Action Heroine Fans discussion

In this case a little of both. I'd like to mention a very nice book called Rain, which happens to be both. Rain is a story about a 15-year-old girl, written by a 15-year-old girl, who spent her entire life in a spy academy. She knows everything there is to know about being a spy. She knows nothing about being a 15-year-old girl. Rain is the story of her first adventure in the real world, where she finds that not only does she not know everything, she may not know anything. A cool book, highly recommended by me and everyone who's read it. Kieryn is a dynamo.

Another book we can mention is The Pirate Vortex: Elizabeth Latimer, Pirate Hunter by our group's own Deborah Cannon. I haven't read it yet (it's on my to-read shelf); but from the description, I'd say that the teenage heroine would have YA appeal.

Werner, thanks for mentioning my book, The Pirate Vortex. Turns out my heroine, Elizabeth Latimer, is a sort of anti Bella (as in Twilight). I find it interesting that teen girls and young women are so drawn to the character of Bella who is pretty much a classic damsel-in-distress, at least in the books. I haven't seen the movies. I don't quite understand why these girls/women relate to a character who is so controlled by her emotions for a boy, well two boys (the vampire Edward and werewolf Jacob), and that she always has to be rescued.

I thought girls today wanted to be represented as powerful, in control and in charge--and the guys could be the sidekicks for a change. My character, Elizabeth is smart, sassy and definitely in charge. Her swordplay is a match for any pirate, and her witty tongue has them stumbling all over themselves.

Because she can't kill anyone for fear of changing the future, she often has to resort to her wits to get out of a fix, and that always leads to major action. Like Bella she has her love interests, one a mysterious pirate fencer, who (maybe?) comes form the future; and her school friend, a kung fu expert and TA of her Archaeology of Piracy class. While both guys help her, they just as often hinder her, and it's she who has to come up with the clever plans.

I have a fanpage at facebook if anyone's interested in reading a condensed versionof the novel. I'm posting snippets like those Japanese cellphone novels (anyone heard of them?) Here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Pir...

Elizabeth, thanks for the link! Personally, I'm not into reading books online or electronically (when I read your book --and it's on my list!-- I'll read the print version), but I know some other members of the group are more technologically hip in their reading methods. :-) Elizabeth Latimer sounds like a cool heroine!

Your take on Bella in the Twilight series is similar to that of a number of readers; and I wouldn't call her an action heroine, by a long shot. Of course, I like other heroines besides the sword-wielding, pistol-packing types who engage in actual fighting; but I do have a marked preference for heroines who are strong and tough inside, who take stands and can shoulder responsibility. Interestingly, I see Bella as being in that mold. True, as a human she's a klutz, and when she attracts danger from homicidal vampires, she needs rescuing (as ANY human being would in that situation). BUT, she's not content to be a perpetual damsel in distress --one reason why she wants to become a vampire is to be better able to protect herself and those she loves. When she was accosted by the gang of would-be rapists in Port Angeles, she knew she was going to die but, you may recall, she faced that danger straight on with the thought that she'd try to take as many of them with her as she could. (Okay, she'd have broken her hand on the first punch, but she had the fighting spirit.) On several occasions, she was perfectly willing to risk or lay down her own life in order to save someone else; and she was used to taking a lot of responsibility in the home, both when she lived with her mother and with her dad. She showed a lot of guts in carrying her baby to term, given what she went through; and as a vampire, of course, her use of her gift saved the day for the Cullens in the final confrontation. Overall, she comes across as someone who tends to think of others before self; and to me that's a mark of strength, not weakness. (Some of the other ladies of the Twilight series would be more in the physical action heroine mold; Rosalie served violent justice on the psychpaths who raped her, for instance, and werewolf Leah Clearwater, who becomes the beta in Jacob's pack, can clearly hold her own in a fight.)

It's true that Bella's guilty of letting her feelings for Edward send her into several months of emotional shut-down when she believed he didn't want her, and we can correctly judge that as a weakness. She's not a perfect model of how to cope with that situation; but she's a realistic human with foibles as well as strengths, and it's in her nature to love hard. (For all her maturity in some ways, she was also only 18.) So as a reader, I don't judge her too harshly there. Not being a teen girl/young woman, I can't speak for those Twilight fans. But I'd guess that some of them can relate to her because they had similar hard times with their feelings when they were jilted, or can imagine being in that situation, and can see themselves reacting the same way --not that they think they should, or advocate it as a positive good, but that they recognize it as a very plausible and tempting kind of human reaction.

