Currently reading a book with an action heroine?

[E.G.]

Reading Magic Resistant as part of a group read for another group. I like the heroine, but the narrative's dragging a bit -- it could be me, I'm dragging a bit at the moment. ;)

[Mike (the Paladin)]

I just finished The Red Sword which has a couple of female leads.

[Werner]

Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "I just finished The Red Sword which has a couple of female leads."

I've just added it to our bookshelves, Mike!

[Mike (the Paladin)]

I picked up the second but I have some other books I want to finish before I get to it. This one surprised me with a twist.

[Werner]

Not all of the review copies in my current queue feature action heroines, but the one presently up i(the opener for a projected series) does. Ro's Handle, by our fellow group member Dave Lager, is about a 21-year-old female target-shooting champion who becomes a rookie sheriff's deputy. It's newly published by World Castle Publishing (which also publishes my novel, though that's just a coincidence!), and it's of particular interest to me because it's set in the part of Iowa where I grew up.

[Werner]

I've gotten around at last, starting this weekend, to reading the stand-alone action thriller South by a member of our group, my Goodreads friend Lance Charnes, which has sat around in one of my mountainous TBR piles for far too long. (It's a book I purchased, not a review copy.) Although the main character is male, the main female character is an FBI agent who happens to be a Moslem. (Lance's novel Doha 12 also features nuanced and sometimes sympathetic Moslem characters, which I consider a positive feature.)

[Lance]

Werner wrote: "Although the main character is male, the main female character is an FBI agent who happens to be a Moslem..."

She has her kick-ass side, too, as things move along. Don't mess with Nora.

Hope you like it!

[Werner]

She impressed me as a lady who's quite capable of kicking some serious fanny, if the need arises. :-) I'm liking it so far!

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Just finished Gunslinger Girl . Not the best I've ever read but pretty good. I think I'll go all the way to 4 stars on it.

[Werner]

Mike, I've read (and officially liked!) your review of this one just now. I'd actually seen this book advertised on Goodreads yesterday morning (there's a giveaway going on, through Jan. 23, for the paperback edition), and naturally it caught my eye. :-) But I read a couple of really negative reviews, which were off-putting. (I got the impression that there's a lot of hateful stereotyping of people of faith, which is a trope that I'm sensitive to, the same as invidious racial or gender stereotypes. But maybe your reading didn't create the same impression?)

[Mike (the Paladin)]

It is somewhat implied. The protagonist flees the settlement where her father was about to sell her as a fertile wife to another settlement (no spoiler it's how the book opens). The book implies that the settlements are based on a "restrictive religion". Later it seems there may be a variety of "religious" groups. It hits me more like the history of what led to things "as they are". We get a few referential statements but no complete background.

Bottom line I'd say see what you think. Christians do sort of "take it in the teeth" in a lot of post apoc. type books as the writers are possibly buying into the worst stereotypes. I wondered if this one was going to go that way but I think the subject is still open...

Well...I don't seem to able to say anything in a few words do I? LOL I'd say (again) just see what you think.

[Werner]

Mike wrote: "Well...I don't seem to able to say anything in a few words do I? LOL" No problem, Mike, I appreciate a detailed answer to a question. And some people have implied that my own comments and reviews are a bit wordy too (I can't imagine why....).

At the age of 65, and with 404 books on my to-read shelf (I tried to hold the Maginot Line at 400, but it fell recently), common sense tells me that I need to enter any more giveaways for books by untried authors about like a fish needs a bicycle. So for once, I'll listen to that still, small voice and behave myself. :-) (Sigh!)

[Mike (the Paladin)]

I've given up. I recently had to start reducing the size of my own library. When we moved to this smaller place I had to let many go and now I've had to admit that as far as books go my daughter may be right in saying I'm approaching hoarder status. Several of my book cases are double and even triple loaded...

I have 741 on my To Be Read list and that's with trying to add fewer books..

I asked God about letting me stay around and healthy until I finished the list but since I keep adding to the list that may be considered an unfair request, Oh well. Guess we'll just do the best we can.

:)

[Werner]

I hear you, Mike! (Barb and I are planning a move across town, to a smaller house closer to my work, later this year, so we're looking at the prospect of downsizing some things --probably including our book collections-- as well.)

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Yes, when my wife passed my daughter and I moved from a house to a small duplex.

[Werner]

Our move will be from a two story house to a one-story, but will still involve adjusting to less space.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Get that.

[Georgann]

Werner wrote: "Mike wrote: "Well...I don't seem to able to say anything in a few words do I? LOL" No problem, Mike, I appreciate a detailed answer to a question. And some people have implied that my own comments ..."
I need a "like" button for this conversation, Werner and Mike! Too cute and I fully agree!

[Werner]

Thanks, Georgann! :-)

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Cute? Nooo we're both too manly to be cute...

:)

[E.G.]

Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "Cute? Nooo we're both too manly to be cute...

