What are your favorite fantasy and science-fiction novels/series? Out of the sf/f novels you've read, which ones featured positive portrayals of women? And are there any sf/f authors you'd suggest others to avoid?
Favorite novels? The Dispossessed by LeGuin is on my list. Nothing else springs immediately to mind. :x
Er. As far as stuff that has positive portrayals of women...that's kind of a requisite for what I read. Patricia K. McKillip does an OK job of it. I really love Riddle-Master-there's an "arranged marriage", ish, but the woman who has been promised away in marriage goes "fuck it" and heads off on her own adventure. When she finally finds the guy that she's been trying to track down for ages, and he wants her to stay at home, to "keep her safe", she protests and ends up following him. She also refuses to marry him, because she doesn't see the point-she loves him, she wants to live with him, they're already traveling together, why bother with a wedding?
Authors I suggest to avoid? Richard K. Morgan. Still haven't forgiven him for creepy comments re: women being easier to torture in Altered Carbon. D:
I'd reccomend Malinda Lo as a YA fantasy author to watch, she has some pacing problems but kickarse female protagonists and lesbian romance go along way to make up for that. Ash is the better of her two books
Garth Nix Abhorsen series is amazing (though again it's YA) with well written female leads
Christopher Wooding's Braided Path series was pretty good, original fantasy with interesting, varied and unpredictable strong women. Massive trigger warnings for rape and violence on the series though
I'm going to track this post, I'm especially interested in non neckbeardy sci-fi as I've not read much at all and would like to start with the good stuff =3
I think YA is a great resource for strong women protagonists AND sf/fantasy, and I'm not sure why. A lot of it is written by women (Suzanne Collins, Kristin Cashore, woman who wrote Forest of Hands and Teeth, etc.) I'm glad though, because thinking of what I was reading growing up, it seemed like the bulk of protags were still men (The Giver, Animorphs, Narnia)
Yeah it really is, I never really read much YA but I've started again recently for that reason
Yeah it seems like it was really Tamora Pierce and that was it back in the day
It's odd how it even seems to have extended to male YA authors too, like Garth Nix and Philip Pullman etc, maybe it's because there's not the pressure to make female characters ~sexy~?
It's odd how it even seems to have extended to male YA authors too, like Garth Nix and Philip Pullman etc, maybe it's because there's not the pressure to make female characters ~sexy~?
yeah, I'm sure that's part of it though I did find the ending of HDM written kind of titillatingly at the time I read it. part of the reason why speculative fiction YA novels are so successful is because they can talk about puberty, relationships, etc. without talking about them directly in a lot of ways, which is really cool. (Like Delirium, where love is actually considered a neurological illness)
I really, REALLY like The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge. The main character borders on Purity Sue, but all the women are complex and awesome in their own way and the worldbuilding is excellent. I haven't enjoyed its sequel, The Summer Queen, quite as much.
The Orphan's Tales are really WEIRD, but excellent if you don't mind non-linear storytelling. They're not perfect, but I really like them. A lot of Catherynne Valente's books seem to have great female characters, although I've liked some of her books better than others. (I didn't care for Palimpsest, and I found The Habitation of the Blessed lacking in...something
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Re: OOH OOH BOOKS YAYreservoirJuly 19 2011, 00:15:15 UTC
The Black Jewels series is one I have a lot of fondness for but I don't think I could genuinely recommend to anyone in good faith, honestly. I first read them in high school and really enjoyed them then, but now that I'm older I see a lot more of the gross problematic bits. It's like Anne Bishop wanted to write a badass matriarchal world and almost did, and then tripped on a giant crack in the patriarchy sidewalk and inserted a lot of bullshit about virginity and power and men blah blah blah.
Re: OOH OOH BOOKS YAYelialshadowpineJuly 19 2011, 04:47:10 UTC
I adore the Black Jewels books even though I readily acknowledge they have problematic bits. Crack, I say. CRACK.
Despite the problematic elements with the society and setting, I do think that they have some really awesome badass women in the books. Surreal is and will probably always be one of my favorite characters ever. And Karla. OMG, Karla. And pretty much all of Jaenelle's Circle. And Draka. And even Wilhelmina. And and and...
not strictly sf/f butkorinnaJuly 19 2011, 00:06:54 UTC
Margaret Atwood is one of my favorite authors. I'm sure a lot of people here are familiar with The Handmaid's Tale - it's such a wonder dystopia novel, and one of the few that thoughtfully considers how women would be affected in a dystopic society.
