Fantasy girls, where are you?

[Ari54]

By saying she's nothing more than a love interest what you're denoting is that she serves no other purpose in the plot of any of the books other than to be fawned over and rescued when in danger like most female love interests.   Is a character who has her own voice and POV and goes on her own harrowing adventures like a man in a medieval fantasy setting just a love interest?  That's not any love interest I ever read, whether they be man or woman.  That would defeat the whole purpose of them just being a love interest.

Kahlan gets some time to herself to do things that don't involve Richard, true, but she never really develops as a character- her trials are obstacles to her returning to who she was, not changing into someone better. (or for that matter, someone worse- sometimes watching a train wreck is just as fascinating as watching a miracle) Richard has to learn lessons throughout what I've read of the series, even if they're incredibly trite and partisan ones.

Most definitions of a protagonist require that there's some character development going on. In Sword of Truth, Richard is the only one who develops- everyone else gets at best to forsake Jagang's empire and realise that Terry Goodkind's vision of politics is the right one.

She's a main character that happens to also be the love interest for another character, but that's not all she is.  There's a huge difference between being a fully developed character with their own motivations and goals to a simple plot device.  You don't devote roughly half of each of your books to a character if that's all he or she is.

Motivations aren't what make an independent character. Even one-shot side characters like the typical delivery girl/boy can have motivation, goals, and perspectives that are interesting. Goodkind invests a lot of time with Kahlan, but she only gets to grow through Richard, never on her own. As BSG says, her interaction with Richard is either complete devotion or being the archetypical damsel in distress. This is not what people generally mean when they refer to strong women in fantasy, I would have thought.

[mtbikemom]

Here's a statistic that may surprise you. Of the 3,500 people who have fanned Brandon's Facebook page, it's 67% male. That holds across most age ranges, and the biggest demographic—ages 25–34, is 72% male. (The smallest demographics, 45–54 and 55+ are evenly male/female to balance that out.)

This article says toward the end of 2007, Facebook was 2/3 female.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/21/facebook-is-almost-23-women-and-other-stats/
If that is still true, Brandon's readership may be even more skewed toward males than the Facebook fan page indicates.

This is a surprise to me. I expected the ratio to be much more even. Now, it has to be understood that the vast majority of Brandon's fans on Facebook are Wheel of Time fans—but that is another fandom that I expected to be more evenly split.

   That does not surprise me because Brandon's Mistborn magic system is so male-flavored.  Very mechanical/scientific/logical rather than simply emotional/psychological/ethereal which is the norm for a lot of fantasy, especially female-authored.  My 21-year-old son just devoured all of Mistborn, starting with my signed copy from the Half Moon Bay tour stop.  He liked the precision and sensibility of the rules that Brandon employed.  You know, he's the kind of kid who liked algebra and hated geometry.     

   Most girls tend to enjoy the spacial (geometric) rather than the linear (algebraic) type of make-believe, I think, but I am not one of them.  I like it all as long as it rings true and keeps me entertained and guessing and isn't disgusting.  I don't pay much attention to the mechanics of magic systems.  It's about characters and their interactions and growth.   In other words, Brandon has something for everyone, which is what makes him so universally appealing. 

   One more recommendation, since I am on a J.V. Jones jag.  A Cavern of Black Ice has a strong female lead, though she starts out a bit weak and is kind of waif-like for much of this book, so I didn't think of her right off.  She shows signs of great inner strength and future awesomeness, though, so I would call her potentially strong.  She does kick some male-bully butt at one point in a very satisfying fashion.  This book is gritty but never disgusting, IMHO.

[KhyEllie]

   Most girls tend to enjoy the spacial (geometric) rather than the linear (algebraic) type of make-believe, I think, but I am not one of them.  I like it all as long as it rings true and keeps me entertained and guessing and isn't disgusting.  I don't pay much attention to the mechanics of magic systems.  It's about characters and their interactions and growth.   In other words, Brandon has something for everyone, which is what makes him so universally appealing. 

I defiantly prefer geometry to algebra, but I'm the only person I know who does. Contrarily I am very intrigued by the logical side on Brandon's magic systems, and since Mistborn makes the most 'sense' I would say it's my favorite. I certainly agree with your statement on books needing to keep you entertained and guessing without being disgusting, and good character development is essential to any story. I think that what makes Brandon so good for everyone is more the fact that he doesn't try to side on issues, and keeps the male/female characters fairly even(there are more men than women, but the women are pretty important most of the time). It's almost like he's trying to stay on neutral ground so that anyone can read and relate it to their view of the world.

[Adrienne]

Starlight and Shadows     with Liriel Baenre
      I. Daughter of the Drow
      II. Tangled Webs
      III. Windwalker

[DiesIrae]

If you don't mind Sci-Fi, in the Foundation Series, by Isaac Asimov, the main heroine is female.

[DeathBite]

I'm not sure if anyones already said these but...

Green Rider series - Kristen Britain
The Black Magician Trilogy - Trudy Canavan

..And my minds gone blank, can't think of the others! But I found those two amazing. Also Vin I have to say wins the award for best female protagonist.
Me being a female myself I'm always disappointed with how women in book are usually portrayed as the cliche 'damsel in distress'.

[mtbikemom]

I retract my J.V. Jones recommendation.  The first book was great, but the next two were disappointing-to-awful.  The female protagonist's story line goes nowhere and, though the Elitist Boys say that book four is good, I don't think I'm going back for more. 

