Reading male authors

[selinara]

This has been sitting in the back of my mind for some time. Not only have I been talking about it whenever I do reader's advisory, but then I stumbled across this article by a colleague.  And, link follower that I am (thanks Wikipedia!) I read this article too. Now, even though they were written in April, I only read them about a month ago.

You see, much as I love crime fiction, I read a little bit of everything else. And as long as I can remember, I have had serious problems with male sci-fi and fantasy writers. Not all of them, obviously, but enough that I will instinctivly grab a female author's work over a male author's work when neither of them are known to me.

This, along with a complete lack of editing is why i can't get through Tolkien's writing. Why I will probably never get through Robert Jordan or any of a large number of well-known fantasy writers. When I'm reading a book, and I find any or all of the following 'characters' it makes me want to scream:

• The damsel in distress. You know, the one who is always helpless, being kidnapped and held hostage. The one who even if you gave her a knife couldn't figure how to cut the ropes tieing her up. Who can't light a fire, who can't cook, who couldn't even survive if it weren't for the hero(s).
• The overworked mother/wife. You know the type, the one who needs the charity of the hero to survive. Who exists only to show that 'gee, he must be a good guy'. If she had any sort of back story, I could live with her, it adds interest. But when she's just a stock character that we see for a page or two....grrr.
• The whining wife. Who even though she willingly married the guard/hero/knight spends her time whining about how he's not good enough, how they don't have enough time together, etc. Hes, being married to the 'cop' is hard. (Just look at the divorce rate.) But if all we ever see of her is a whining, shrieking harridan of a wife who serves to give our 'cop' reason to go on adventures, I can't stand her. At least give her something else to do from time to time, 'kay?
• The heinous b***. She's the warrior woman. A strong female warrior, that's good, right? Except for the fact that she either acts like one of the guys, or is so angry and scary that everyone watches their step around her.
• The tavern wench. The 'woman of negotiable affection' who will not only feed our travelling men, but make sure that they are... comfortable. May or may not appear for more than two paragraphs.
• The 'See, it's a girl, so there's no ho-yay here' woman. Tolkien, I'm looking at you. We may meet her briefly, or may only hear about her. She's the character that proves our manly men characters are only sharing tents, not bedrolls. There will be sighing, and pining, but very little interaction untill the end. Often related to the 'perfect princess'.
• The perfect princess. She's beautiful, she's witty, she can keep track of a hundred servants, make bandages and sew. All in an afternoon. We see more written about her looks and outfits than we do about her and her thoughts. Often the 'DiD' or the 'No ho-yay' character as well.

Now, I realize that there is use to stock characters. Having a recognizable trope means that you don't need to fill in the blanks as much as you might otherwise, and can get back to the plot. I see that all the time in romance novels. What bugs me so much about the male sci-fi/fantasy writers is that many of them never break out of these tropes. That there will be a grand total of 2-3 named and written about women (with 'Liutenant #3 in the background) and that they will only ever be one of the above.

David Eddings will always be picked up and read by me, because he has powerful, interesting, flawed and different women populating his books. I'll pick up L.E. Modesitt, because while the main character in the Spellsong War is beautiful, she's also middle-aged, and her life experience is what gives her the strength and knowledge to carry on. Jim Butcher doesn't have many female characters, but the ones I've read have been multifaceted, and actual friends with the main hero. David Webber is on my 'to read' list because of his main character Honor Harrington. She's got a series of her own, and seems to grow and develop throughout the series.

Anyone else out there that I have to try? Anyone I should avoid like the plague?