For the record, I didn’t intend for yesterday’s post to be particularly negative! I was hoping for more evidence that there were in fact whole slews of fantasy fiction which centres around more than one female character, and their interactions. Thanks to comments here and on LJ, I have a few more to add to the list:

Thoraiya Dyer reminded me that while big chunks of the Mists of Avalon are about Morgaine-Arthur-Lancelot-Gwenhyfar with the women being the only ones not really having a relationship, Morgaine does have relationships with Viviane and Morgause and basically the whole book is about women talking to each other. Sometimes not even about men. Which is true, and my only excuse for not remembering is that I read it in my teens and the book represents my first ever literary experience with an Arthurian threesome.

[in addition I'd like to shout out to Merlin, which looks on the surface to be a Boys Own show but does have Gwen and Morgana who are, though very very divergent from the traditional versions of said characters, are at least two girls who talk to each other, and this is much better than poor old Marian in Robin Hood who was only allowed to talk to smelly men in armour. I haven't got to see the second season yet but I just read Sarah Rees Brennan's summary about sensible girls and the romantic boys who love them, and sadly it looks like there isn't nearly enough Morgana in season 2...]

This discussion of Mists of Avalon reminded me of The Firebrand, which I think is a magnificent and much better book than MoA (basically does everything Bradley did in MoA but with TROY which is infinitely cooler than the Arthurian cycle imho) which gave me Kassandra and Andromache and Hekuba and Amazons and the wimpiest most annoying Paris ever and is basically awesome and stacked with womenfolk.

Rowan mentioned The Oathbound by Mercedes Lackey, which features two women from widely different backgrounds who become blood sisters, work together in everything and generally appear on the covers together. Mercedes Lackey! I definitely should have remembered her, and it makes me sad that I didn’t read enough of her books in my teens when I think they would have been at their best. I have quite liked her recent fairy tale books especially The Fairy Godmother.

This in turn reminds me that Dragonlance had Laurana *and* Tika *and* Kitiara *and* Goldmoon, though I really don’t remember many scenes in which they worked together, or in which their interactions were in any way emphasised. Mind you I’m starting to wonder if part of this is my memory and not the books themselves, because:

 opheliastorn mentioned the Magic Circle books by Pierce which have a much heavier weighting of female characters than the Alanna books and have the benefit of each series having a different POV. I should have remembered this, in fact I did remember this, but got all distracted thinking about Alanna and her boys.

Rowan also mentioned Keladry from Tamora Pierce’s Protector of the Small and her maid. It does occur to me that it says something about me rather than the books that I have been only remembering the male-female interactions and not the f/f friendships of some books, but in the case of Kel I do at least have the excuse that she has about 8 male friends in that series and only one maid, even if that is an awesome relationship (cough well in the first couple of books, anyway). Likewise, the latest Pierce series has a cool mentor-relationship between the heroine and an older female cop (can remember none of their names), particularly in the latest volume.

Other books cited as having great female relationships were all YA books.  benpayne questioned whether there actually were any books out there in any genre that had good f/f relationships/friendships and also had good inter-gender relationships. I replied that actually I read books that do that all the time – because I’ve been reading mainly YA for the last couple of years and as a matter of course they tend to have multiple female characters as well as showing interaction between girls/women and boys/men. Whether they are fantasy or mainstream books. I think paranormal/urban fantasy does this too (even Anita Blake with her harem of men has female friends). The difference of course is that both genres are perceived to be of greater interest to women, and so having more than one female character isn’t a big deal – it might even be assumed that this was the case.

I have a post about “strong female characters” bubbling under the surface too, but will let it continue to simmer for now. I should add that I don’t think all books need to have multiple female characters, either to be good books or to be feminist/good role modelling type books, but I do think it’s really interesting how little “traditional” fantasy aimed at the adult market is doing this, especially since friendship, teamwork and alliances are such a big and important theme of fantasy fiction.

So as not to end this on a negative note, another work that has come to mind is the ever-magnificent Tam Lin by Pamela Dean. While in no way a traditional fantasy (it intersects with fantasy and faerie tradition thematically, and the faerie aspects are buried in most of the text, happening “off camera”) it is very much a book about, well, sensible girls and the romantic boys who love them, and the focus is very tightly on three central characters and the interactions between those two girls as well as their interactions with the mysterious, trouble-making, problematic and slightly anachronistic but ever-stylish boys they meet at college.

If anyone can come up with more recs for fantasy books that have multiple female characters that work together, I’d love to hear them!

EDIT: I forgot Kylie Chan as a recent Australian publication – her heroine has female friends but also a central relationship in the books is between her heroine and the young girl she looks after. Other suggestions from HarperCollins Voyager & other Australian publishers have included Alma Alexander’s The Secrets of the Jin-Shei, the Geomancer series by Ian Irvine, and some of the books by Glenda Larke.

Thoraiya reminded me of Juliet Marillier’s Wildwood Dancing, which I should have remembered since I was one of the judges who ensured it won an Aurealis Award a few years back! Not only is that a lovely fantasy about sisters, but it is based on the Twelve Dancing Princesses, another fairy tale which, like Snow White and Rose Red, is one of the few positive fairy tale portrayals of sisterhood.

Thoraiya also made a good argument for the portrayal of women in Robert Jordan’s series, especially in a three-wife marriage. I can’t comment on that one, because I don’t remember a thing about any of the characters in the Wheel of Time.

Other titles suggested which focus on groups/at least two women working together include The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner and many books by Charles de Lint.

I’m sure there are more, though I do think the majority of those cited are works which are already busting/defying conventions of the genre, and that portraying women in fantasy as anything other than a lone, extraordinary female, is by no means a standard feature of the genre. All the more reason to read and celebrate the works that do this – and I think the last couple of posts have produced quite a reading list!

Tags: critical thought, fantasy, feminism, marion (zimmer) bradley, mercedes lackey, merlin, pamela dean, reading, tamora pierce, watching