Of books, pitfalls, recommendations and an age-old addiction to SF&F

[maldoror_gw]

Have you ever eaten oysters? Ever had the experience where three bad ones in a row turned you off the species entirely and maybe even permanently?

Comments

[tanrien]

Interesting post and thanks for the link to fictionrants - I only knew the communities about fanfiction and the one about original slash and was wondering if there were maybe different ones.

I like your analysis of why you don't read books anymore. At first I refused to read books with female main characters, because I discovered that in almost all cases I think they are written "wrong". Either there are the "standard issues", like, too Mary Sue-ish, too dependent, too stupid to be a main character, too 'obviously the author either hates or doesn't know women', and/or the books make me too angry with them (and the authors) to continue reading. So I usually avoid books with female main characters.
After that it was only a small step to the realisation that most characters act stupid and are badly written, and I simply didn't see it, because I don't get angry with male characters that fast.
I didn't stop reading books, but I buy few, maybe 10 a year, and I read even less, but instead focus more on online fiction and heavily on non-fiction and on my own writing. :(

Two books with female characters I enjoyed:
- The Boudica Series by Manda Scott - but I was only gushing for her from the sidelines, because while I love these super-awesome-will-be-THE-celtic-warrior-queen-archtype without all thee annoying stuff like Sue-ism, I read the books for the second (male) protagonist and not for the Boudica herself. And I haven't yet read the last of the four books.
- A Thousand Splendid Suns - which isn't, SADLY, fantasy ._.' And most of all it's about showing how horrible life for Afghan women was(/is/will be), so it left me very, very, very angry at the end.

For the rec: Well, maybe Boudica. and for another - This one doesn't have a female protagonist - though some strong female characters -, and it's F/SF, but the setting and the premise are really interesting and new; also, there is a totally unexpected plot twist in the middle. The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway.

[maldoror_gw]

You put into a nutshell why I stopped reading books with female leads, or even (and this is bad on my part) books written by female authors. THere's another kind of female lead that gets me spitting with rage, too. One of the three books that put me off SF&F entirely was about a female singer who gets BAMFED into another dimension. It started off okay, since she was a washed-out has-been of 40. That was great, an original female lead. But five minutes after she arrives in Dimension Wish Fullfilment, her body changes to that of a gorgeous 20-something. YARG! And THEN of course she runs into a Nasty Guy who beats the wife and wants to rape our heroine, because men are like that, right, and she puts the smackdown on him and Tells Him Off.

Yes, dear author, I needed your mouthpiece's sanctimonious monologue to teach me that rape and wife-beating are wrong. Thank you for illuminating me, I was obviously misguided since I thought those were just harmless pasttimes. The worst is that anyone who actually knows or cares about wifebeating would realize that the minute our heroine is out the door, the wife is going to get half killed in retaliation, but that twit of an author and her self-insert are blithe to that sort of realisim. Twits.

*cough* Ah, I do tend to go off on rants on this subject, I've noticed. I'll note down the Boudica recs, they look interesting, thanks! Also the other book, because even if I AM trying to give the SF&F gals another shot at getting my approval, I still bank on their male counterparts most of the time (which is BAD of me, I know, I know! But then again, that's the current state of affairs, I'm afraid.)

[cat_o_ninetails]

I emphatically second Gone-Away World - it is absolutely amazing.