Newcastle Tai Chi

When I was writing the story (The Tombs of Atuan) in 1969, I knew of no women heroes of heroic fantasy since those in the works of Ariosto and Tasso in the Renaissance. These days there are plenty, though I wonder about some of them. The women warriors of current fantasy epics - ruthless swordswomen with no domestic or sexual responsibilities who gallop about slaughtering baddies - to me they look less like women than like boys in women's bodies in men's armour.

(Ursula Le Guin)