So without further ado, here is my list of top five kick-ass heroines in Australian fantasy. (Note that there will be, obviously, SPOILERS).
To prove that I'm not completely dissing Sara Douglas, Azhure gets a place on this list, but it's a well deserved one. She started out as the much-abused daughter of a villager, who rescues a Forbidden girl from being burned alive. One of her first acts is to trick a soldier into opening the door and hit him over the head with a rock. From thereon, she only gets more awesome, escaping to the Forbidden people and becoming a warrior of renown.
She's dirty fighter, not afraid to fool her enemies with decidedly gruesome tricks, and if you get on her bad side, she will set her hounds on you. Yes, she's wrapped up in a love triangle with the male lead, but she doesn't angst or whine about it. She even ends up as friends with the other woman without any resentment or jealousy, which is nice to see.
Azhure is proof that all you need to escape a bad situation is to keep your head and take the opportunity for escape when you see it. Though an affinity for violence and a well-sharpened knife helps.
2. Princess Rhian from the Godspeaker Trilogy
This is one I haven't reviewed yet, but it is a great series. Rhian is the sole daughter of a dying king and since only men can inherit the throne, Rhian is under a bit of pressure to marry and provide Ethrea with a king.
Rhian, however, is no wilting flower. She tells her dukes where they can stick their ideas and runs away to marry a man of her choosing: ie. someone who will be happy with the title 'Prince Consort' and keep his grubby mitts off her throne. Along the way she meets a bad-ass warrior who teaches her the dance of the knives, which is exactly as violent as it sounds, and ends up leading her people against a savage invading army.
Rhian is smart, practical and politically savvy. She might not have wanted the throne, but dammit, it's hers and she's going to fight for it. She's like Queen Elizabeth, if Elizabeth was a ninja with a sword and challenged rebellious dukes to single combat.
This is another trilogy I haven't reviewed yet. Ligea is the adopted daughter of an aristocrat, who is sent to infiltrate rebellion in the land of her birth. She is underhanded, sneaky and not afraid to bribe or blackmail people into doing her bidding.
Unlike the others in this list, she's not a warrior, but she doesn't need to be. She can get on just fine without it, and when push comes to shove, she's not afraid to punch you in the throat and stop your heart. She also has some cool psyhic powers and a sword that answers only to her.
While Rhian and Azhure make some pretty amazing spectacle, I'd probably be more wary of Ligea because she's the one you'd never see coming. You'd wake up on the other side of death, wondering what the hell just happened. Appropriate for the heroine of a trilogy with 'Mirage' in the title.
4. Kassa Daggersharp from the Splashdance Silver
I've already mentioned before how much I love Kassa. She lives in the lovably ridiculous world of Mocklore where only the genre savvy survive. She's the daughter of a Pirate King, who has magic singing voice, a ghost-ship and a very niche sense of style.
Technically you could say Kassa isn't really a hero. Most of her time is spent finding treasure, dodging death, and fighting with her crew about who's going to do the washing up. She's also caused at least two large scale magical disasters and attempted to kill the Empress, so you can kind of understand why there are so many warrants for her arrest.
But the hell with it. Kassa might be selfish, manipulative and throw epic tantrums, but she does try to fix her mistakes. And the Empress was elected through some really dodgy government practices, so you could argue she didn't legally hold the office anyway.
Yes, these are teen fiction. No, I'm not going to apologise. Because Sabriel is awesome. She doesn't have the bad-ass skills of Katniss Everdeen, but she fights zombies and can cross over into the afterlife, literally bringing you back from the dead.
She's smart, driven, and honorable about her duties. If you're in trouble - even if it's not part of her given quest at the moment - she will take the time to help you. And if you are centuries old undead looking to bend all magic to your will, watch out. She will lure you into a magic-less realm and stuff you into the body of a cat, where you can spend the rest of your days dreaming of tuna.
Put it like this; if I was part of an oppressed people where my only hope was a hidden magical aristocracy, I'd want Ligea or Azhure on my side. If I was looking at invasion by a brutal army running on human sacrifice, I'd want Rhian. If I wanted to avoid a large scale magical disaster I'd probably... not want Kassa anywhere near the thing.
But if I lived in a world where the vicious undead roamed and wanted to chew my face off, I'd pray really hard that there was a Sabriel there to come save me. And you know what? She'd probably show up and do it.
No comments:
Post a Comment