities.
- Sabriel from Sabriel by Garth Nix
Ah, it’s been a while since I’ve read this one, but I remember immediately falling in love with Sabriel. She’s such a great character, finding her way through this adventure that’s been thrust upon her. She’s having to navigate a world that’s almost unknown to her, even though it’s her homeland. She’s having to discover her heritage and figure out who she is in such a short time here. She’s a very responsible person and does what needs doing. Also, who doesn’t love a necromancer? 😀
- Sybel from The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld is such a lovely book. I talked a bit about it in my ‘Favorite Reads of 2017‘ post a while back. Sybel is an interesting character. At first she’s a loner and she’s happy that way, living in isolation with the magical beasts of the mountain. She can be a little prickly and she has trust issues. When her life is upended, by her having to raise a child left with her, she starts to open up more. Even so, it still takes her a long time to come to feel comfortable around strangers, learn to make friends, learn to trust people and form relationships with them. This book is all about Sybel and her growth as a character over the course of the story.
Those are my picks! Again, this one was really tough. I could have easily picked twenty or thirty characters for this one, so it was hard to narrow down. Do you have any favorite female protagonists? Leave a note in the comments or feel free to link up with your own post, I’d love to hear from you!
Way Too Fantasy 
Five is just not enough for this one is it! I could think of a few immediately, Toby Daye, Mercy Thompson, Copper Cat, Arya, Daenerys, Hermione, Princess Leia, Buffy – wow, how to narrow it down.I think I’d have to go Toby, Mercy, Copper Cat, Arya, Buffy.
Lynn 😀
I love Buffy and Mercy too, great list. It really is tough to narrow down!
Agree with Lynn, 5 isn’t enough! Kettricken from the Fitz books, Vanessa Ives from Penny Dreadful, Alanna from Songs of the Lioness, and on and on… Sabriel too! I adored her when I was in middle school and one of my fave cosplayers cosplayed her recently so that was a nice surprise 😀 (https://twitter.com/Aicosplays/status/1042509910699728896)
Kettricken is such an interesting character! Wow, that cosplay is amazing. O.O
IKR?!!!
oh I’m a sucker for wonderful female characters. I’ll have to check these books out! 🙂 thank for sharing this list 🙂
You’re welcome!
This would be so hard to narrow down to five! I can think of five just from books I read in the last two months!
Right?!? I don’t know why I chose this topic lol.
If you filled your list up with Jane Austen Characters then I would have agreed with every one!! Elizabeth Bennet is my favorite ❤ ❤ I haven't read any of the books you chose but now I really want to!
Hah! I could have easily filled this with Austen. 🙂
With the exception of A Vision of Light, all of these are books on my TBR. I’m really interested in trying them and have never before read anything by the authors. This is the first I’m hearing of A Vision of Light.
It’s mostly historical fiction I guess but all of her books have supernatural/fantastic elements so they’re really speculative fiction anyway. I am not sure how widely read the Riley books are but I’m a huge fan.
I read Howl’s Moving Castle after falling in love with Miyazaki’s movie version, but I can’t say that I remember much about it. Maybe I’ll have to reread it so that I can reacquaint myself who Sophie.
What? I’ve read none of these! I really want to read Kushiel’s Dart,, and have a copy, but I think the length keeps putting me off (for a backlist book). I also have a copy of Sabriel somewhere, but haven’t read that either
I totally get it about the length. Once you get past the first…25% or so the pace is pretty relentless so it goes by fast, if that makes sense.
I love those Nix books. I recently finished the main series on audio an they’re narrated by Tim Curry. 😍