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

[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.)