Werner, I am impressed that you read the Twilight books. I thought only girls/women read them. I'm impressed that you got so much out of them. I have to admit I stopped reading after the third book. Maybe I should read the fourth one to see how it all comes out in the end. I do admire Stephenie Meyer. She has a talent for evoking strong, primal emotions in readers.

Your analysis of Bella's character is insightful and perceptive. My memories of particular events in the series are vague as the books didn't make a mark on me in the same way. I do recall thinking that Bella was written in a more realistic way than vampire books generally are, and although she faced danger bravely, it's the way she deliberately put herself in danger that seemed contradictory to me.

But your take on the whole thing makes sense and explains the success of the Twilight series. Personally, I prefer strong independent, heroines, who are physically capable of taking care of themselves and that is likely because, in real life, it's not so simple.

Speaking of which, there is a new Canadian TV series called Lost Girl about a young woman who is a weapon-wielding succubus and is being forced to choose sides between the dark and the light Fae. Her sidekick is a human girl, a former thief. They are a pair!

Thanks, Deborah! My impression is that the Twilight books and movies are a lot more popular with female readers; but one of my sons-in-law likes them too, and there's at least one other guy in another of my groups who's also a fan. Yes, I'd say if you read the first three books, you owe it to yourself to read the fourth. Bella gets to show more of her mettle there (even if she has to go through hell to do it), and comes into her own more once she's a vampire. (And Rosalie and Leah both are developed more in that book than in the previous ones, as well.)

Lost Girl sounds like a great series, with a lot of potential! Too bad most of us aren't in Canada; but maybe they'll eventually show some of it in the U.S. in syndication. (Now, if only they slot it at some time when I can watch, and publicize it enough that I know about it! :-) )

I watched 5 episodes of Lost Girl before I gave up on it. I wanted to like it and had high hopes for it. The premise was good but the weekly stories are weak and repetitive; just not worth my time. I have too much to watch as it is, if I pick up a new show it has to have a wow-factor and Lost Girl doesn't. But that's my taste, my opinion. My friend Lisa, who told me about it, loves it.

Well then, Jackie, if I never get to try Lost Girl out for myself, I won't feel too deprived! :-) Am I guessing correctly that you can get it where you live (in upstate New York) because you're close enough to the border to pick up Canadian TV stations?

Yes, we're lucky in that respect. There's been a few really good Canadian shows we were lucky to catch.

I think there should be mention here of The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Sorry if it's been disucssed somewhere else in the group.


I read The Hunger Games because The Sword and Laser group is reading it this month. There's some lively discussion over there.

I got hooked and I'm finishing Mockingjay this weekend, I hope. The protagonist is Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen year old girl who is selected for the annual Hunger Games. The games are one of many ways a future totalitarian state controls its twelve regions. Two teenagers are selected from each region and all twenty-four are forced to fight to the death on national TV. There are obvious echos of other stories here, but Ms. Collins does a mostly good job differentiating her story.

We've never had any actual discussion of the Hunger Games trilogy here, though Katniss was a nominee for Favorite Heroine back in the first poll we ever did. Though I've not read it myself, I've often thought that given its popularity (and a recent movie adaptation of the first book), it deserved some attention here.

A review by one of our members, Mike, offers a basically negative evaluation of the third book (and the series as a whole), which can be read at: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... . If there are other good reviews out there (including your own), positive or negative, whether they're by group members or not, feel free to post a link here! (Note: Mike's review does have a spoiler warning.)

Hi Werner, I wanted to say that as I read the series, I actually liked the first and had high hopes for the series. The second I didn't really dislike, but the third disappointed me badly. I thought the ending volume was so weak it sort ruins the series as the wrap up failed.

Just wanted to give some context. Thanks.

Thanks, Mike! I did get that from your review, but I didn't summarize it well above; the way I phrased it, people might have thought all three books were bad, rather than understanding that it was mainly the third one that dragged the trilogy down.

