In 2009, our inaugural year, Sirens examined warriors, with Guests of Honor Kristin Cashore, Tamora Pierce, and Sherwood Smith (and in our 2013 reunion year, Guest of Honor Robin LaFevers represented warriors). We delved deep on what it means to be to a warrior, especially as that construct intersects with gender and gender expression.

In 2009, we suggested a number of books that considered gender and warrior archetypes. For Sirens at Home, though, we want to feature 10 books that we think have something to say about warriors, not to mention gender and other axes of oppression. Here are those books, as well as their opening words—and we’ve included links to those works at Bookshop in the titles. Bookshop supports both Sirens and independent bookstores, so if you’re looking to purchase any of these titles, they’re a great option!

1. A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney
	“Alice couldn’t cry. She couldn’t scream. All she could do was run.”
2. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
	“Pick me. It’s all I can do not to scream. I dig my nails into the marula oak of my staff and squeeze to keep from fidgeting. Beads of sweat drop down my back, but I can’t tell if it’s from dawn’s early heat or from my heart slamming against my chest. Moon after moon I’ve been passed over. Today can’t be the same.”
3. Crown Duel/Court Duel by Sherwood Smith
	“I hope any of my descendants reading this know exactly what the Covenant and the Code of War are, but there is always the chance that my story has been copied by the scribes and taken to another land that will consider Remalna distant and its customs strange.”
4. Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers
	“I did not arrive at the convent of the Saint Mortain some green stripling. By the time I was sent there, my death count numbered three, and I had had two lovers besides. Even so, there were some things they were able to teach me: Sister Serafina, the art of poison; Sister Thomine, how to wield a blade; and Sister Arnette, where best to strike with it, laying out all the vulnerable points on a man’s body like an astronomer charting the stars.”
5. Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
	“The day I came squealing and squalling into the world was the first time someone tried to kill me. I guess it should have been obvious to everyone right then that I wasn’t going to have a normal life.”
6. First Test by Tamora Pierce
	“Alanna the Lioness, the King’s Champion, could hardly contain her glee. Baron Piers of Mindelan had written to say that his daughter wished to be a page.”
7. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
	“In these dungeons, the darkness was complete, but Katsa had a map in her mind. One that had so far proven correct, as Oll’s maps tended to do.”
8. The Tiger’s Daughter by K Arsenault Rivera
	“Empress Yui wrestles with her broken zither. She’d rather deal with the tiger again. Or the demons. Or her uncle. Anything short of going north, anything short of war. But a snapped string? One cannot reason with a snapped string, nor can one chop it in half and be rid of the problem.”
9. We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal
	“People lived because she killed. And if that meant braving the Arz where even the sun was afraid to glimpse, then so be it.”
10. We Rule the Night by Claire Eliza Bartlett
	“Revna didn’t realize the war had come to them. Not until the factory stopped.”

For more information about our 2009 conference, including the programming presented that year, please see our 2009 archive page.