From: elliemurasaki	Date: March 6th, 2011 07:56 pm (UTC)		(Link)

What genres do you normally go for?

	From: just_ruth	Date: March 6th, 2011 08:06 pm (UTC)		(Link)

The Princess Trilogy by Jim C. Hines tagline: "Do we look like we need to be rescued?"

Empowering Fairy Tales!

The first book "The Stepsister Scheme" deals with Cinderella (aka Danielle de Glas - daughter of a glass blower mistreated by her step-family) and her battle with her step-sisters to get back her kidnapped Prince from the Fairy Hill. She's helped by "Sleeping Beauty" - Talia Malak-el-Dahshat who woke from her enchanted sleep in labor with twins by the Prince who broke through the circle of enchanted thorns, slaughtered her entire family and raped her. He returned to claim his prize and she slit his throat.

"Snow White" is there too - she works magic with mirrors and flirts with any male on two legs. :)

The second book is "The Mermaid's Madness" - the little mermaid didn't sacrifice herself for her philandering prince and her revenge could endanger shipping over the world. . .

The third book is "Red Hood's Revenge" - Rodette, Little Red Riding hood, strayed from the path and ended up in the wolf's belly - but she became the hunter as a werewolf and an assassin. An assassin hired to kill Princess Sleeping Beauty.

	From: tifaching	Date: March 6th, 2011 08:40 pm (UTC)		(Link)

C.J. Cherryh's Chanur series, or Cyteen or her Morgaine novels are all awesome. Strong female characters and amazing stories.

	From: delta_mai	Date: March 6th, 2011 09:22 pm (UTC)		(Link)

SUM: FORTY TALES OF THE AFTERLIVES

It is a beautiful book of easy to read musings of all the possible afterlives. I cannot describe how it will enrich your life - it's sweet, poignant, mind bending, insightful... It's just pefect. And really cheap. Buy it and thank me later.

	From: honeylocusttree	Date: March 6th, 2011 09:22 pm (UTC)		(Link)

A couple years back I picked up a copy of The Last Unicorn. I wanted something kinda silly and simple and maybe with a bit of the childlike quality of fantasy that I once took for granted in my reading. What I got was a complex meditation on mortality and humanity and the nature of love and despair and hope.

Really.

If you haven't read this book, do so.

	From: ryumaxwell	Date: March 7th, 2011 02:08 am (UTC)		(Link)

I reccomend the books in the 'Parasol Protectorate' series. : ) they're hilarious, and well written.

	From: synful_trixxie	Date: March 7th, 2011 03:17 am (UTC)		(Link)

Since I only read books with strong female characters... I have a few suggestions :)

The Mercedes Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. The main character Mercy is a vw bug mechanic... who also happens to be a walker who can turn into a coyote, who happens to live next door to werewolves, is friends with a vampire, and was trained by a Fae. *grins* She caught me the first few pages in... and I've been reading this series ever since.

The Rachel Morgan series by Kim Harrison. The main character is a witch... who happens to work for the I.S. The *thinks* the big bad monsters version of the FBI. They keep all the vampires, pixies, witches, ect. in line. I adore this series... seriously... the author has taken one concept of our timeline... the "space race" and turned it into... "what if the world hadn't focused on space... but instead focused on human science and genetics." This single change to our world netted the world with Inderland Society... witches, werewolves, vampires, living vampires... pixies, ect... all living with normal humans... or at least trying to.

And last?
The Kitty Norville Series by Carrie Vaughn. A werewolf named Kitty who hosts a radio show about all the things that go bump in the night that aren't supposed to exist... but really do. Most humans think it's a gimick but the ones that "know" or are the things that go bump in the night, use her radio show as a support structure.

Hope this helps.

	From: eruvadhril	Date: March 7th, 2011 05:44 am (UTC)		(Link)

I'm a fan of Catherine Webb's Horatio Lyle series. It's roughly equal parts Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Who, Lords and Ladies from Discworld, and chemistry/physics lesson.

Tamora Pierce always delivers the goods on fantasy heroines. She has two main series: the Tortall books and the Circle of Magic books. The Tortall ones are mostly focused on a single person in each series, and the Circle of Magic ones have more of an ensemble cast.

Not sf/fantasy, but I'd recommend Tomorrow When The War Began for strong female characters. If you like it, I'd recommend the movie, too. As a fan of the books, it satisfied me greatly.

	From: delilahdraken	Date: March 7th, 2011 06:02 am (UTC)		(Link)

I recommend the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer. They are a really cool mix of fantasy and sci-fi, think Die Hard or Leathal Weapon with fairies.

Abarat by Clive Barker is just wow. I have no other word but wow for this magical story.

Then there is Dune, which took my breath away with its complex story.

	From: whreflections	Date: March 7th, 2011 12:55 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I'd recommend Incarceron by Catherine Fisher. It's sci fi, has a couple of strong female characters, and on the whole it's just really interesting and awesome with a couple of cool twists. I picked it up over Christmas because of a book card I'd gotten, and I really fell in love with it. There's one sequel that's really awesome too, ^^

	From: faithburke	Date: March 7th, 2011 10:40 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan
Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher
Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher
Dragonback Series by Timothy Zahn
Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce
Women of the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong