When it comes to fantasy and science fiction, I can’t get enough – the book store is probably my favorite place, edging out a local Gamestop or my living room by a few. I love books, I love collecting them, I love reading them, love everything about them.
Except female authors.
Now, I’m not trying to say this to be sexist. And please, remember, this is dealing with the science fiction and fantasy genres which tends to be more of a male author dominated genre. But as I look through my towering bookshelves, crammed with paperbacks and hardcovers alike, very few of these authors are actually female. I only realized this today as I was browsing the shelves at the local Borders with my girlfriend. My usual process is to peruse the shelves, scanning for books from my favorite authors, series I read and admittedly, any covers that just look interesting ( those who know me know I’m a sucker for dragons ). As I was doing this, I found that I was simply jumping over many of the women authors and I realized, abashedly, that my past experiences with them have turned me off from their writings. It’s not for lack of trying – I’ve read Anne McCaffrey, Mercedes Lackey, Margaret Weis, and Naomi Novik. I’ve even read complete series by them and some of them I really do like.
Why then, do I not buy more books from female authors?
I think it really boils down to a couple of things. Most obvious being simply that I’m a guy and I think I relate more to male authors. I don’t mind female heroines at all, so it’s not the fact that the main character has to be male but it probably helps on a subconscious level. The next reason is that female authors aren’t dark enough for me. Most of their books don’t have enough pain or enough sense of loss to make certain stories gut wrenching enough for my tastes. I mean, some people ( like George RR. Martin ) go a little beyond and start wacking every main character in the book until you’re left wondering who the hell is going to survive long enough for him to write about, but it remains a problem. I look at these books and most of them have simple, happy endings. The plot was solved with a quick, easy solution and the whole party that you’ve adventured with throughout the story is alive. Not exciting.
The third thing I think that turns me away from the female authors ( which has to do with me being male ) is that I have a hard time getting into the romances in their books. I think this is mainly because they usually have female heroines and it’s told from the female point of view, something as a guy that while I can understand and appreciate, doesn’t resonate with me on the same level when it’s written from the male perspective. The drama, anger, jealousy and everything else just doesn’t come across to me quite right.
Now, this whole article isn’t to bash on female authors. These women are brilliant artists who have come up with something larger than I’ve ever been able to and their styles reach out to millions of people. I’m just saying, that on a whole, it’s much harder for me to buy books by female authors simply because I’ve had some bad tastes left in my mouth after reading them. I do have a select few ( Margaret Weis and Naomi Novik, especially ) that I list as some of my favorite authors.
So, if anyone reading this has some suggestions as to female authors you think I may enjoy, please, let me know. I’m eager to negate the aversion I’ve had to them in the past and I think it’d open me up to a whole new realm of books that I have brushed past in the bookstore.
Boyfriend. Really?
Here:
Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton. Subsequently, she has also appeared in the Dabel Brothers/Marvel Comics adaptation of her first novel, Guilty Pleasures. For whatever reason, I can’t explain, the first book took me awhile to read. Once past that one, I finished the next 16 books in a month (maybe two) and I’m a truly slow reader.
The series takes place in a parallel fantasy world where vampires, shape shifters, werewolves, faeries, etc. exist. Her night job, and primary source of income, is the legal profession of re-animating the dead. As an “animator” in a parallel St. Louis, her job entails using magical abilities to bring temporary life to dead bodies in order to question them for legal purposes. She is a necromancer, which allows her to control the dead, including vampires and zombies, but not ghosts and ghouls. She is also a licensed vampire hunter/executioner, with eventual empowerment as a Federal Marshal. In her world this profession involves tracking down and killing vampires who have murdered humans. She is also held in retainer for the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team (RPIT, pronounced Rip-it), which investigates supernatural crimes committed involving magic, vampires, werewolves, and other superrnatural creatures.
Next, also by Hamilton, try the 8 or 9 book series Merry Gentry. Meredith NicEssus is a faerie princess turned private investigator in a world where faeries are not only known to the general public, but are also fashionable. She takes on the pseudonym “Meredith Gentry” to hide from her family and her past while hiding out in Los Angeles, California as a private investigator at Grey’s Detective Agency. Merry, the only Sidhe royal to be born on American soil, fearing the continuous assassination attempts on her life thinly disguised as duels, flees the Unseelie Court in a final act of self-preservation. Her glamour (the art of magical disguise through illusion) is nearly unrivaled at court, and she is able to pass herself off as a human with fey blood.
The Mercedes Thompson Series is a series of urban fantasy novels written by Patricia Briggs that follow the adventures of Mercedes (Mercy) Thompson, a Native American shapeshifter who was raised by Werewolves also recently held my interest at a modest 5 or 6 books to date. The series is set in the Tri-Cities area of Washington state in an alternate world in which Werewolves and certain types of the fae have been forced to reveal themselves to the public. The series follows Mercy, a VW mechanic by trade, as she learns her true nature and is caught up in the affairs of the local werewolf pack, led by Adam, the Alpha who lives next door, and the local vampire seethe, a member of which she has befriended.
Please let me know when you’re ready to start expanding your narrow female fantasy author base as I have these in hard copy or Kindle.
My girlfriend just schooled me. Oy.
I’m sure I can come up with some candidates, too. Having your girlfriend school you is a privilege, though !
I was going to agree with you on a couple of points (specifically my lack of interest in the romances)…but I don’t want the Marielle turning on me. Maybe we should borrow a couple of books from her. =/