Women in Sci-Fi and Fantasy/Game of Thrones

[thekarens]

If I want silly and occasionally over the top I read Piers Anthony's Xanth series. It's polar opposite of the type of fantasy I normally read. I guess I'd consider it my guilty pleasure.

I'm currently reading Simon Green Deathstalker series. My boys convinced me. I've already read his Nightside series and enjoyed it.

[Catrin]

If I want silly and occasionally over the top I read Piers Anthony's Xanth series. It's polar opposite of the type of fantasy I normally read. I guess I'd consider it my guilty pleasure.

I'm currently reading Simon Green Deathstalker series. My boys convinced me. I've already read his Nightside series and enjoyed it.

I love Piers Anthony! I also really like his "Incarnations" series, those aren't as light but well written. The Nightshade series sounds interesting and have already checked out an e-book version from my library The Deathstalker series does as well, and both series appear to be quite different from each other - that is encouraging. I've recently given up on a series - Tad William's Otherland series. The premise is very interesting, but by the time I got to the last 700+ page book in the series I was just tired of it. That isn't like me, I don't mind long books and am a fast reader so I prefer them - but the writing must be up to it. When I got to the last book (>900 pages), I simply no longer cared about the characters and hung it up after the first ~300 pages.

[thekarens]

I think that saying "you write what you know" may apply. I don't see anything wrong with a writer not writing about women, men, blacks, whites, whatever if you don't know them/understand them or know enough of them to truly understand them.

[Catrin]

Thanks for all of the reading suggestions, I've added some to my list. I also want to get back to writing myself - it really is for me more than anyone. I am considering joining a writers group this winter, we will see. Since I am pretty much confined at home right now, and I feel well enough to read (finally), I checked out an electronic version of one of the Nightside novels by Simon Green from my library recommended above. I do like how it is starting, perhaps I've a new series to read through

[Don Deitz]

I have discovered that I enjoy novels by women more than I expected. Much better characters and more deeply and richly defined. The different point of view is refreshing as well.

Catrin - I don't know what you like to write, but please work on it.

Don

[lph]

Hi Don,

Ok, I'm curious and I have to ask - why are you on a cycling forum for women? This isn't a closed forum, of course, so anyone can read and post, but you should be aware that we've had heated debates in the past about men participating. Some don't mind, but there are regulars here who are quite protective of the women-only atmosphere.

[OakLeaf]

I probably shouldn't, so for those who mind, you can stop reading now and for the rest, apologies in advance for the meta drift - but the conjunction was just too glaring, to me.

Some don't mind, but there are regulars here who are quite protective of the women-only atmosphere.

I don't see anything wrong with a writer not writing about women, men, blacks, whites, whatever if you don't know them/understand them or know enough of them to truly understand them.

Hey girl,

I know you get really tired of explaining male privilege to clueless guys. But thank you for doing it. The thing about privilege (whether it's based on race, sex, gender presentation, sexual orientation or whatever) is precisely that those who have it don't have to be aware of it. The test of character is, when someone learns to be aware of their privilege, what they do with that information.




I'm not innocent of this [me Oak, not Ryan Gosling]. I live in a pretty segregated place. I didn't choose it because it's segregated - all other things being equal, I'd be a lot happier living somewhere more racially diverse and egalitarian - but I'm well aware that I'm able to live there without major hassles, because I'm white. And that race was something I didn't have to think about when I chose this neighborhood. It's not something I'm proud of.

If a man wants to write women out of his own life, well, his male privilege allows him to live a pretty full life while doing that, and given the above, it's hard for me to object to someone's personal choices that way. But a writer … to me, their work is supposed to reflect the world - not necessarily the entire world, but a reasonable cross-section of it. For a writer to write women entirely out of his works, especially when he has to create a whole fictional world in which there are no women (rather than choosing a historical setting where segregation by sex was the norm) - and to be explicit about doing so because he doesn't feel that women are an important part of the world, or that getting to know people different from himself is a very big part of a writer's craft - to me, that's just not OK.

[Don Deitz]

Hi -- I try not to make a pest of myself here since I understand it is on Team Estrogen. I can understand why some women want this to be restricted to women only so I rarely ever post anything. So why am I even a member of the forum?
1. I do cycle. (Until I crashed and cracked the frame. Will be looking for a new bike in the spring.)
2. I asked Renata over 2 years ago if I was OK to participate in the forums.
3. Other than these few posts I doubt I have posted more than a few times in the past 2 years.
3. Because of a medical issue I do wear sports bras when I cycle and run. I was shopping for a new bra and asked if she could recommend a few. I chose the Shock Absorber Run Sports bra.

[thekarens]

Guess we'll have to agree to disagree. If you disagree with a writer and how he writes you can vote with your money and not read it. I'm fine with a writer not including women in a world he made up.