:)"

I'm enjoying it, too. But cute? Never. ;)

[Georgann]

I just finished Prophet by RJ Larson. It is a retelling of Old Testament Elijah as a 17 year old girl. She is very brave! Imperfect but faithfully stepping out in faith.

[Mervi]

I'm almost finished with Flotsam and the main character (and the only POV character) Talis qualifies as an action heroine. She's the captain of an airship and can use fists, swords, and guns to defend herself and her crew. The book is a delightful mix of steampunk and science fiction, with both steampowered airships and aliens from another planet. I got an ARC from the publisher.

[Werner]

For quite awhile, I've wanted to read The Weeping Empress, by our own Sadie Forsythe, which I understand features an action heroine as protagonist. I finally started reading this debut fantasy novel today. (Though Sadie and I are Goodreads friends, this book isn't a free review copy, and she's never pressured me to read it. I bought a copy a few years ago, because I think indie authors need to be supported by the reading community.)

[Werner]

Although I took the opportunity, awhile back, to download the opening novel of Josie Brown's Housewife Assassin series The Housewife Assassin's Handbook to my Kindle app, to try it out for free and see if it was worth buying a paper copy, I hadn't originally intended to start on it very soon. But I'm not reading anything else in electronic format right now, so I broke down and started it last night. I'm already hooked, so now I'm sucked into another long series. (Sigh!) Despite her assassin status, Brown's protagonist is an action heroine, not a villainess: she contracts her services strictly to the CIA, and only dispatches very malevolent and dangerous bad guys. (And she has a plausible backstory for her introduction to this line of work.)

[Mervi]

I've just finished D. N. Erikson's Bone Realm which is a collection of novellas and short stories for the Ruby Callaway urban fantasy series. I got it for free during a promotion and I don't think the links in GoodReads actually work). Ruby is definitely an action-oriented woman who uses her shotgun and other weapons quite expertly against all sorts of supernatural enemies such as vampires, werewolves, or the fae. She's a bounty-hunter. Oh and she curses a lot.

Josie Brown's book seems very interesting, Werner. I also downloaded that first book to try it. But first I'm going to read the Policewoman.

[E.G.]

Starting the latest Mercy Thompson -- I love this series.

[Werner]

Mervi wrote: "Josie Brown's book seems very interesting, Werner. I also downloaded that first book to try it. But first I'm going to read the Policewoman."

Well, my take on Brown's book, now that I've finished it, wasn't as positive as I expected it would be. My two-star review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

I hope you like The Policewoman. Like most books, it has its strong and its weaker points. But it earned five stars from me overall, because I found it to be extremely powerful in terms of its emotional impact. (It does have language, sexual content, and graphic violence issues, which I note in my review.)

[Werner]

I've begun reading my review copy of Tabla Rosa, the debut novel by our own fellow group member, D. E. Heil. (My guess is that the title is a take-off on the Latin phrase tabula rasa, meaning "blank slate;" but I don't know what the significance is here.) This one will probably prove to be a fairly quick read.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

I just finished Miss Melville Regrets, humorous and well written. I've ordered the sequel.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

By the way I think Tabla Rosa is usually taken to mean a sort of unformed original state, as an open mind before being shaped and formed by life.

[Werner]

Yes, Mike, that's one common use of the phrase tabula rasa. For instance, if memory serves, I think I recall reading (in a secondary source) that John Locke describes the human mind as a tabula rasa at birth.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Yes, I think that may be the basis of the definition I had.

[Mervi]

I'm currently reading Serpent's Sacrifice which is a superhero book set in the 1960s. It's Alice's origin story as the superhero Serpent. So far, she doesn't have any actual superpowers but she's trained in martial arts and is able to take down three thugs at the same time.

So far I've quite enjoyed it.

[Werner]

I've just discovered that I failed to mention earlier, on this thread, that the book my wife and I finished reading as our "car book," just before we started the one we're on now, turned out to e an action heroine read. That one was The Sheriff's Surrender, the first book of Susan Page Davis' Ladies Shooting Club trilogy, set in 1880s Idaho. (We're currently reading the second book, The Gunsmith's Gallantry.)

[Marc]

I just finished reading Terminal Alliance, the first book in the Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse series. A very enjoyable first book, similar to a lot of Tanya Huff's best work. As a big fan of Huff's work I'm going to be following this guy as well.
The story follows Marion Adamopolous, aka Mops, the leader of a the Janitorial crew on a spaceship. Like most humans she was rescued from a feral state by aliens, who are working to cure the virus that made them that way. After a rescue of a cargo vessel from pirates, the virus strikes again, making all the humans on the ship feral except for Mops and her crew. She and her janitors have to survive their own feral crewmates and track down the people who attacked them for a cure, all while being attacked as traitors by their own side.
I also read Hines' books Libriomancer and Codex Born, which feature a warrior-dryad named Lena Greenwood. She is the lover and primary defender of a libriomancer who's out to do the right thing, with everyone on both sides trying to stop him. There are two more books in the series that I'll have to get a hold of soon.

