Sword-wielders!

This is Skyla. Or, rather, this is a drawing I found on DeviantArt that best approximates what my female heroine looks like. Here's her connection to the white blade she bears:

The killing had come easier. 

Flashes of deadly light failed to mark her, and when her would-be killers dropped their worthless weapons, her sword was still in her hand. There in the air high above the kingdom, the slavers lost their lives to a sharp and shining horror. Staring up at moons circled by remnants of her own magic, she thought of the ship that had crashed. I would have destroyed you, too, if you had attacked.

Or, here: 

Small of frame, she failed to reach the shoulder of many of the warriors who followed her banners, but those who had sworn their swords to her service never lost sight of her on the battlefield. Her silver hair flowed to the small of her back; wind-caught, it was Navalia’s unofficial pennant, a swirling cloud of icy glitter that seemed to flash with sword sparks. Those mortals that served her looked past the slight tapering of her ears, the depth of her ancient eyes, and the sharpness of her teeth. They remembered her as inhuman only in battle as she regenerated severed limbs or arose from blows that would have ended their lives. They could not trace her strength, for the muscles that rippled in the arms of her warriors were absent from her body. Warriors new to court often doubted her ability to lift the sword bound at her waist. 

Because of her and the pleasure I've had telling and re-telling (and retooling) her story year after year, I have a certain affection for literature's sword-wielding women, and they feature in two of my latest reads! But before I turn to them, I thought I'd recap some of my favorite sword-bearers below!

 My favorite Civil War soldier, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, resplendent with decorative blade! Professors, too, can fight!

Definitely not the sword-bearer of choice for any aspiring feminist, but I still enjoy the candy bar nature of the pulp paperback (delicious but definitely lacking in nutrition!)

Who can resist a franchise where magical powers are revealed upon holding aloft one's sword? He-Man, She-Ra and Skeletor remain favorites of mine! [Guilty admission: I got He-Man/Thunder Cats in the mail today!]

 I love to imagine Tolkien reading about named blades in Beowulf and Song of Roland at university, then going on to give us Glamdring and Orcrist!

 Oh, Thorin... you break my heart every time, you bastard...

[This is how I feel when faced with any spider...]

Cutter Kinseeker with his sword New Moon, inherited from his father. Most of ElfQuest is free here, so if you haven't made the acquaintance of this charming swordsman yet, I can't urge you there in strong enough terms!

I was very much in love with Mark Hamill at one point. The saber definitely helped to inspire my affection!

He might be "the worst pirate you've ever heard of," (especially if you take the sequels into account), but Captain Jack Sparrow is also a fine hand with a blade and I love the overblown nature of this particular clip!

Claymore is enchanting... and often gut-wrenchingly dark. I love it for its portrayal of women warriors and I'm impressed at the level of violence it convinced me to endure. It just goes to show that good storytelling can make you suffer through a lot!

I haven't followed this series closely since the fourth book, but I heartily recommend the first three for their portrayal of one of the few gay characters in fantasy. Great fun!

Berserk is every bit a match for Claymore when it comes to battle sequences and dark themes. I can never again watch the final episode of the original anime (nightmares!!) but I love the story, the sword-wielding Guts, and I'm eager to see its most recent retelling.

 This quirky film, Sucker Punch, still troubles me. I'm convinced there's a paper there, comparing it to Dickens and Carroll... and it just plain old creeps me out. Nonetheless, its sword scenes are everything I want for my own heroine, as are those in Kill Bill.

 Kenshin may be the fiercest (and most adorable) swordsman on this list - and he does it all with a reverse blade weapon! I'm looking forward to introducing him to my graphic novel class in the fall! I'm also including his friend Sanosuke, even though Kenshin annihilates that massive sword of his...




Now that I've set quite the precedent for sword-carrying protagonists, let's get down to the books!

I had high hopes for this book because I've really enjoyed other titles by Roberson (especially her Robin Hood series). The voice was excellent in this one; Sandtiger was a distinctive speaker with fully-realized gifts, history, and flaws, as was Del - the woman you can see there on the cover. Unfortunately, the story fell into that fantasy-post-Tolkien trap of being a series of adventures on the way to somewhere and none of them were particularly interesting. Del does insist on saving some sandtiger cubs (her companion is named for his prowess against such beasts) so that made the cat-lover in me happy, but it wasn't enough to make me want to read book two. 

As a Conan fan, I've long been aware of Sonja... but I was surprised when her name appeared in a list of best comics for women, until I read that Simone is well known for taking exploited female characters and giving them a feminist spin. She does a great job in this first episode of Sonja, giving her a viable backstory, a female antagonist, and female sidekicks. I did find the art a bit "blocky" for my taste, and I still don't understand why the comic industry makes beautiful covers that differ wildly in art style from the work within. Are they trying to trick us? All in all, a good revival of the Red Devil; I'm excited to see what's in store for book two!