fantasy novels Archives | A.S. Akkalon

The definitive* list of fantasy novels with older female protagonists

I asked on Twitter for recommendations of fantasy novels with older female protagonists, and here’s what everyone came up with. (Note I was joking about “definitive”.)

* I lied. This list is most certainly not definitive, sorry.

Some time ago I wrote a post lamenting the dearth of older women who are fantasy protagonists. (At least, I think that’s what the post was about. It’s been a while.)

Recently someone reached out to me referencing the post, and because my TBR list isn’t long enough** I decided to seek out a list of such books.

** Another lie. My TBR list is way too long.

I posted this tweet asking for recommendations. (I’m not embedding the post because that comes with malicious code.) As you can see, it garnered a lot of interest.

A tweet by A.S. Akkalon that reads:

I'm looking for fantasy books with protagonists who are older women. How much older? Anything older than your standard teen or twenty-something. Any suggestions?

#books #AmReading #WritingCommunity — A hot question, as it turns out.

In this blog post I pull out an (unfortunately not entirely) comprehensive list of the suggestions I received for your reading pleasure. Also to help me plump up my TBR pile.

Liars and Thieves by D. Wallace Peach is out now

I’ve been a fan of D. Wallace Peach since I beta read one of her books several years ago. Now her new fantasy novel, Liars and Thieves, is out, and it just jumped to the top of my TBR list.

Liars and Thieves

Behind the Veil, the hordes gather, eager to savage the world. But Kalann il Drakk, First of Chaos, is untroubled by the shimmering wall that holds his beasts at bay. For if he cannot cleanse the land of life, the races will do it for him. All he needs is a spark to light the fire.

Three unlikely allies stand in his way.

A misfit elf plagued by failure—

When Elanalue Windthorn abandons her soldiers to hunt a goblin, she strays into forbidden territory.

A changeling who betrays his home—

Talin Raska is a talented liar, thief, and spy. He makes a fatal mistake—he falls for his mark.

A halfbreed goblin with deadly secrets—

Older women in fantasy novels

I’m planning a sequel to my current fantasy novel, and its going to have a more diverse cast. Older women will definitely feature. Here are some of the things I’m thinking and worrying about.

You might think from the title of this post that I’m about to take you on an intellectual exploration of the roles and representation of older women in the fantasy genre. Or you might know me and expect nothing of the sort.

I don’t study literature, but I read, look, and think, and occasionally I have enough thoughts about a topic that I want to share them.

Or I realise it’s 5:30pm and I’m supposed to write a blog post tonight, and I have no idea what I’m going to write about.

Let’s agree I have no good reason to write about this topic, but that I’m going to do it anyway.

Sebastian and Rain lament lock-down and their inability to read

Like everyone else living through the pandemic, Sebastian and Rain are shaken by what’s going on. A banana might be involved.

If you’ve been around a while, you might remember Sebastian and Rain, my writer half and my reader half. Usually they rant or rave about books and occasionally throw grapes at each other, but it turns out they have opinions about other things as well.

I’ll hand over to let them explain.

Sebastian: I should start by saying this was not my idea. I wanted to have a nice literary discussion about a book.

Rain: Do we ever have “nice literary discussions” about books?