List of stories with female point of view characters

[hedgebird]

She did write a handful, most of them set later than the Roman Britain stories we focus on in fandom. (*No guarantees that it's the protagonist or the main POV character.) It seems to me that most of these remain fairly obscure even among fans, so if you're looking for this sort of thing:

1. The Queen Elizabeth Story (1950, children's novel)
2. The

Comments

[riventhorn]

Thanks for this! I may have to try one as sutcliff_swap approaches. The only one I've already read is Flame Colored Taffeta, and I enjoyed it. H/C and foxes! Hard to go wrong. :)

[hedgebird]

I have (fuzzy, but) pleasant recollections of FCT too. I've just added links to the texts of the short pieces, if you want a convenient entry point to some of the others. :)

[bunn]

The Shield Ring is definitely worth a try, and Flowering Dagger is really beautiful.

[starbrow]

I've read The Armourer's House, The Chief's Daughter, Tristan & Iseult, Flame-Coloured Taffeta, and Song For A Dark Queen.

Taffeta was my favourite, although House was very good as well. Tristan & Iseult is a fairly standard retelling that focuses just as much on Tristan as Iseult, I felt.

Song For A Dark Queen was incredibly dark, but also very good! I would hesitate at calling it a YA novel - not sure I'd give it to anyone under the age of sixteen at least. I found it darker than The Lantern-Bearers, which is really saying something.

[hedgebird]

Not gonna lie, I listed Tristan & Iseult more because I figured she had to be a viewpoint character than because I distinctly remembered her as one. The adult novels are likewise split between the female and the male protagonists.

Agreed about SFADQ - it's one of the ones I haven't reread precisely because it's so dark. It's published as YA - or even children's, bafflingly - but I doubt I would have liked it when I was younger.

PS I just edited in the links to the (comm-locked) texts of the short stories, if you want to check them out.

[bunn]

I'd say Tristran and Iseult was more omniscient with a bit of Tristran than Iseult POV really. With probably the most irritating Iseult that I've read, too. :-/

I reckon SFADQ fits into that tradition of children's lit where everything is terribly gritty and children/teens have to deal with Adult Themes. I think I first read it when I was about 9, and I liked it better than Lantern Bearers - I think because although terrible things happen to Boudicca, she very much takes control of her life and death and woe betide those that get in her way. The deferred freedom due to duty theme of Lantern Bearers was harder for small bunn to understand and sympathise with!

[hedgebird]

:/ Well that's disappointing. Tbh I was underwhelmed by T&I, and the things I most definitely remember about it were 1) there is a dragon and 2) there's another Iseult, wtf whyyyy, Celtic legends?

Ah yes, Adult Themes. I suspect I would have loathed both SFADQ and TLB as a kid - I was keen on the gruesome but not keen to grappple with moral complexity. I remember casting Eagle of the Ninth aside at the second chapter because it was wasting time on interpersonal relations instead of cutting straight to the slaughter of redshirts by blackhats.

[bunn]

I think of the female POV stories, I liked Flowering Dagger and Shifting Sands best - although the female POVs were the things I liked best in Flowers of Adonis, as some of the male characters are... not her most likeable! The Armourers House was a bit slight in terms of story, but had wonderful settings.

Haven't read the Rider of the White Horse yet, it seems to be hard to get hold of.

[hedgebird]

Flowering Dagger came as a very pleasant surprise to me - you sort of assume that if a work is pretty much forgotten even by the bibliographers, it probably sucks, but that hasn't been the case with FD or "Swallows in the Spring" or "The Fugitives