Women in Sci-Fi and Fantasy/Game of Thrones

[OakLeaf]

I'm a big fan of Nancy Kress, and my guilty pleasure is CJ Cherryh. Mercedes Lackey is an even guiltier pleasure, but at least her more recent books are free of that kind of BS. You're right, it got old a long time ago, and it was never OK.

+1 on His Dark Materials. The only reason I haven't re-read that yet is that I've promised myself I'd re-read Paradise Lost first, and that's what's holding me up.

[KnottedYet]

Terry Pratchett does a good job with female characters.

[lph]

The only reason I haven't re-read that yet is that I've promised myself I'd re-read Paradise Lost first, and that's what's holding me up.

You must be kidding. You have to read like sixteen lines to get to a verb!

I took Paradise Lost along when I hiked the Pyrenees (the HR10, if anyone's interested) to have something small to read that would take a while. It was so impenetrable it made my head spin. Never got through half.

But I did get some inspired letters home out of it "Here on the trail, whereon I did travel, with dark birds around, angels of the sky, swirling tightly, blah-blah-blah" you get the picture

[Veronica]

I have quite enjoyed the series.

The novels take place in "medieval" times. Let's see... in medieval times women were bought and sold at the convenience of the men in their lives. Racism was rampant. Think about the real world pre-Columbus. Anyone different from you was savage and heathen and it wasn't just Europeans who felt that way. The Japanese refused to allow Europeans to land on their islands for like 200 years. That's essentially the kind of world he is creating. To have equity between the sexes and races would not work in his world. And women were pretty much married off as soon as they started menstruating.

Veronica

[NbyNW]

Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series has always been one of my favorites in terms of how male and female characters are portrayed.

They're very human, even as they take on the jobs of deities like the three Fates, Death, and I can't remember who else was in it. I read it a long time ago and waiting for it to come out as an e-book because it keeps coming up in conversation this past year ...

[Irulan]

...medieval times... there is that argument ( and that it's fiction, fantasy etc) but does medieval have to mean that all women are chattel, or victims, young girls being abused, with threats of rape and violence as the only means of "controlling" them? Why not present at least one example of a loving respectful relationship? There were inklings of that but Martin likes to kill his characters off. Medieval - Elanor of Aquitane comes to mind as a real person who may have technically been chattel but had power in her own right without being evil or a warrior.

Ah well, author's perogotive. But a society that's been around for 4000 years to have not progressed beyond a wheel and a trebuchet?
One friend of mine likened GOT to LOTR without the magic. At least in LOTR the few women characters didn't get smacked around

I love everything that CJ Cherryh has done. Anyone ever read Joan Vinge? The Snow Queen etc? Thanks for the other author suggestions.

[lph]

Yes, I don't remember the Snow Queen, but I remember liking it.

[Veronica]

It's all about power, not about love or respect.

I have enjoyed "watching" some of the characters change and deal with their moral dilemmas - Jamie and the Imp in particular. Dany also has issues with trying to change the society which she now controls.

I was thinking about that "rape" scene you referenced. I always figured that particular clan was kind of modeled on the Vikings and being "conquered" was part of their mating ritual - prove you're strong enough to have me, sort of thing. Of course that character was married off, but wasn't even present at her wedding.

Veronica

[Irulan]

V- I agree that some of the character development is interesting. After 4 1/2 books the "power imbalances"'are really wearing on me.

[lph]

Anyone else enjoy Neil Gaiman? I'm a big fan, started with the Sandman graphic novels, but I like his regular novels a lot more. Especially the short stories. And "American Gods" - funnily enough didn't like it at the first reading, slogged through one more time and now it's really grown on me.

Speaking of books I picked up Victoria Hislops "The Island", because we're going to Crete next week. It's set there, and the cover was full of praise and prizes. Gawd, what an awful book. Kept reading for a while out of a vague feeling of curiosity, but the writing is just so puffed-up and and ...trite. Reminds me of Adrian Moles "lo, the majestic vales of Scotland". You're told exactly what every character feels at every point.

My apologies to anyone who may love it...

eta:
found the following review, which was priceless:

"You must pay the rent!" the evil villain roared, twirling his diabolical mustache. He was her landlord, and he was an impatient man.

"But I can't pay the rent!" swooned the beautiful, hapless heroine. She was his tenant. Her breathtaking beauty was matched only by her saintliness. (...)

If this is your idea of a well-written story then you may very well like this book, which read more or less this way for 474 pages."