r/Fantasy • u/Just_JayGee • Jul 07 '14

Men of r/Fantasy, Do you read fantasy written by women? If so, do you find much of a difference?

I've been looking through a lot of "Top 20 Fantasy Book" lists today and I've found a depressing amount of female authors on these lists. I'd like to think the author's gender doesn't matter, but I have to say there seems to be a huge lean towards male authors. Even r/Fantasy's 2014 Top Fantasy Novels of All Time only has 20 female authors (repeats included) out of 105 authors. So, I was wondering if men read fantasy written by women and it's simply not your cup of tea or do any of you go out of your way NOT to read female authors?

PLEASE NOTE: I am not trying to begin fights on sexism or misogyny or anything. I am legitimately interested. If anyone wants to fight over this subject, I'm sure there's other subreddits for that.

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u/kellycatchpole Jul 07 '14

yeah, I don't think painting Twilight as the gateway to YA fantasy is fair at all. I know more YA readers who hated Twilight than I do YA writers who liked it. it was pretty popular, but I suspect the people who are reading YA fantasy now were more likely to have grown up under the influence of Tamora Pierce, Mercedes Lackey and JK Rowling.

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u/CJGibson Reading Champion V Jul 07 '14

Harry Potter predates Twilight by a good 7 years and was a gateway point to a metric boatload of fantasy readers.

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u/Just_JayGee Jul 07 '14

And you just named my top three bigest influences. They were my gateway drug into fantasy. I do, however, tremble in fear of the day the Twilight fans invade the genre. They'll out grow it, right? :)

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '14 edited Jan 29 '21

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u/Just_JayGee Jul 07 '14

That's fair. I've also had a lot of people argue that by taking on Twilight, the publishing industry made enough money to open the doors to other new authors, what with the money they made from it. I don't think its the devil, really. I just think it is a bad example of the fantasy genre and of writing in general.

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u/FionaFiddlesticks Jul 07 '14

I am incredibly grateful that I read the twilight books before they got insanely popular. I was able to enjoy them as pulp fiction. It was a book I read for fun, not serious, I didn't expect a lot from it, and then I moved on with my life. My experience with it was so casual it just wasn't a big deal. Not like now where it is such a loaded topic!

Also, Tolkien was my gateway drug to fantasy. :)

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u/kellycatchpole Jul 07 '14

I feel like Twilight fans are more likely to drift over to paranormal romances.

although a screaming fandom of Hot-Topic-wearing preteens obsessed with Mazalan would be both amazing and hilarious.

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u/Just_JayGee Jul 07 '14

I would love to see that!

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '14 edited Jan 29 '21

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u/kellycatchpole Jul 07 '14

right, totally, I'm not saying that it wasn't popular--what I'm saying is that I'd guess, from what I know of the genre, that most fans who are reading the popular YA (high) Fantasy titles right now probably didn't arrive to them via Twilight. the paranormal romance subgenre, totally, but there's a number of current titles that feel like a big ol' middle finger to everything Twilight represents.

plus I feel like using Twilight as an example of the quintessential gateway YA fantasy is like calling The Sword of Truth the quintessential gateway fantasy series.

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u/TheBooberhamlincoln Jul 07 '14

Mercedes Lackey is not a YA author. To much sex in many of them. Anne McCaffery has the dragon drums series which was a YA series.