swordswomen?

Hi -- I'm working on a new bibliography in the FSFwiki about swordswomen.

I know there's lots out there, but i'm drawing a bit of a blank for myself right now. Suggestions of book titles & character names?

If you post 'em here I'll add them to the wiki, or, feel free to add them to the wiki yourself.

The Sword and Sorceress series of anthologies, edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley, has oodles of them :) Way too many to count.

Mercedes Lackey had a few, but I don't remember which books.

The woman in The Blue Sword is Harry aka Harimad (and there is a minor swordswoman character named Senay). Also, Aerin from The Hero and the Crown. They're both by Robin McKinley.

Alanna from The Song of the Lioness quartet and Keladry from Protector of the Small series (both by Tamora Pierce).

Cimorene from the Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Dealing With Dragons etc) by Patricia C. Wrede.

Jirel of Joiry by C. L. Moore

Jessica Amanda Salmonson - Amazons etc., actually you should probably look at her website, etc., she would be your preeminent expert I would think as far as fantasy goes and could likely help you out with questions.

Robert E. Howard's Dark Agnes and Sonya of Rogatino - Sword woman and Shadow of the Vulture, and of course descending from Sonya is Red Sonja.

Swordspoint - Ellen Kushner

Sethra Lavode et. al. that series by Steven Brust (several here)

Chicks In Chainmail etc. by Esther Friesner

The Adventures of Alyx by Joanna Russ

Hawk Queen by David Gemmell (and others in series)

Jalav etc. by Sharon Green

Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson by George Alec Effinger.

Hah! Was just going back to add that one. :)

bluetyson,

As soon as I saw the topic, I thought "That's swordsperson." :-)

there's lots of swordspeople. :-)

thanks - this is awesome. i'll add them tomorrow (unless y'all have already done so)

laura

One more I thought of :

Sasha by Joel Shepherd. This one is only a few months old, I haven't read it, but review seems to say what you are after, and if you look at the cover on his website, one military garbed woman with large blade.

:)

Paladin by CJ CHerryh ?

or even The Morgaine Saga by her. Morgainne does wield a sword...

Eowyn, shield-maiden of Rohan. (LOTR)

Well, if you wanna go that far. Wonder Woman, Kingdom Come Elliot S. Maggin.

If you want to give Ms. Birnbaum a friend, Makri, from the Thraxas series.

Valeria of the Red Brotherhood, from Red Nails.

Oh yeah, a whole series about a swordswoman I completely forgot :-

Rogue Angel by Alex Archer, bunches of these so far.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer of course, is happy to use many weapons, swords included.

In A Taste For Death by Peter O'Donnell Modesty Blaise is involved in a fencing match for their lives - one of the major parts of this book compared to the others, the sword thing.

Elektra by Yvonne Navarro another obvious one I suppose, being a ninja assassin and all, basically.

Come to think of it, a bunch of them in L. E. Modessit's Recluce series - the matriarchal Westwind society is full of them, but there are others, one military leader comes to mind, but forget her actual name.

A few in the Deathstalker series by Simon R. Green carving up plenty, Hazel D'Ark and others.

As well as Steven Brust's musketeer satire mentioned before in the Viscount of Adrilankha series which will obviously have lots of swords - some of them wielded by female experts, his Vlad Taltos series has swordswinging dragonlord women (Aliera et. al) and other characters that appear in the one already mentioned.

Point of Honour and the sequel by Madeleine E. Robins feature a semi-alternate history Regency era swordswoman ...

ASH: A Secret History by Mary Gentle - an alternate history about a medieval mercenary commander.

Also published in 4 parts: A Secret History: The book of Ash, Carthage Ascendant, The Wild Machines, Lost Burgundy

And I see book 1 has been folded into the complete volume again, time to go do some uncombining...

Also Jo Walton's King's Name and King's Peace - an alternate world Aurthurian style fantasy from the point of view of a female knight.

Jaran and sequels by Kate Elliott, science fiction but the heroine ends up riding with the men of a vaguely Russian steppe like nomadic people and wielding a sabre.

Lorimal's Chalice and sequels by Jane Fletcher

The Xena tie in novelizations and short story books.

Tags to explore for more - female warrior, swordswoman, women warriors,

And less selective - strong heroine, powerful women, strong women

Also here is a useful mashup:
http://www.librarything.com/tag/female+protagonist,sword+and+sorcery

The "Isles of Glory" trilogy by Glenda Larke, including The Aware, Gilfeather, and The Tainted. The first book focuses the most on the main character/swordswoman.

Geez, I hope I'm remembering correctly that it's a sword she uses, as opposed to some other weapon. But I think it is!

(definitely should have thought of Xena)

The Red Sonja novel series, as opposed to comics :-

Red Sonja : 1 The Ring of Ikribu - David C. Smith and Richard L. Tierney
Red Sonja : 2 Demon Night - David C. Smith and Richard L. Tierney
Red Sonja : 3 When Hell Laughs - David C. Smith and Richard L. Tierney
Red Sonja : 4 Endithor's Daughter - David C. Smith and Richard L. Tierney
Red Sonja : 5 Against the Prince of Hell - David C. Smith and Richard L. Tierney
Red Sonja : 6 Star of Doom - David C. Smith and Richard L. Tierney

Corsen from Silverglass by J.F Rivkin

The covers of the books are definitely old fashioned and aimed at men, but the stories and characters are fun.

The Sword-Dancer series by Jennifer Roberson has a swordswoman in it, Del. She comes in later in the first book, but quickly becomes one of the main characters.