I also like Atwood's post-apocalyptic Oryx and Crake and her follow-up to it, The Year of the Flood. The latter is better, IMO, but that's because it had two really interesting and well-realized female protagonists (as opposed to O&C's sole male protagonist, who was really annoying, maudlin, and constantly masturbating). There's a lot of interesting commentary going on in the novels about Capitalism and sexism and things like that.
Re: not strictly sf/f butclafountJuly 19 2011, 01:17:44 UTC
There were parts of Oryx and Crake that I didn't really like (and I don't know if I could articulate it) but I post-apocalyptic fiction is one of my all time favorite genres so I still loved it. I've got Oryx and Crake sitting on my Kindle waiting for me to read it. Knowing that it has female protagonists makes me want to read it more.
Re: not strictly sf/f butkorinnaJuly 19 2011, 15:09:13 UTC
Jimmy/Snowman is kind of a creep about Oryx (and indulges in a lot of "positive" sexism), and Oryx's back-story is a little odd in how it intersects with Atwood's treatment of child pornography (pre-apocalypse) -- so I wonder if that's something that put you off. I particularly didn't like the Jimmy/Snowman aspect of the novel, especially his view of Oryx, but Atwood intentionally made him kind of unintelligent and a product of his (sexist, exploitative) society. So it worked. But I do like The Year of the Flood better because the protagonists are (intentionally, I think) more enjoyable.
Lackey will always have a special place in my heart. She is why I didn't hate myself as a pansexual teen with a family that lectured against gay people. And Tarma, Kethry, and Kerowyn remain some of my favorite characters ever.
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Er. As far as stuff that has positive portrayals of women...that's kind of a requisite for what I read. Patricia K. McKillip does an OK job of it. I really love Riddle-Master-there's an "arranged marriage", ish, but the woman who has been promised away in marriage goes "fuck it" and heads off on her own adventure. When she finally finds the guy that she's been trying to track down for ages, and he wants her to stay at home, to "keep her safe", she protests and ends up following him. She also refuses to marry him, because she doesn't see the point-she loves him, she wants to live with him, they're already traveling together, why bother with a wedding?
Authors I suggest to avoid? Richard K. Morgan. Still haven't forgiven him for creepy comments re: women being easier to torture in Altered Carbon. D:
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Garth Nix Abhorsen series is amazing (though again it's YA) with well written female leads
Christopher Wooding's Braided Path series was pretty good, original fantasy with interesting, varied and unpredictable strong women. Massive trigger warnings for rape and violence on the series though
I'm going to track this post, I'm especially interested in non neckbeardy sci-fi as I've not read much at all and would like to start with the good stuff =3
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Yeah it seems like it was really Tamora Pierce and that was it back in the day
It's odd how it even seems to have extended to male YA authors too, like Garth Nix and Philip Pullman etc, maybe it's because there's not the pressure to make female characters ~sexy~?
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yeah, I'm sure that's part of it though I did find the ending of HDM written kind of titillatingly at the time I read it. part of the reason why speculative fiction YA novels are so successful is because they can talk about puberty, relationships, etc. without talking about them directly in a lot of ways, which is really cool. (Like Delirium, where love is actually considered a neurological illness)
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The Orphan's Tales are really WEIRD, but excellent if you don't mind non-linear storytelling. They're not perfect, but I really like them. A lot of Catherynne Valente's books seem to have great female characters, although I've liked some of her books better than others. (I didn't care for Palimpsest, and I found The Habitation of the Blessed lacking in...something ( ... )
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Despite the problematic elements with the society and setting, I do think that they have some really awesome badass women in the books. Surreal is and will probably always be one of my favorite characters ever. And Karla. OMG, Karla. And pretty much all of Jaenelle's Circle. And Draka. And even Wilhelmina. And and and...
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I also like Atwood's post-apocalyptic Oryx and Crake and her follow-up to it, The Year of the Flood. The latter is better, IMO, but that's because it had two really interesting and well-realized female protagonists (as opposed to O&C's sole male protagonist, who was really annoying, maudlin, and constantly masturbating). There's a lot of interesting commentary going on in the novels about Capitalism and sexism and things like that.
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