I am a bitter Fantasy fan (now with recs)

[mothwing]

I have been reading Fantasy written by English and American authors ever since I was fourteen. It is my favourite genre, and most of my favourite books are Fantasy books. This genre was my cure for sadness, loneliness, and boredom ever since I discovered it. And even though I love that genre and spend quite an amount of time defending its literary

Comments

[cryingcat613]

Rage on! I have this same problem!

As for fantasy writers who don't suck, have you tried Tamora Pierce?

[yukinoomoni]

Oooooh, good choice. Her female characters are amazing.

[cryingcat613]

Yeah, even in the books I don't like (The Realms of the Gods, any book of the Circle series besides the first four), her female characters are great. I love being able to say that I don't like a book because I don't like the plot, not because the female characters sucked.

(Side note - did you hear that she's going to write about Numair's early years and then Maura? I'm so excited!)

Oh god, your icon roffles

[yukinoomoni]

I did not hear this. That is awesome!

[chasingtides]

In fandom, I've managed to find myself a bunch of meta writing feminists/queer analysts and I like to think we're a pretty good lot. (And can write fic with good female characters.) However, I'm the first to admit that we're hardly the majority (especially since I'm in the Torchwood and Supernatural fandoms where... it's crazy).

I'm a Neil Gaiman fan and I like to think that he writes good female characters. (A lot of his stuff is male-centric, but he has some freaking bad ass women - like Door and Hunter in Neverwhere who are more badass than any of the women or Laura and Bilquis and the Zoryas in American Gods. Coraline, I think, is an awesome female protagonist for a kids' book. Consider that when they made the movie, they felt they had to add in a boy character - he wasn't in the book.)

[mothwing]

My RL friends are, for the most part, interested in gender and queer criticism and also write fic, so I usually get my discussion fix there, but going from a discussion on gender politics in fandom and fanfic into regular discussions can be pretty depressing.

I never finished American Gods because I never got interested enough in the main character to get hooked, but I did like Coraline a lot.

[chasingtides]

If you're looking for strong female characters, then, I strongly recommend Neverwhere. There is a hero - of sorts - but the women are very much the driving force of the entire story. (Gah, I love both Door and Hunter.)

I'm big on posting meta - and whenever I post one on gender/sexuality/etc, someone comes along and tries to cause trouble. It's depressing, but it's also not always fandom related. (I have one on bisexuality in genre fiction - one person ended up deleting all of her comments - and even though I posted it nearly a year ago, I'm still getting people responding with inflammatory comments. It's... well, that one is, apparently, shown around and on the fandom wiki, so people see it, but I try to look at it as "I'm making people think. At least I know I'm making them think." It doesn't always make me feel better but at least I try.)

[mothwing]

Oh, I know where you're coming from. A friend and I spent the best part of two months arguing with a few other lit students about how sexism affects JKR's universe - their stance being that there is no sexism in HP and that male privilege does not exist. Fun times, and who would have guessed I'd be having the same discussion only a month later, though on a different forum?
I have yet to see any fandom that does react with frothy-mouthed denial when confronted with gender/sexuality/race/etc. related fail in their fandom.

Also - can you link to that meta post? I'm curious. :)

[mintyfreshsocks]

I also strongly recommend Neverwhere.

If you're looking for some really strong SFF, try Catherynne Valente (on LJ as yuki_onna), who has numbers of excellent female, minority and gay characters. I would especially suggest The Orphan's Tales -- it's two books, but they're two of the best books I've read in the past decade.

[mothwing]

Added to my "trying to hunt that one down in the library"-list. Thanks! :)

[arseaboutface]

I stopped engaging in fandom at all for some of the reasons you mention, but I can recommend Robin McKinley for excellent fantasy novels and stories about women and girls doing all sorts of interesting things.

[mothwing]

Huh, I'll see if I can find any of her books in the library around the corner. Thanks for the tip. :)

[arseaboutface]

Do! I discovered her in 7th grade, and have kept up with her since then (I'm 25). She's amazing. My favorites are Spindles End, The Hero and the Crown, and Sunshine, but I've never read one of her books that I didn't like.

[lisaquestions]

I'll back this up, although I somehow missed Spindles End.

I was also fond of The Blue Sword.

I think I discovered her in the 9th or 10th grade. :)

[mothwing]

Heh, you're the second person to recommend The Dresden Files to me today. I'll see if I can find it in the library. I had only read rather off-putting things about the main character so I didn't bother before.

Military SciFi is not really my thing, but you've given me an idea for a present for someone who is, so thanks a lot!

[mothwing]

I heard that he was a raging misogynist, and even a friend who isn't generally that bothered by misogyny in fiction said that he was a chauvinist, albeit a self-conscious one. When I heard that I wasn't sure whether that was the book I needed to be reading right then. :)

Must be down to different sensibilities, most probably.