Hey can I just say that it’s utterly fucked that George RR Martin and Patrick Rothfuss are revered as gods of modern fantasy writing when neither of them has been able to produce a book in years and they also can’t write women
plus George RR Martin just copied wars of the roses
and Rothfuss made a legit plot point that Kvothe fucked a fairy for months
I’m not saying that I don’t enjoy these books, because I do, but I am just saying that I read fantasy books 10x better by women all the time.
meanwhile, there are so many female fantasy authors who produce brilliant work, but because it is marketed towards women, it’s either YA or it’s paranormal romance (BOTH OF WHICH I STAN OK) and therefore doesn’t get considered “serious” fantasy even though they have better world building, magic, and writing style than most “masters of the genre.”
like, why is it that fantasy books written about women and by women are ONLY READ BY WOMEN AND MARKETED TO WOMEN, meanwhile fantasy books written by men about men are READ BY EVERYONE AND MARKETED AS THE NORM.
like male fantasy nerds are just sleeping on Ilona Andrews because they write about women and add a romance plot line, meanwhile Kate Daniels is one of the best damn fantasy series I have ever read with some of the best world building and plotting e v e r.
And I’m not implying that authors have to produce 3 books a year to be serious authors, but it’s a bit ridiculous that the fantasy genre and pub industry keeps pushing asoiaf and kingkiller chronicles at us when we don’t even have a date for the sequel. WHY DON’T YOU PROMOTE BOOKS BY WOMEN WHO KNOW HOW TO WRITE GOOD FEMALE CHARACTERS?? WHY NOT PROMOTE FANTASY BOOKS BY AUTHORS OF COLOR??
WHY IS FANTASY ON THE SAME WHITE MAN BULLSHIT ALL THE TIME????
One of my favorite fantasy series of all time is N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy. In which every book in the series has won a fucking hugo award! but do you see it getting the same amount of press that these male fantasy authors do? no. and that pisses me off because her books have such amazing fleshed out female (and male) characters and a complex world.
[ASOIAF] is often referred to as deconstructive, a saw-toothed machine that eats tropes and poops sadness. I get why that is, but I think it’s more REconstructive than deconstructive, not tearing the genre apart so much as reminding readers of why it was worth falling in love with in the first place. It’s not that being the hero is stupid, it’s that being the hero is HARD, and you might fail at it. But that doesn’t mean the attempt is worthless. The genre had backed itself into a corner where it promised social rewards for doing the right thing. In book after book, if you were good—and in these books, it was easy as (hot) pie to be good—you would be king, and the land would prosper because of the king’s goodness. ASOIAF argues that it is NOT easy to be good, and that the rewards for being so are NOT automatic, but that this only makes it all the more powerful if you choose to do the right thing anyway. (“No chance, and no choice.”) It’s a very existential brand of romanticism. The truest of all knights is Brienne of Tarth, and she’s not even a knight. The truest of all lords is Davos Seaworth, born a nobody in Flea Bottom.
oh boy do i have some recommendations for you. short stories are so important and so often overlooked. they’re wonderful and i’ve got a few that i’d love to share. & if you want more short story recommendations, i suggest monthly stories ( and poems) in my newsletter. ( usually sf/f but not all the time. )
stone prayers by kate marshall ( one of my all time favorite short stories. )
these are off the top of my head. all of them are sf/f because those are usually the only stories i like reading. they’re all absolutely wonderful and i highly recommend going through their bibliographies to read more. ( and if you can’t tell, bcs is my favorite place to read short stories. tor is always spectacular but bcs has my heart forever. )
books and cleverness 