I just re-read Carol Berg's Bridge of D'Arnath series and was much more entertained.  Her pacing is not the best, especially in the middle two books, but her writing is so very, very good and her female characters are really strong and interesting. 

[Unicorn]

Any more recommendations?

I've stumbled upon this thread shortly after I started reading the first Mistborn novel. Every fantasy and sci-fi book I've read previously has had male leads, and it was a very welcome and refreshing feeling to be reading a novel where the protagonist is female.

Thanks to recommendations in this thread, I have read Warbreaker (which I loved), Elantris (which I found OK, but still excellent, considering it was Brandon's debut novel) and Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts' Empire trilogy (which I found fantastic, considering how little actual magic and how much politics and intrigue that series involves).

I still have a number of books recommended in this thread to chew through, but I thought I'd bump the thread to the top anyway and see if someone recommends something new or perhaps gives opinion on books mentioned previously.

[Kierlionn]

Honestly I read like half the first page, but for female leads I would say the "Incarnations of Immortality" series by Peirs Anthony. Like you can tell from the title, they are about the persona of characters like Death, Time, Earth, War, and such. For about every male lead there is an equally strong and important female lead.

[Nessa]

Any more recommendations?

I still have a number of books recommended in this thread to chew through, but I thought I'd bump the thread to the top anyway and see if someone recommends something new or perhaps gives opinion on books mentioned previously.

Without bothering to re-read this thread I'll give my own suggestions.

Sunshine by Robin McKinley
Patricia Briggs' Mercedes Thompson series
Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold
A Vision of Light by Judith Merkle Riley
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Drangonsbane by Barbara Hambly
Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher (while Kitara is not the main character, she plays an important role and she's freaking awesome, and there are two other important main female characters)
The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale or A Book of a Thousand Days (YA)
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (YA)
Witch World by Andre Norton (old fashioned writing, and not my favorite, but fits your requirements for strong female roles, so you might like it)
Dracula (Mina is just awesome)
Dies the Fire by SM Stirling
Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (sorry I know it's sci fi, but Cordelia is too awesome to ignore just because it's not fantasy!)

[Unicorn]

Thanks for the recommendations!

I have nothing against sci-fi, it just seems to me that the sci-fi genre tends to have a lot fewer female characters than fantasy. Speaking of Lois McMaster Bujold, I already have the Chalion in my reading list, but as per your suggestions I'll be adding Cordelia's Honor to it as well.

I'm also considering reading the Honorverse series by David Weber. It was recommended to me by a colleague when I mentioned that I've started leaning towards books with female leads after reading Mistborn

[guessingo]

Any more recommendations?

I still have a number of books recommended in this thread to chew through, but I thought I'd bump the thread to the top anyway and see if someone recommends something new or perhaps gives opinion on books mentioned previously.

Without bothering to re-read this thread I'll give my own suggestions.

Sunshine by Robin McKinley
Patricia Briggs' Mercedes Thompson series
Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold
A Vision of Light by Judith Merkle Riley
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Drangonsbane by Barbara Hambly
Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher (while Kitara is not the main character, she plays an important role and she's freaking awesome, and there are two other important main female characters)
The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale or A Book of a Thousand Days (YA)
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (YA)
Witch World by Andre Norton (old fashioned writing, and not my favorite, but fits your requirements for strong female roles, so you might like it)
Dracula (Mina is just awesome)
Dies the Fire by SM Stirling
Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (sorry I know it's sci fi, but Cordelia is too awesome to ignore just because it's not fantasy!)

DoomsDay Book is a TERRIFIC NOVEL if you are intersted in the middle ages. She uses a female historian from modern times to go back in time so you see a contract of modern times to middle ages. It is a neat little story. If you are not interested in this, you may get bored. It is kind of depressing since she goes back during the Black Plague.

Outlander is a very good book, but VERY sexually explicit. Many people on here will not like it. The book is strongly geared to women. It has a male lead who according to reviews on amazon women love. I liked the research she did and tthe history more than the romance (then again I am a guy).
SM Stirling has strong female characters in his other books as well.

[mtbikemom]

Please forgive me for ranting here.  I am two thirds of the way through The Way of Kings and I am only just starting to like it.  Is it just me?  I dare not read other threads until I finish it.  My main complaint in the first third was: Where are the girls???  Not that I don't enjoy the well-done testosterone-laden war epic, but Brandon has me spoiled for female leads and usually a better balance in the estrogen dep't.  It's starting to grow on me, but I hope the pacing improves for the rest of the story.

[Munin]

Please forgive me for ranting here.  I am two thirds of the way through The Way of Kings and I am only just starting to like it.  Is it just me?  I dare not read other threads until I finish it.  My main complaint in the first third was: Where are the girls???  Not that I don't enjoy the well-done testosterone-laden war epic, but Brandon has me spoiled for female leads and usually a better balance in the estrogen dep't.  It's starting to grow on me, but I hope the pacing improves for the rest of the story.

Shallan? Navani? Jasnah?

[mtbikemom]

Shallan? Navani? Jasnah?

   These female characters are strong and wonderful, but there's just not enough of them in the first two-thirds, IMHO.  Just read pp. 594-598 and that was some awesome dialogue.  Brandon sure writes those scenes well.  If the rest of the book follows the promise of this chapter, it will have been worth all the ho-hum.