[Reactor] Five Formidable Female Characters From Classic SF

[James Nicoll]

Five Formidable Female Characters From Classic SF


All authors are products of their time but results vary wildly.


https://reactormag.com/five-formidable-female-characters-from-classic-sf/

[Lynn McGuire]

Post by James Nicoll
Five Formidable Female Characters From Classic SF
All authors are products of their time but results vary wildly.
https://reactormag.com/five-formidable-female-characters-from-classic-sf/

I may have read "Federation" by H. Beam Piper.

I would add "Candy Smith-Foster" in "Emergence" in 1984 by David Palmer
to this list.
https://www.amazon.com/Emergence-David-R-Palmer/dp/0553255193/

I would also add "Friday" in "Friday" in 1984 by Robert Heinlein.

And I would add "Hazel Meade" later "Hazel Stone" in "The Moon Is A
Harsh Mistress" in 1966 and "The Rolling Stones" in 1952 by Robert
Heinlein. Also "Wyoming "Wyoh" Knott-Davis".

Lynn

[Lynn McGuire]

Post by Lynn McGuire

  Five Formidable Female Characters From Classic SF
All authors are products of their time but results vary wildly.
https://reactormag.com/five-formidable-female-characters-from-classic-sf/

I may have read "Federation" by H. Beam Piper.
I would add "Candy Smith-Foster" in "Emergence" in 1984 by David Palmer
to this list.
   https://www.amazon.com/Emergence-David-R-Palmer/dp/0553255193/
I would also add "Friday" in "Friday" in 1984 by Robert Heinlein.
And I would add "Hazel Meade" later "Hazel Stone" in "The Moon Is A
Harsh Mistress" in 1966 and "The Rolling Stones" in 1952 by Robert
Heinlein.  Also "Wyoming "Wyoh" Knott-Davis".
Lynn

Heinlein has several formidable female characters in his books. In "The
Star Beast", he has Betty and Lummox (alien space princess).

Lynn

[Bobbie Sellers]

Post by Lynn McGuire

  Five Formidable Female Characters From Classic SF
All authors are products of their time but results vary wildly.
https://reactormag.com/five-formidable-female-characters-from-classic-sf/

I may have read "Federation" by H. Beam Piper.
I would add "Candy Smith-Foster" in "Emergence" in 1984 by David Palmer
to this list.
   https://www.amazon.com/Emergence-David-R-Palmer/dp/0553255193/
I would also add "Friday" in "Friday" in 1984 by Robert Heinlein.
And I would add "Hazel Meade" later "Hazel Stone" in "The Moon Is A
Harsh Mistress" in 1966 and "The Rolling Stones" in 1952 by Robert
Heinlein.  Also "Wyoming "Wyoh" Knott-Davis".
Lynn

Quoting from Wikepedia:
Clarissa MacDougall. She is a beautiful, curvaceous, red-haired nurse,
who eventually becomes the first human female to receive her own Lens.
Their children, a boy and two pairs of fraternal twin sisters, grow up
to be the five Children of the Lens. In their breeding, "almost every
strain of weakness in humanity is finally removed". They are born
already possessing the powers taught to second-stage Lensmen.

Strangely enough at one point in my life I was a nurse but after
IO was a nurse I was a redhead.

bliss

[Scott Dorsey]

Post by Lynn McGuire
I would also add "Friday" in "Friday" in 1984 by Robert Heinlein.
And I would add "Hazel Meade" later "Hazel Stone" in "The Moon Is A
Harsh Mistress" in 1966 and "The Rolling Stones" in 1952 by Robert
Heinlein.  Also "Wyoming "Wyoh" Knott-Davis".

The problem is that all of these characters are really the same person
in different situations with different names. All of Heinlein's women
are pretty much the same, whether they are old, young, human, alien, or
computers.
--scott

[Chris Buckley]

Post by Scott Dorsey

Post by Lynn McGuire
I would also add "Friday" in "Friday" in 1984 by Robert Heinlein.
And I would add "Hazel Meade" later "Hazel Stone" in "The Moon Is A
Harsh Mistress" in 1966 and "The Rolling Stones" in 1952 by Robert
Heinlein.  Also "Wyoming "Wyoh" Knott-Davis".

The problem is that all of these characters are really the same person
in different situations with different names. All of Heinlein's women
are pretty much the same, whether they are old, young, human, alien, or
computers.

He does tend to like competent women, doesn't he? How about Cynthia,
in "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag"? I would call her
different.

Chris

[Michael F. Stemper]

Clarissa MacDougall. She is a beautiful, curvaceous, red-haired nurse, who eventually becomes the first human female to receive her own Lens. Their children, a boy and two pairs of fraternal twin sisters, grow up to be the five Children of the Lens. In their breeding, "almost every strain of weakness in humanity is finally removed". They are born already possessing the powers taught to second-stage Lensmen.

Could you provide a specific page? I'd like to edit it to fix (at least)
the way that Clarrissa's name was spelled in the books. I'm also skeptical
of the idea that Kay/Kat and Cam/Con were fraternal rather than identical.