[Marc]

Prior to discovering Hines I discovered the Parasol Protectorate series, 5 books about a woman born without a soul, called a preternatural. They are the natural enemies of those with too much soul, called supernaturals, such as ghosts, vampires, and werewolves. Very comic, very romantic, as Soulless Alexia fights off scientists who want to use her to destroy the supernaturals, and supernaturals who just want to destroy her. It's a good series, but it feels like the author was sort of making it up as she went along, as the story took a lot of odd turns. Alexia's soulless state makes her the perfect Outsider, with lots of occasionally-caustic comments about the foibles of Victorian society.

[Mervi]

I've heard about Parasol Protecorate but I haven't tried it because I'm not a romance reader. Sounds like a fun series, though.

I just finished Star Wars: Princess Leia. It's a very typical tie-in comic: action-packed but no character development. I enjoyed reading about Leia on her own. It's set right after A New Hope.

I enjoyed Serpent's Rise which was a sequel to the superhero story Serpent's Sacrifice. The main character is still Alice who is leading a Bruce Wayne or Zorro type double life as a high-society heiress and a superhero. It was grimmer than the first book in tone.

Currently, I'm reading the third book in the series, Shadow Dreams which focuses on another (male) superhero Marco, who has actual superpowers. However, the other POV character is Colleen Knight, a new character who is the daughter of a mafioso and has fire-based powers. I think co-lead is acceptable to count in the action heroine challenge?
The third book is also grimmer in tone than the first one. It's also set in 1960s US.

Next up is Wonder Woman Earth one, vol. one. I'm not sure what to expect, really. Poor Diana has been retconned and rebooted so many times.

[Mervi]

Marc wrote: "I just finished reading Terminal Alliance, the first book in the Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse series. A very enjoyable first book, similar to a lot of Tanya Huff's best work."

Thanks, good to know that his newest book is good, too! I've enjoyed Hines' Princess books (first one is The Stepsister Scheme) and the Libriomancer series. Lena is indeed a great character!

[Werner]

Mervi wrote: "I think co-lead is acceptable to count in the action heroine challenge?"

Yes, Mervi, a female co-lead is absolutely acceptable for that challenge (and for our group's bookshelves, etc.)!

[Mervi]

Thanks, Werner. I've added the series.

[Werner]

Mervi wrote: "Thanks, Werner. I've added the series."

Great! You're coming along nicely on the challenge --better than any of the rest of us.

[Mervi]

Wonder Woman Earth one was a real disappointment. It has some effort for diversity (Steve Trevor was black, another amazon was Diana's lover) but they just weren't handled well (the moment Diana saw a man she turned her back on her lover and the whole island! That's not the Diana I know). Too bad. I'm thinking of rereading some of my older WW collections once I'm gone through the Birds of Prey.

[Werner]

Last year, back in message 677, I mentioned our own Heather Day Gilbert's A Murder in the Mountains contemporary mystery series, set in Appalachia and featuring amateur sleuth Tess Spencer, as having action heroine potential. That isn't realized as such in the first series installment, Miranda Warning; but IMO the sequel, Trial by Twelve (which my wife Barb and I just finished reading together) does cross over into action heroine territory.

[Werner]

We're not very far into it yet, but the book Barb and I are currently reading, Ride the River, definitely has action heroine potential.

[Mervi]

I just finished Elizabeth Moon's Engaging the Enemy which is the third book in her military science fiction series.

In this third book, another POV character is main character's elderly aunt. Most people in her family consider her a doddering old woman but she who turns out to be a very good shot with a rifle and good at hand-to-hand combat, to the surprise of her family. I haven't seen many elderly (over 50) action heroines.

[Werner]

Mervi wrote: "Most people in her family consider her a doddering old woman but she who turns out to be a very good shot with a rifle and good at hand-to-hand combat, to the surprise of her family. I haven't seen many elderly (over 50) action heroines."

That's pretty cool, Mervi!

[Loncey]

I just finished Firewalker by Loren K. Jones A very interesting book featuring a young girl who excelled in the military.

[Loncey]

Can someone please remind me of the name of a sci-fi book that had a female who is the ex wife of the emperor. She works with a form of trade union that having branches all over other planets co-rules the domain with the emperor. I remember that the lead always manipulates the opacity of her cloth(a high tech one) to make it more see-through or transparent.

[Werner]

Loncey wrote: "Can someone please remind me of the name of a sci-fi book that had a female who is the ex wife of the emperor. She works with a form of trade union that having branches all over other planets co-ru..."

Loncey, I'm not familiar with that one myself, but others in the group might be (?). Also, another Goodreads group that might be able to help with this quest is What's the Name of That Book? (https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/... ). They've had a pretty good (though not perfect) success rate in helping me find books for which I'd forgotten the titles and author's names.