Below are the reviews of the first 2. Note I went right out and bought them, and ordered Mockingjay. Sadly after I read it, I took the entire trilogy down to McKay's and sold it.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

I sat at B&N yesterday and read Catching Fire and Mockingjay back to back. (it was a long day)

I have to agree with a lot of folks that the third book is a step down. There's just a number of things that make you go, "Really?", even in the context of the universe the author has created. Still, the trilogy is a decent read.

Katniss often makes me crazy, as she suffers some of the usual teen insecurities coupled with an annoying -- no, infuriating -- blindness to plot elements so obvious to the reader. It's pretty easy to ignore in the first two books because she's busy being a cool action chick. But in the third, she kind of goes off the rails. Too bad.

Over on one of our other threads, we've floated the idea of possibly doing a common read of the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy (though not the other two) in late fall. Whether we do or not will depend on how much interest there turns out to be.

I'd read it again in the group read, probably. It reads very fast, and I quite enjoyed the first two books.

Plus, we could have an interesting discussion about whether Katniss is a heroine or just someone that things happen to.

Thanks, Derrick, that feedback is helpful! If we do the group read, you could also join in the discussion without re-reading it (unless you want to!), since you've read it already and so are familiar with it.

I mentioned it in the female heroine threat, but it might have been better here in the YA section. Emily from and is a pretty tough heroine.

edit: I just noticed that Sen No Sen is on the Kindle free list today.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00860DGES/r...

I've noticed that action ladies seem to be more common in YA books than elsewhere. Is it me or is there a sort of backlash against action ladies in PNR these days? Anyway, I've just been noticing (save for the horrendous Bella Swan in Twilight) a marked leaning towards action girls in YA fiction.

Here's hoping that will translate into more action women in the grown up section of the bookstores.

I've recently read an Action Heroine series about a teenage woman [Alexis Carew] who can't take over the family farm - only men can do that according to the planet's primogeniture laws - so she ends up in a space navy where she has adventures a la Horatio Hornblower. .

I think the divergent series was also good by Victoria Roth insurgent and Allegiant finish the trilogy. Beatrice. Or Tris as she is known picks Dauntless the Brave to live her life in but soon finds she is different than all others in that she is gifted with more than just one life choice. She is Devergent. And the system she has grown up under know wants her dead. Good YA series. Made into movie.

Surprisingly (considering that it's YA fiction) Divergent hasn't gotten a mention on this thread before, though it has been mentioned on others. We have the whole trilogy, if I recall correctly, at the library where I work, and I have the first book on my to-read shelf, on the recommendation of one of my fellow librarians. (Of course, I have 398 books on that shelf --and so many series I've already started and not brought to any kind of closure that I hesitate to start another one just yet!)

When Hunger Games came out, it was unique. Nothing like it. Over the past several years many books exposing young teenage women to similar perils have been written. My impression of Divergent from several years ago was that is was very good, but not a ground breaker. Divergent certainly rates a prominent place but there are equally good books up there with it.

Divergent could be a group read; I'd be willing to read it again.

Jon, I'll put Divergent in the poll for picking our common read this May. I hope to have the poll up and running around the beginning of April.

I liked both the novel and film of the first DIVERGENT.

The second book turned way too much to teen angst romance for my taste. The movie played some of that down, but it wasn't a great movie.

The third movie is about to come out, and I may see it. But I have no intention of reading the third book.

At the recommendation of someone in this group - my apologies, I don't remember who - I've found a copies of Garth Nix' Sabriel . So far, it is ok for an introduction.

I don't read a lot of YA. I enjoyed Harry Potter, but most of it doesn't work for me. That said, I'm a little embarrassed that I've haven't visited this thread sooner and mentioned my friend, Patrick Wong and his novels.



UF, the heroine Nicole uses paranormal powers rather than weapons. If you like YA, these are really well done. The second one is better than the first - but that's pretty common with first time authors.

My reviews: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I'm sooo tempted to make a pun using his last name. Thanks for bringing Patrick Wong's books to my attention, E.G.

PS His second book, Taker, is available for free on KU.

http://www.amazon.com/Taker-Final-Dei...

Jon wrote: "I'm sooo tempted to make a pun using his last name. Thanks for bringing Patrick Wong's books to my attention, E.G.

PS His second book, Taker, is available for free on KU.

http://www.amazon.com/Ta..."

I'm sure Patrick has heard them all. ;D