Every Thursday we travel through the tropes of fantasy guided by our lovely host Nathan at The Fantasy Review Barn.  This week’s topic:

DARK LADY. There is never one of these – so see DARK LORD instead.

Um, I think our host missed a few chances with this one. I know we can find some evil women just as bent on control and destruction as their fellow dark lords. Let’s do this!

I won’t deny that this was more of a teaser!  It would have been easier to regurgitate old favourites but I wasn’t sure how well they would fit: The Snow Queen, she has magic, she has minions and she definitely plans to take over Narnia spreading her evil and cold.  In fact there are quite a number of evil queens – Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, Queen of the Vampires, Sleeping Beauty, etc, etc. Anyway, I kind of opted to go for something else (although I was strongly tempted to throw in DWJ’s witch of the waste:

Catarina from Teresa Frohock’s Miserere.  Catarina has made a dark covenant with a fallen angel called Mastema.  She intends to open the Gates of Hell and lead the hoardes into the dimension of Woerld.   Cruel, evil, possesses magic and intends to invade a different world using hell’s miniions.  I think this one counts.

Lilla – from Mike Allen’s Black Fire Concerto.  This is a book filled with darkness and horror, living dead, strange cancaballistic types and all other manner of evil.  The main pair, Erzelle and Olyssa, search for their enemy – a woman ensorcelled by magic and bent on death and destruction, already being responsible for the deaths of millions and holding under her sway the Grey Ones – who build machines and catacombs from the bones of the living dead.  Yeah, this woman is mad as a box of spiders and hell bent on ending the world.

This is a bit of a random one but – She (who must be obeyed) or Ayesha from Rider Haggard’s History of Adventure – Ayesha has discovered the secret of immortality.  She is also a great sorceress having the ability to restore the dead to life and read minds.  She definitely has magic, she is so beautiful that she bewitches anyone who gazes upon her, she’s definitely not a soft and fluffy type, she has minions (she who must be obeyed!) and she may not have plans to take over the world she’s pretty damned crazy!

That’s it for me – no honorary mention for either LoTR or HP – I feel deeply ashamed – this may be the first of my lists without Tolkien and Rowling – fail!