Alanna of Trebond – a childhood hero

Alanna, the Lioness
Alanna, the Lioness

I first devoured the Song of the Lioness series when I was ten; to say that it was my favourite set of books ever is to understate the case. Alanna, the series protagonist, was my childhood hero, and not just because she had a magic sword and a talking cat. Alanna was my hero because she was doing something forbidden and getting away with it.

It wasn’t an especially bad thing that she was doing, like selling drugs or stealing, she was just doing what the boys did – playing with swords, riding horses, going to war – and if that meant she had to lie about her gender, well, that only added to the tension.

Read more

K’Ehleyr – The Targ that ate the canary

Portrait of Ambassador K’Ehleyr
Ambassador K’Ehleyr

Targ – a boar-like creature with spikes along it’s back. Generally considered to be the Klingon equivalent of a cat.

At 5’9” with a forehead that looks like it could deflect a sledgehammer this all-star isn’t someone you’d like to encounter in a dark alley. Half-Klingon, half-human and a good deal more attractive than the former, K’Ehleyr gets to be the first shuttle off my all-star hero rank because it’s hard to go past a woman who can take the piss out of Worf ((She’s also my favourite Star Trek character, but only if you exclude Chris Pine as Captain Kirk.)).

Read more