Brishen Khaskem, prince of the Kai, has lived content as the nonessential spare heir to a throne secured many times over. A trade and political alliance between the human kingdom of Gaur and the Kai kingdom of Bast-Haradis requires that he marry a Gauri woman to seal the treaty. Always a dutiful son, Brishen agrees to the marriage and discovers his bride is as ugly as he expected and more beautiful than he could have imagined.
THE NOBLEWOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE
Ildiko, niece of the Gauri king, has always known her only worth to the royal family lay in a strategic marriage. Resigned to her fate, she is horrified to learn that her intended groom isn’t just a foreign aristocrat but the younger prince of a people neither familiar nor human. Bound to her new husband, Ildiko will leave behind all she’s known to embrace a man shrouded in darkness but with a soul forged by light.
Two people brought together by the trappings of duty and politics will discover they are destined for each other, even as the powers of a hostile kingdom scheme to tear them apart.
If Draven doesn’t write an additional book for Anhuset and Serovek and makes them finally kill each other during sex or something, I will riot. The plot of Kirgipa and Necos was also interesting and I would love to see how their stories developed.
The heroine is certainly not as attractive as her beautiful best
friend who gets her own interesting plot line.
The
Darkangel (the Darkangel Trilogy, #1) – Meredith Ann Pierce
The protagonist starts out as unattractive, later she undergoes a transformation of
her appearance which represents a turning point in her character development.
This book has lots of female characters of all shapes and sizes.
The main heroine is plain and a bit overweight. Another important
famale character is dead and looks the part. Both have very
attractive love interests.
This heroine is actually very attractive by human standards.
Unfortunately the male protagonist isn’t human and he finds her
appalling and he’s just as ugly to her. The like each other from the
start.
Stolen
Songbird (The Malediction Trilogy, #1) – Danielle L. Jensen
The heroine spends her time around
(mostly) human looking and extremely attractive trolls. She’s not
quite up to their standards.
The heroine is almost a cyborg. Her extremities were replaced by
completely overpowered prosthetics after a horrific assault while
working as a government agent. She’s traumatized, in pain, doesn’t
have full control of her new body and hasn’t come to terms with her
new menacing look. The rock star demon elf protagonist is very much
into her. Yes, really. This book uses and often subverts every trope
known to fantasy and science fiction.
Herb-Witch (Lord
Alchemist Duology, #1) – Elizabeth McCoy
Within the world described in this book the heroine’s look is not only considered
ugly but also shameful as it reveals her barbarian heritage.
The protagonist starts out as rather plain, later she undergoes a transformation of
her appearance which represents a turning point in her character development.
The heroine is fat. She does lose weight while trying to survive
on a hostile alien planet though. The lizard man protagonist is
interested in her either way. All kinds of trigger warnings for this
book: violence, rape, gore, death. It’s also over 900 pages long.
Crazy.
This one stands out as it’s the only book written by a man. It’s
also one of my earliest conscious encounters with an unattractive
female protagonist. For me that was a formative experience. Rather on
the hard side of science fiction the narrative follows the good
looking male protagonist who is a kind of emissary from a culture that values
aesthetics to the extreme coming to a planet where people live by a
more practical approach to life. The female protagonist assigned to him as his assistant is so ugly to him that he can’t
stop staring. After some culture clashing they get married.
I’m always looking for more of my beloved ugly heroines. They are quite difficult to find. So if you know of a book or a movie, please let me know! Reblog this with your suggestions, chat me up, ask or submit. All suggestions are welcome.
TAG: On my blog I use the “unconventional looking / conventionally unattractive heroine” tag.
suggested for Brienne and Jaime (I haven’t read ASOIAF, so I don’t know how they are described in the book but Brienne and Aria from the TV series are certainly great unconventional looking female characters.)
I can’t believe I forgot this book the first time around. The heroine is plain and capable and has a sexy voice but not when she sings. It’s weird. Great book.
