If you could recommend any i'd appreciate it. Preferably Sci-Fi or fantasy, but I'm fine with other genres as well.
In the end of The Mists of Avalon Morgaine is somewhat "elderly". The entire saga could have been written as a memoir if the author had wanted it that way. It's a shame I can't think of nothing else but I guess that's because elderly age is not a fine time for adventures. Psychical constraints and all that. But I'm sure this thread was overlooked and someone will add some more examples. On a different genre, you have Agatha Christy's Miss Marple. Not so much about the adventures but the wisdom and experience that come with age. Oh, and of course, many vampire heroines are really old though they don't show it.
It's a bit dated, but The Stone Angel by Margaret Lawrence? (not SFF, just contemporary). And I remember reading a action/crime novel with a retired (female) federal agent as the MC, but it was pretty annoying. She kept doing really stupid things and she was super-fit, as I recall, so really she just sort of acted like a young, inexperienced-but-strong female character rather than a more interesting older, weaker-but-experienced female character.
Take a look at this link: https://catherineldf.dreamwidth.org/261709.html May want to do some looking into MZB before deciding whether you want to give money to her estate.
Yep, there are a few murder mystery series with elderly female protagonists. The only ones I can immediately think of are Mrs. Pollifax (Dorothy Gilman) Miss Silver (Patricia Wentworth, and, hey, are some of them back in print? Wow, she died in 1961 but they're re-releasing some of them in hard cover for $23.95. Or are they making new ones with a ghost writer? Huh.) Miss Melville (Evelyn Smith, though she's really not elderly; she's probably younger than me, but there's always a vague vibe of age) Mrs. Oliver (also Agatha Christie, also probably just middle aged)
Also, I think, Agatha Raisin. As I recall, she's meant to be middle-aged. Not elderly, but older than what you typically find in a female protagonist.
Yes! I was trying to remember her but couldn't remember her name or Hamish's name or the author's name. Now that you've given me Raisin: The author is M.C. Beaton.
Yes, that's right. I've only read the first one, which I picked up because a member of my critique group is writing that style of detective story and I wanted a reference so I'd have some idea what I was talking about in critiquing it. I quite enjoyed the book--it was a lot of fun, and Raisin is quite a character.
Caliban's War, the second book in the expanse series, has an elderly politician as a major POV character, and she's my favorite character of that series.
