Women in Sci-Fi and Fantasy/Game of Thrones

[Kiwi Stoker]

I had dinner with Robert Jordan and his wife once when he was on a book tour in NZ and I was working as a buyer in a bookstore.

He admitted he didn't feel able to write female characters so hence no ladies in his first book of "The Wheel of Time" series. He said he was going to use his wife to help him write female characters. That might explain why he did not have many and they might not be very believible.

BTW Robert Jordan was a pen name, not his real name.

I love Elizabeth Moon books, both her fantasy and Sci-Fi women characters are very real, strong but with flaws. And they continue to learn. Like real people do.

[Cataboo]

So I finally read the first game of thrones book... It took me multiple tries to get past the first chapters for about a month till I actually got into the book.

I guess I could deal with the constant rape... The incestuous control of sisters by their brothers by nipple twisting and sex was just freaking weird. Does George R.R. Martin have a sister? Has anyone checked to make sure that he didn't molest her when young? I think part of the weirdness is reading the book and it just seeming like the author finds it exciting or titillating.

[Catrin]

I liked the Wheel of Time series, even with the lack of female characters, until the whole Aes Sedai story line developed - that made me far too uncomfortable and while I finally managed to read through those volumes over the years I didn't care as much for the books in the series that were post-Aes Sedai...

[OakLeaf]

For the C.J. Cherryh fans, I just happened across her blog. Homey, engaging, altogether charming. Never mind it's titled after one of her early books that has always been my favorite.