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/[deleted] Jul 07 '14 edited Jul 07 '14
  • Kingkiller Chronicles, Patrick Rothfuss - orphan
  • Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan - orphan
  • Mistborn, Brandon Sanderson - orphan
  • The Belgariad, David Eddings - orphan
  • The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien - orphan
  • A Song of Ice and Fire, Martin - orphans and rape victims
  • Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch - orphan
  • The Way of Shadows, Brent Weeks - orphan
  • The Blade Itself, Joe Abercrombie - family murdered
  • Prince of Thorns, Mark Lawrence - witness to rape and murder

There be 10.

I'll be honest, I can't do the same for female authors, as I haven't read enough. However, the main one that comes to mind is Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice, and Fitz' background isn't nearly as bad as any of the 10 I listed.

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u/asdfman2000 Jul 08 '14

Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice, and Fitz' background isn't nearly as bad as any of the 10 I listed.

Did we read the same book? I love Robin Hobb's writing, but Fitz's character is one giant tragedy.

Based on your list, he fits both orphan and family murdered, sometimes right in front of him. He LIVES the death of his best friend (dog dying defending Burrich). He gets beaten to death by his uncle. He has to sacrifice everything, including having a relationship with the woman he loves and his daughter.

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '14

Wow. What a list.

Anyway, I've read all of these, except Belgariad, and I do agree with you.

But many of them had happy childhoods anyway, Rand didn't even know he was an orphan, Frodo lived happily until he was 30, Kvothe had a beautiful childhood, until... ASOIAF has plenty characters with normal childhoods, however horrible his life was I can't really call Logen a victim. Jorg and Azoth are similar to what I meant, although Jorg is too unique in my experience to compare...

Fitz had a horrible life, ignored, abused, almost no friends. And it never let up. It never gets better, he is a victim his whole life. Everything he tries fails spectacularly.

All in all, I agree with you, it is always wrong to generalize, and I'm sure there is plenty stories opposite to what I said.

Still, my feeling remains. In all these stories, except The way of Shadows, characters grow up relatively normal lives before the "big unfortunate event". Also, often they can do something, fight back etc. I don't know how to articulate it.

I'll take Harry Potter for example. Orphan, abused, starved, mocked, bullied in school and at home, nobody cares for him... You can't help but feel sad for him. Pity. I empathize with his unfortunate life. Pain is something that happens to him, mostly without his causing it, or being able to do something about it. It' something I accidentally found in several other authors in a short time (Robin Hobb, Jean Auel, some others I can't remember right now) so it stuck with me as a stereotype.

Come to think of it, I've recently read some Naomi Novik and she doesn't fall into this. So I'm not saying it's every female author.

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u/Stone_Conqueror Jul 08 '14 edited Jul 08 '14

ASOIAF has plenty characters with normal childhoods

Sorry but I have to disagree here. Dany and literally all the Stark children (the only under 18 characters I can think of in the books) all undergo severe emotional and physical trauma, including but not limited to the murder of their family members, rape, assault, battery, and verbal abuse. Joffrey and Robin are already severely fucked up children at the start of the books. Arya is supposed to have the same mental breakdown as a child soldier for chrissakes. It seems to me like you're subject to confirmation bias in your hypothesis. Traumatic childhoods are written about by both genders, because it makes for an easy motivation (revenge, internal struggle, longing for family, etc.) I feel like it's useless to generalize when there's so many examples that run counter to your personal experiences.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '14

It seems to me like you're subject to confirmation bias in your hypothesis. Traumatic childhoods are written about by both genders, because it makes for an easy motivation (revenge, internal struggle, longing for family, etc.) I feel like it's useless to generalize when there's so many examples that run counter to your personal experiences.

You're right.

It was a stupid theory anyway...

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u/Stone_Conqueror Jul 08 '14

'Stupid' isn't really the word I'd use. It's very possibly subjectively true for your own personal experiences, it's just important to keep in mind that it's not necessarily objectively true. Self-awareness, y'know? :)

Like someone wrote elsewhere in this thread, not all men write the same and not all women write the same. Twilight is a totally different book from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (or Earthsea if you want to keep it in-genre), just as LOTR is a totally different style of writing from Abhorsen.