strong women characters

[anotheranon]

I'd been recommended the Honor Harrington series long ago (hat tip vree and skill_grl), but it took D. getting me the first one for Christmas to finally get me reading it.

Wow... wow! A confident female lead who does stuff plus 10 chapters in and not a love interest in sight (nothing wrong with love interests, but it seems every single fictional female character has to have one, so it's nice to see one without, or at least not the focus)! I think it even meets the Mo Movie Measure, as thus far she's talked to other named female characters (Suchon the medical officer; Matsuko, Medusa's commissioner) about work.

semmie17, it's kinda like Horatio Hornblower in space, with a female protagonist.

And being a geek for good visuals, I have to think this would make an awesome movie.. .but who would play Honor?

Based on the description I initially thought Angelina Jolie should cut off her hair again, but she's too delicately pretty with her full lips and turned up nose - Harrington is described as having strong features. Are there any women in Hollywood who do?

Maybe Claudia Christiansen (Babylon 5's Susan Ivanova)?

But then, I'm the newbie in the Honorverse. Who would y'all cast?

Comments

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

Hmm..a young Glenn Close would have been good, but alas, she's too old now...

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Haven't read the books (now added to the bottomless to-read list, darn you!), but, after reading the Wikipedia entry and with my usual tendency to go for the obscure, would Rishma Malik do? (she played one of the widows in Deepa Mehta's "Water" and also had a supporting comedic role in Mehta's "Bollywood/Hollywood") ... her features are a nonstandard mix of strong/pretty and those two films certainly demonstrate her wide acting range.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Maybe.. skill_grl does say that later books suggest that she's Asian; I think Indian subcontinental falls under that...

Love her shirt!

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

For the shirt love, here's the place to buy it (and other such goodies): Desi Threads. Happy screenlicking. ;-)

My oh my ... I'm predicting the ethnicity of characters I don't know now? Just wish I'd been able to turn up a better piccie of Malik than those two little ones I linked ... Google-image-searching her kept resulting in portraits of Lisa Ray, the star of "Bollywood/Hollywood" and "Water" instead the actual searchee. :p

[curiousangel.livejournal.com]

Having read much of the series, I'll warn you that the quality drops off in the later books as the word count goes up. Still, the first several books are excellent, and deal with some difficult issues very well. I still think Weber has some odd choices for his plotting (interrupting a chase scene to explain the development of the stardrive, for instance), but these days he's too big a name to put up with a lot of editing. Ah, well.

As far as casting... Maura Tierney immediately springs to mind, as does Lena Headey. Some searching online led me to Kateri Walker, as well. Maybe Eliza Dushku, in a few years.

No idea if any of these ladies would have the chops to pull it off acting-wise. The problem with well-known actresses is that they tend to rate high on the "conventional attractiveness" scale, and it's made obvious that Honor doesn't especially do so, nor does she value it.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I still think Weber has some odd choices for his plotting (interrupting a chase scene to explain the development of the stardrive, for instance), but these days he's too big a name to put up with a lot of editing.

I'll keep it in mind - he does seem to love talking tech even in the first one. Damn pity if he resists editing - it's one of the main reasons I don't read Anne Rice anymore!

The problem with well-known actresses is that they tend to rate high on the "conventional attractiveness" scale, and it's made obvious that Honor doesn't especially do so, nor does she value it.

Add to that the tendency of Hollywood to try and sex up everything and I question whether a film of this series could be done well at all. The women you suggested look right-ish, though I'm not sure I've seen any of them in anything.

Lucy Liu

[skill-grl.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure an asian person is required by details in later books.

Not sure, though.