my favourite kind of book-and female characters

I like all areas of the scifi fantasy genre, but currently my thing is urban fantasy. Authors such as:
Jim Butcher(the Dresden Files-read them all including the graphic novel)
Kim Harrison(the Rachel Morgan witch series-all read)
Tanya Huff ( the Enchantment Emporium among others)
T.A.Pratt (Marla Mason series)
come to mind....

then there other books which are borderline genres.
Are the Sookie Stackhouse books(by Charlaine Harris) or Kelly Armstrong's stories, urban fantasy, horror, just fantasy or even supernatural romance-check out your local library, or bookstore..you will find them shelved in each of these sections...along with other vampire/werewolf stories .

I don't really care what they are identified as, they are to me a jolly good read, not too dark, a bit of magic and more than a few kick ass female characters.

Ah ha, now here I have hit on a regular theme in my fave books-the kick ass female character.She doesnt have to be the main character thought his is preferable, and she doesn't even need to be particulalry strong or always beating people up, just so long as she is not the regular damsel in distress.

I have been reading scifi and fantasy since I was a child, and only in the last few years have realised I prefer scifi , and urban fantasy. the reason is the treatment of female characters.

Logically to me, scifi and fantasy is just that, fantasy, fiction, MADE UP. So therefore characters do not need to be representative or be anything like REAL LIFE. So working on that theory, fantasy fiction, could have female heroines.

However, disappointingly this hardly ever happens. one of my favourite authors(you will have to guess), kinds disappointed me , when he basically said , when talking about female characters in fantasy novels, that the stories would be historically inaccurate if female characters were the heroes, or leadertypes etc....because most fantasy stories take place in a kind of middle ages era, when women traditionalyl submissive or protected from the world.

But it's a FANTASY WORLD, not real England in the middle ages... we didn't have dragons and trolls and magic rings etc in the middle ages either,!

Just my opinion-I think it the right one though.....

Thus I prefer not read stories where if the main characters is female she is bought or sold, uses her body to get some where, is raped then is having willing sex five minutes later...(this happened in an otherwise interesting and original book i can't remember the name of or author just now)....

next-a look at one of my favourite fantasy books...