The Better Half of Science Fiction

Some of the best science fiction literature have interesting, well-defined female characters moving the story along. Some authors, such as Alastair Reynolds, almost exclusively write their stories with strong women characters. Others are more well-rounded in their character descriptions.

I'd like to highlight some of the more interesting women to grace the pages of speculative fiction. Love 'em or hate 'em, they are the ones that stick in my mind after the final page has been read.

Molly Millions - Neuromancer

What man wouldn't go crazy for a woman with surgically grafted sunglasses and retractable finger nail blades? Molly, who rarely shows emotion in William Gibson's seminal 1984 novel, Neuromancer, is the tough-talking "razor girl" that protects the protagonist, a burned-out hacker named Case, on his mission to...well, I don't want to spoil it.

I think there is an argument to be made that Molly had a partial influence on the character of Trinity in the Matrix series. In fact, it's an argument that the whole of the Matrix trilogy owes a lot to Neuromancer in general, but that's a conjecture for another day.

With her genetically enhanced reflexes and remorseless disposition towards her enemies, Molly's brief hints of vulnerability make a nice contrast to her normal cool-as-ice personality.

OK, so there's not much more to her than that. But does there really need to be in this story's case? Anyway, I look forward to reading more William Gibson novels featuring the little lady.

Ilia Volyova - Revelation Space, Redemption Ark

Alastair Reynolds created a bleak, neo-gothic universe with his Revelation Space books. As such, the women in his universe are a tough and gritty bunch -- not something entirely new, but always welcome.

In stark contrast to other worlds, such as the Hyperion Cantos and Dune, getting from one star system to another in the Revelation Space universe is a lesson in the cold brutality of relativity. The Ultras -- humans who travel between the stars -- have a decidedly different outlook on life than their planet-bound cousins.

Still, there are holdouts like the chain-smoking Triumvir Ilia Volyova. While not the cheeriest person in the galaxy, she doesn't quite possess the total nihilistic personality of your typical Ultra trader and eschews the penchant for the steampunk-style body form of her chimeric compatriots.

This doesn't place her as the most likable character by any means. We're introduced to Ilia in Revelation Space when she kidnaps one of the main protagonists of the story, Ana Khouri. She wants Ana to serve as her new Gunnery Officer after her previous one loses his noodles from interfacing with some ancient -- and decidedly sketchy -- self-aware weapons.

However, we can't help but secretly cheer her on when she's threatening some local authorities to nuke their city from space. We all know that deep inside, she's a softie and won't really do it.

Brawne Lamia - Hyperion/The Fall of Hyperion

Brawne Lamia tells her story in The Detective's Tale: The Long Good-Bye, one of the seven stories that make up most of the Hugo award-winning novel by Dan Simmons, Hyperion.

A private detective, she gets hired by an enigmatic man who wants her to find the person who murdered him. More than what he appears, she quickly falls in love with him and assists him on his mission to recover the five minutes he was "dead" and the five days of missing memory that resulted from his murder.

Sure, that sounds a bit strange, but as most good science fiction stories do, it makes sense when you read it.

Brawne's strong character and determination to help and protect her lover, the tragic consequences of their union, and her resulting pilgrimage to make sense of it all make her a compelling character, despite the stereotypical private investigator shtick.

Actually, the noir-like aspect of Brawne's tale only adds to the diversity of the seven stories in Hyperion, a book any Science Fiction Addict should read -- immediately -- if they haven't done so.

Lady Jessica - Dune

Imagine for a moment that your mother could take you on in single combat, immediately tell if you were lying, and make you eat your vegetables before you realized you were doing so just by using a special tone to her voice.

So yeah, that probably described your mother...but Paul Atreides' mother Jessica in Frank Herbert's 1965 Dune took that stereotype to new levels.

A member of the Bene Gesserit order, she used her powers to control her pregnancy and give herself and her Duke a son when her order demanded that she have a daughter as part of their centuries-long breeding program to produce a super-human man called the Kwisatz Haderach. This one act to please her Duke, Paul's father, changes the course of human history forever.

The daughter that the Bene Gesserit sisterhood wanted her to conceive was supposed to mate with a male heir of a competing family, with their son completing the breeding program and producing the Kwisatz Haderach. However, Jessica's insubordination brings the breeding program to an earlier conclusion...

I like Jessica for what she represents: a person that will go to any lengths for her family, regardless of the consequences and regardless of how history will judge her. As the bound concubine of Paul's father, Duke Leto Atreides, she accepts that he won't marry her because his open position increases his power in the feudal system that rules the human universe.

Jessica is even willing to sacrifice the goodwill of her family to further its goals. She shows the same royal pragmatism towards her son Paul by convincing him not to marry Chani, the woman he loves.

Novinha - Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind

Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is another book that consistently shows up on people's lists of favorite science fiction novels. The book -- by itself -- is very good; there's no denying that. However, the books that follow it in the series don't really hold a candle to it, although we are introduced to some interesting characters such as Jane (who doesn't make this list due to the fact that she's an AI -- I'm saving her for a future post).

Which brings me to Novinha, Ender's significant other. Introduced in Speaker for the Dead, arguably the best of the post-Ender's Game novels, we see a cold, distant, woman that for some reason, Ender can't seem to get enough of. Novinha makes this list for the simple reason that I can't stand her.

She's miserable, morose, doesn't appreciate her 3000 year-old destroyer-of-whole-races husband, and ends up joining a religious order.

I can understand Card's reasons for writing her character as he did. We are supposed to feel for Ender's character: his horrible past deeds and desire for redemption, his devotion to family and those in need, etc, etc. However, I end up losing respect for Ender because of his relationship with Novinha.

Considering the sales of the series, some people did enjoy the story arc and maybe even felt sympathy for Novinha. Not me though...somewhere halfway through Children of the Mind, I put the book down and never looked back.

Novinha makes this list simply for the remarkable amount of antipathy I have for her character.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it. Yes, there are many more that are worthy of note, but in the spirit of keeping this post relatively short, I've only included the ones that have remained in my memory long after I've finished reading the last page. In some cases, this may be more indicative of the quality of the story, rather than the character, but I didn't find any of them to be lifeless or unremarkable.

All of these women were crucial to the story (even Novinha) and characters that I cared about. In the case of Molly, I found myself worrying about her a great deal as she took on the more dangerous aspects of the story's mission. I felt genuine sorrow for Brawne's situation. Ilia, who I didn't feel was a sympathetic character at all in the beginning, grew on me eventually until she was one of my favorites. Jessica was probably the weakest character of the bunch in my estimation, but that is more an aspect of Dune's "texture" as a novel; the characters in Frank Herbert's universe play second fiddle to the grand story he weaves, not necessarily a bad thing in Dune's case. As for Novinha, I suppose she was crucial in defining a lot of character traits that embodied Ender.

If you haven't read these books yet, I highly recommend them, even Speaker for the Dead (if only for Jane). And leave a comment below to tell me what you think about the women listed above and any women I may have overlooked or should check out in my own future reading.