DISCLAIMER: I realize this topic has...strayed and that it is entirely my fault, but these books are still all in the same sub-genre and vein, vampires and female protagonists and whatnot.

Quote Originally Posted by Yukimura
Yeah, I've read most of the books by the authors you mentioned Ryl. I spent pretty much all of my college reading time on the urban fantasy/magic/kick butt heroine series where Kim and Kelly are pretty settled. However after recently finishing Lilith Saintcrow's Dante Valentine series Patricia Briggs's Mercy Thompson series I've started to realize that I'm growing tired of so called kick butt heroines. I just can't find much variety among them anymore. If you know of any authors whose heroines don't have to deal with nagging fear or self-doubt or other 'weak' emotions that they always need a relationship with a male character to get them through I would love to read them.

...

Unfortunately Harrison's main characters Rachel and Ivy getting too annoying because of their rampant indecisiveness (until the end of For a Few Demons More at least) and the story of my favorite Woman of the Otherworld, Eve, seems to be finished. I still haven't gotten a chance to read No Humans Allowed or Personal Demon yet but I was never all that into Jamie, but it should be out in paperback soon so I'll probably pick it up anyway just to see if she develops into something more than what she's been in the other books.

Something that really bugs me though is that I think both of the authors Ryl recommended are superior story tellers to LKH in the genre, as their books actually involve some risk and danger, however because of her Legion fanbase LKH is often still viewed as the God-Emporer of the genre by on lookers.
I guess I'll cover these in reverse order.

Sure, LKH definitely has the most vocal fanbase, but you'll always find plenty of people all too happy to admit her books are not that great. Like employees at Borders. Needless to say, those honest admissions have largely kept me away from her novels.

I'm waiting for Personal Demon to come out on paperback (and in part because I really didn't give two shits about the character when she appears in No Humans Involved), but I felt the same way as you did about No Humans Involved. Jamie always came off somewhat annoying and weak and all those things. But the novel really surprised me. Armstrong manages to cover a lot of the things you never really expected to be going on in Jamie's head, especially after some of the parts in Broken. Jamie was written as coming off fairly vapid in the other books, but not only does Armstrong have Jamie admit that in the novel, she proves it wrong. It covers a lot of the problems you voiced about the heroines of these kinds of books. No Humans Involved added a lot to my opinion of Jamie. I was kind of hoping for a Savannah book, but that might not happen before her books run out of ideas (which is partly why she wrote an assassin novel, which was good, but not great.)

You might want to try out the Noble Dead series by Barb and J.C. Hendee (Dhampir, Theif of Lives, Sister of the Dead, Traitor to the Blood, Rebel Fey, and a sixth one out in hardcover, Child of a Dead God).
- Set in a fairly medieval/renaissance period with a bit of the fantasy realm tossed in there (elves and such). Follows Maigere, a (fake) vampire hunter who ends up having to do the real thing and finds out that she is also a dhampir, the vampire half-blood. Along with her is a drunkard half-elf, and his strange looking wolf-dog. The saga just goes way outward from there. Here the heroine is definitely taking the lead and certainly the most powerful, she's more often than not the one doing the rescuing, but...everyone in the series all has their own issues. Each one has doubts about where they came from, what they are doing with their life. It can actually get a little depressing at times, but its not necessarily a bad shift from the "purportedly strong female lead needs saving anyway." They're not the greatest books I've read, but they just might be the shift in the archetype you're looking for.

The added bonus to these is that the villains of the series are just as equally developed and fleshed out as the main characters. The first novel actually does an amazing job at it.