List of female warriors in SF

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"Amazons" would include strong warrior wimmin ... wymin who kick ass ... tough women. Although some of these works will also be listed as Women Revolutionaries!, a woman doesn't have to change society (or even try) to be an ass-kickin' warrior woman.

Note: "Warrior" may be distinguished from military personnel. Most specifically, military personnel serve in a state-based or independent mercenary military body, whereas a "warrior" may be a solo operator. The key distinction is probably on individual fighting skills versus operational skills in an army.

More generally, "warrior" often implies specific warrior and combat skills, such as hand-to-hand combat, sword, or archery; it has more of an old-fashioned connotation; it may imply a warrior's code or even a caste system; it might be used more in fantasy, dying earth, or low-technology societies. By contrast, "military" has more of a connotation of group-fighting skills; high-technology or specialized skills that may not even be combat or weapons skills (artillery, defense, combat pilot); a term that might be used more in spacefaring societies, modern- or industrialized societies with higher technology. Warriors in this classical sense and military personnel may mix in a society; see, e.g., Elizabeth Moon's The Deed of Paksenarrion. Similarly in military SF some characters may be specialized with combat skills and described as warriors.

List

• Bradamante in Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto, Italo Calvino's Il Cavaliere inesistente

by author

• Protagonist of Eleanor Arnason's Daughter of the Bear King
• Protagonists of the individual stories of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress series of anthologies and Darkover series
  • The Shattered Chain (Daw, 1975) (Darkover)
• Octavia Butler's Wild Seed

• Lillian Stewart Carl. Sazabel (1985)
  • The Winter King (1986)
• Jayge Carr. Leviathan's Deep (1979). Not human Amazons, but another species in which the women are the dominant sex, and the fighters.
• Vera Chapman. The King's Damosel (1976)
• Suzy McKee Charnas. Motherlines (1978)
  • The Furies
  • The Conqueror's Child
• C. J. Cherryh. Gate of Ivrel (1976)
  • Well of Shiuan (1978)
• Jo Clayton. Diadem series.
• Flynn Connolly's The Rising of the Moon

• Nancy Farmer, Thorgil in The Sea of Trolls
• Jane Fletcher. The World Celaeno Chose (Dimsdale: London, 1999) - features an all-woman world with several warrior organizations
• Janrae Frank. "The Ruined Tower" (chapbook, illustrated by Mary Bohdanowicz; Atalanta Press, 1979)
• Esther Friesner's anthology Chicks in Chainmail
  • Did You Say Chicks?
  • Chicks and Chained Males

• Robert E. Howard The Sword Woman (1979)

• Katharine Kerr. Daggerspell (1986)
• Nancy A. Kress. An Alien Light (1988)

• Mercedes Lackey. Many of her Valdemar series have warrior women. See especially By the Sword, about the mercenary Kerowyn.
• Tanith Lee. The Birthgrave (1975)
  • Night's Master (1978)
• Elizabeth A. Lynn. The Dancers of Arun
  • The Northern Girl

• Claudia McKay. Promise of the Rose Stone (1986) [a woman warrior leaves her village to save it and gets embroiled in something larger]
• Sam Merwin. Sex War. (Descendants of Amazons are conspiring to get rid of men and reproduce parthenogenetically. Not exactly a feminist classic. -- lq 5/14/00)
• C. L. Moore Jirel of Joiry series:
  • Black God's Shadow (collected J-of-J stories fromthe 1930s) (1977)

• Steve Perry. Matadora (1986)
• Doris Piserchia's Star Rider (1974)
  • Earthchild (1977)
  • Spaceling (1979)

• Joanna Russ. Alyx (1977)
  • Kittitiny, a Tale of Magic (1978)

• Jessica Amanda Salmonson's Amazons! anthology
• Jessica Amanda Salmonson's Amazons II anthology
• Pamela Sargent. Women of Wonder series
• Jean Stewart. "The Queer Avenger" in Swords of the Rainbow
  • --. Isis series.

• J. R. R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings. A female character, Eowyn, disguises herself as male in order to fight in battle.

• John Varley. The Gaean trilogy: Titan, Wizard, and Demon. Cirocco Jones, first and foremost, but also Gaby and Robin and others.

• Margaret Weis. New Amazons.
• Monique Wittig. Les Guerillieres (1969)

• Jane Yolen's Sister Light, Sister Dark and White Jenna

Movies:

• "Tank Girl"
• "Alien"
• "Aliens"
• "Alien III"
• "Born in Flames"
• "Terminator 2"

TV:

• "Xena, Warrior Princess" (and of course the novelizations)

Other Suggestions:

• Dibell, Ansen. Pursuit of the Screamer (1978)
• Duane, Diane. The Door Into Fire (1978)
• Fearn, John Russell. Conquest of the Amazon (1949; Future, 1976)
• Gearhart, Sally Miller. The Wanderground (Persephone: 1978)
• Lupoff, Richard. Sword of the Demon (1977)
• McKinley, Robin. The Hero and the Crown
  • --. The Blue Sword
• Morgan, T. J. "Dark Tide" (chapbook illustrated by Theresa Troise-Heidel) (Atalanta Press, 1979)
• Norton, Andre. Witch World series.
• Vinge, Joan. Snow Queen (1979)
• Weinbaum, Stanley G. The Red Peri (1952)
• Robert A. Heinlein's works, esp. Friday
• Melissa Scott's Dreamships
• Peter S. Beagle's Innkeeper's Song
• Jennifer Robersen's Lady of the Forest
• Robin McKinley's Deerskin
• Jane Yolen's Briar Rose
• Sheri Tepper's Shadow's End
• Feist & Wurts Servant of the Empire trilogy
• Tomoe Gozen in works by Jessica Amanda Salmonson

• "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (movie & TV)

See also

• List of Amazons in SF
• List of female military personnel in SF
• List of historical female warriors