I haven’t read this one yet but Tanith Lee is always highly recommended.
Aaaaaaaaaaaand another addition…
Older Women Getting the Hot Guy in Fantasy and Science Fiction
I have thought long and hard if I should make a separate post or just add it to this one. I decided to do the latter because the list for older heroines is so ridiculously short (as of yet) I wouldn’t even call it a list.
Ok, first let’s define “older woman”. According to who gets storylines that center around personal growth, getting it on with a desirable love interest AND saving the day, thirty is the onset of old-age in genre fiction. Very, very seldom have I read a book where all those good things happen to a woman older than twenty-nine. Oh and BTW I’m practically a crone by these standards. So if any of you are offended by this just remember that this post is written by the most offended old hag aka ME.
“But,” some of you might say, “there are plenty of BAMF woman over thirty in fantasy and science fiction.” Yeah, true but they get different kind of stories than woman below that magic age ESPECIALLY in books.
And that’s because these woman are so very mature that having adventures, falling madly in love and behaving accordingly is absolutely beneath them. Also there is no more character growth possible because the typical human woman is mentally complete by that age. Excitement, immature decisions and the use of sarcasm are also absolutely out of the question.
Have you read the last paragraph in a sarcastic voice? If not, try again.
“But,” I hear some of saying, “I know tons of really cool female characters over the age of thirty or at least played by actresses older than thirty on TV and in movies who fall in love, make mistakes and learn from them, save the day and go on great adventures.” Very true, I agree. And out of all these cool characters I will take Captain Janeway as example. She’s smart, capable, the hero of her own story, feminine AND strong, just a great character in short. She’s also physically attractive. I’m not holding that against her character but it’s just a perfect example how not being young anymore is not much of a problem if the female character in question is beautiful. Beauty trumps age in the visual medium. In genre books however any women above the age of thirty is “ewww old” apparantly.
End of rant. Here is my (very short) list of books with older women in genre fiction:
The heroine is 47(!). And she’s not even compensating it by being stunningly beautiful (for her age). How dare!!! AND the LI is an Orc. 🙂 If you want to know more @ever-hungry-aria has written a great review here.
Not sure if this one qualifies because the heroine is 37 or 38 if I remember correctly but ends up looking like 17. The character doesn’t change her behaviour. She continues to act believably like a woman closer to 40 than 20 which is sometimes hilarious. Great book, some LGBT themes and hard to pin down genre-wise.
“I want something better than this for women. Intelligence, compassion, integrity, persistence, the ability to look beyond oneself — these are qualities that we should encourage all genders to value and embrace, both in themselves and others, from a young age. But the assumption that heroines need to be good-looking creates a corresponding assumption about women who are not. Books have the power to combat the idea of appearance as defining currency. Books can show us that admirable and interesting women come in all shapes and sizes.“
Very good article on female beauty standards in genre fiction. This topic is very close to my heart and I agree with most of it. The author is unfortunately a bit dismissive of women having romantic plot lines and I get where she’s coming from. Still I don’t agree with her.
Of course we need to see heroines who have other worries besides their love interest but she makes it sound as if a romantic love diminishes the female protagonist and takes away from the realistic depiction of a character. Romantic love is for most people a very important part of our daily life and I love to read about it in my fantasy and science fiction novels.
That cover looked so amazing I instantly headed over to Amazon and YAWN.
Book descriptions that use “beautiful” as the defining descriptor of the heroine instantly sound so off-putting and boring to me. I’ve read and seen too many stories with that kind of character and NOPE. I have zero desire to hear more about the tragic condition of “too beautiful”. Yes, it’s possible to turn that into a plot device but never an interesting one.
Double YAWN if the beautiful heroine is destined for some destiny because she has the most magical magic in all the land.
I don’t want to be negative but I’m just tired of all these unbelievable beauties. I just wish there were more female characters who are ordinary women in extraordinary circumstances. You know, like their male counterparts…
Monsters and Villains 