[Tony Nance]

Post by Michael F. Stemper

Post by Bobbie Sellers
Clarissa MacDougall. She is a beautiful, curvaceous, red-haired nurse,
who eventually becomes the first human female to receive her own Lens.
Their children, a boy and two pairs of fraternal twin sisters, grow up
to be the five Children of the Lens. In their breeding, "almost every
strain of weakness in humanity is finally removed". They are born
already possessing the powers taught to second-stage Lensmen.

Could you provide a specific page? I'd like to edit it to fix (at least)
the way that Clarrissa's name was spelled in the books. I'm also skeptical
of the idea that Kay/Kat and Cam/Con were fraternal rather than identical.

Here you go:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lensman_series

The info above is in a paragraph in the "Plot" section that starts with
the phrase "As the breeding program nears its conclusion ...", about 5
paragraphs before the start of the "Publication History" section.

There's also similar (and additional) info about the children at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_the_Lens_(novel)

Tony

[Bobbie Sellers]

Post by Michael F. Stemper

Post by Bobbie Sellers
Clarissa MacDougall. She is a beautiful, curvaceous, red-haired nurse,
who eventually becomes the first human female to receive her own Lens.
Their children, a boy and two pairs of fraternal twin sisters, grow up
to be the five Children of the Lens. In their breeding, "almost every
strain of weakness in humanity is finally removed". They are born
already possessing the powers taught to second-stage Lensmen.

Smith may have been pro-Eugenics but his Arisian certainly
were believers in that racist and disproven philosophy..

Post by Michael F. Stemper
Could you provide a specific page? I'd like to edit it to fix (at least)
the way that Clarrissa's name was spelled in the books. I'm also skeptical
of the idea that Kay/Kat and Cam/Con were fraternal rather than identical.

I just entered E.E.Smith and Lenswoman in the search and
took the answer. I think correctors of text on the Internet are
ambitious but they need to look up using hopefully DuckDuckGo the
not too invasive search engine the matter for themselves.

It has been about 60 years since I read Smith's amazing
tales of Super-Science and Arisian heroics. It was stunning until
I saw how the output of a nuclear reactor softened Bus Bars larger
than a human body so that they slumped on their supports. That at
Idaho's USN reactor test site.

bliss

[Tony Nance]

Post by James Nicoll
Five Formidable Female Characters From Classic SF
All authors are products of their time but results vary wildly.
https://reactormag.com/five-formidable-female-characters-from-classic-sf/

Neat essay - thanks. Really got me thinking...here are a few formidable
female characters that come to mind:

L’Engle - A Wrinkle in Time 1962 (Meg Murry)
Herbert - Dune 1965 (Chani, maybe others)
McCaffrey - Dragonflight 1968 (Lessa)
McKillip - The Forgotten Beasts of Eld 1974 (Sybel)
Hambly - The Time of the Dark 1982 (Gil Patterson)
McKinley - The Blue Sword 1982 (Angharad “Harry” Crewe)
and The Hero and the Crown 1984 (Aerin)
Cook - Black Company 1984 (The Lady - and Soulcatcher too, now that I
think about it)
Bujold - Shards of Honor 1986 (Cordelia Naismith)
Scott - Silence Leigh (trilogy released 1985-7)
Lee & Miller - Agent of Change 1988 (Miri Robertson)
Moon - The Deed of Paksenarrion (1988-9) (Paksenarrion, aka Paks)

Tony

[Lynn McGuire]

Post by Tony Nance

  Five Formidable Female Characters From Classic SF
All authors are products of their time but results vary wildly.
https://reactormag.com/five-formidable-female-characters-from-classic-sf/

Neat essay - thanks. Really got me thinking...here are a few formidable
L’Engle - A Wrinkle in Time 1962 (Meg Murry)
Herbert - Dune 1965 (Chani, maybe others)
McCaffrey - Dragonflight 1968 (Lessa)
McKillip - The Forgotten Beasts of Eld 1974 (Sybel)
Hambly - The Time of the Dark 1982 (Gil Patterson)
McKinley - The Blue Sword 1982 (Angharad “Harry” Crewe)
       and The Hero and the Crown 1984 (Aerin)
Cook - Black Company 1984 (The Lady - and Soulcatcher too, now that I
think about it)
Bujold - Shards of Honor 1986 (Cordelia Naismith)
Scott - Silence Leigh (trilogy released 1985-7)
Lee & Miller - Agent of Change 1988 (Miri Robertson)
Moon - The Deed of Paksenarrion (1988-9) (Paksenarrion, aka Paks)
Tony

I did not realize Shards Of Honor was that old. Cordelia's Shopping trip !

Lynn

[Michael F. Stemper]

Post by Tony Nance

  Five Formidable Female Characters From Classic SF
https://reactormag.com/five-formidable-female-characters-from-classic-sf/

L’Engle - A Wrinkle in Time 1962 (Meg Murry)

I wouldn't have thought of her, but yeah.

Post by Tony Nance
Herbert - Dune 1965 (Chani, maybe others)

Jessica, surely. Possibly more so than Chani.

Asimov; "The Ugly Little Boy"; 1958
Edith Fellowes is not only formidable, she's possibly the most *real* person
that Asimov ever portrayed.

[Scott Dorsey]

Post by Michael F. Stemper
Asimov; "The Ugly Little Boy"; 1958
Edith Fellowes is not only formidable, she's possibly the most *real* person
that Asimov ever portrayed.

This is true, BUT... isn't she really just Susan Calvin modified a bit?
--scott