[Aristai]

At the end of the day, the sex of the author really shouldn't be a factor whatsoever in terms of quality or enjoyment of the work. Fantasy in particular, is becoming increasingly populated by female authors, so it just seems silly to try and avoid them, when ultimately you miss out on some wonderous reads. Frankly, don't we just fall into the same 'pigeon-hole' type of thought some use to 'dismiss fantasy/science-fiction as 'worthwhile' literature, when we then ourselves fall victim to branding merit based on gender within?

[globish rip]

Female writers just write different, and have different emphases than male writers. And the latter is more my playing field. Of course, there ARE good female writers, but they're so rare that if I had to name really all authors I somehow like, they would be male up to 99%.

u need to read more books. also 2nd sentence is retarded

most of the "i only read dudes bcuz dudes write books that appeal to me" stuff itt seems poorly-conceived esp bcuz no1 has really attempted to define what sort of tropes/themes/archetypes male authors 'write better' or 'feature more often' or w/e. i guess its a privileging of certain kinds of status/political ones conflicts over romantic/interpersonal? which... idk there are a bunch of authors that work the romantic/interpersonal angle p heavily (lol jordan, martin) and i can think of some female authors that care a lot more abt the later (michelle west). i guess most female authors care less abt overtly/clearly sexualizing their female characters?

[Use Of Weapons]

One female author who doesn't get nearly enough attention or adulation is Mary Gentle. I bounced off her _Rats and Gargoyles_ when I was younger -- wasn't ready for it. But recent reads _Ash: A Secret History_ and _1610: A Sundial for a Grave_ were stunningly good.

[Abyss]

Say what you will, JK Rowling, Anne McCaffery and even (gag me) Charlaine Harris (to take a few disparate examples) all out-sell the vast majority of male genre authors. So it would seem the market disagrees with the 'female authors are crap' sentiment.

- Abyss, needs to read 'Ash' one of these days.

[stone monkey]

I think that's because their target demographic is not actually sf/fantasy fans. In the latter two's case it's, for the most part, teenage girls (and there are loads of those). Rowling is something else entirely. I can't stand her books myself, but there are a great many people (millions even) who do like them; hardly any of whom are sf fans.

But we should remember that popularity and quality are two different things and they rarely go together. Arguably, it's popularity and mediocrity that go together in the majority of cases.

[teholbeddict]

I'm jumping into this a little late and just skimmed the thread so I apologize if I mention anything that's already been said. I'm a female and there aren't a ton of female fantasy writers who I really enjoy. I do read alot of books by female author's in other genres though and I have to say I think something like the historical fiction genre has stronger female authors than male. If not stronger or better authors then certainly some of the top and most popular with the best works in that genre are female. I think it could be a case of there being less female sic fi and fantasy authors out there, which makes it seem like people prefer male writers overall. I mean there are a ton of male sff authors that I can't stand and who I think write terrible books, but as there are more men writing in the genre it leaves a lot more good male authors to choose from. With there being fewer female authors it leaves less good works amongst the bad. I definitely think women can write and do so quite well, I just think that there's a deficiency within the sff genre. If I think of all the books I own (an it's alot), there are a good number of female authors in there, some of which are amongst my favourite. As far as fantasy goes some female authors I'd recommend are:

Marion Zimmer Bradley The Mists of Avalon is one of my favourite books of all time, but I knwo some people hate it. Alot of her other Avalon stuff is just so so, but some of her Darkover books are great. Patricia Mckillip's Riddle Master of Hed is fantastic and really beautifully written. Anne Bishop's Black Jewel trilogy while probably geared more towards females is good as well, but I'd avoid her Pillars of the World stuff. I really enjoyed Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, but again that's not for everyone. That's all the authors who come to mind at the moment for fantasy, pretty pathetic I know. I'll have a look at my books when I get home and list any others I can think of later. Some excellent female authors that come to mind off the top of my head are Michelle Moran, Sharon Kay Penman, Colleen McCullough, Adelle Geras, Joanne Harris, Karen Essex, Jane Glover. I could come up with more given a bit more time and a chance to look through some of my books, but all of those ladies are really good.

[Mirthmonkey]

 Abyss, on 17 February 2010 - 08:32 PM, said:

CS Friedman blew me away with Coldfire and the first nine of LK Hamilton's Anita Blake series are awesome, but both of those writers self-destructed as far as my tastes went and I realy haven't found any other femals writers that i like. Parker is on the radar but opinions of her are so varied i haven't quite managed to try her work yet. Ditto Bujold.

I love the Coldfire trilogy. I was going to recommend that and P.C. Hodgell's books (though I don't know why it's taken over twenty years to get five books from Hodgell).

But Hamilton? Wow, I made the mistake of reading one of her books on a whim, Cerulean Sins, which I believe is one of the later Blake novels. Rant time! The book is absolutely dreadful. It mostly consists of Anita Blake f**king everyone in sight. That's lamely justified by the plotline. Apparently she's got both vampire and werewolf powers courtesy of her partners and one or the other of those, I forget which, makes her need sex frequently. I don't give a damn what color of bikini briefs her effeminate vampire lovers are wearing. Gah! The book was essentially a crappy serial romance novel with vampires and werewolves. I now picture the author as a sexually frustrated middle aged woman writing books for the same. I'm told her books haven't always been that way, but I'm very hesitant to risk it.

[koryk]

I'm amazed at all this fuss about female writers. You either like a bookor you don't. Doesn't matter who wrote it. I recommend Tanith Lees early stuff, Sheri Tepper, Julian May. I do accept however that it seems slightly easier for a female to get bad fantasy published than a male.

[acesn8s]

I think my favorite female fantasy author is Elizabeth Moon. I really enjoyed her Paksenarrion novels.

[stone monkey]

 koryk, on 03 March 2010 - 12:04 AM, said:

I'm amazed at all this fuss about female writers. You either like a book or you don't. Doesn't matter who wrote it.

This. The gender of the writer doesn't mean anything. Someone has either written a book you enjoy or they haven't. Life's too short to be wasting time on meaningless distinctions...

If a book looks like something you'd get a kick out of, read it to find out if that's the case. If it doesn't, don't. When all is said and done, it's your time and (maybe) your money, so spend it in the way you enjoy most if you can.

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 03 March 2010 - 09:08 PM

[Garet Jax]

I'm kind of surprised no one on this thread has mentioned Elizabeth Haydon. I personally really enjoyed her Rhapsody trilogy. Michelle West's Sun Sword series is good. I've only read the first three books of JV Jones' Sword of Shadows series, but I liked what I've read so far.

There a bit of decent fantasy out there written by female authors seems to be targeted at readers that aren't into particularly interesting plots; Jennifer Roberson, Janny Wurts and Melanie Rawn would probably fit that description.

Personally, I like long, complex, epic and gritty--hence my love of Erikson, Bakker and Martin--so if your tastes run more like that, I'd suggest you try the former three as opposed to the latter three. Oh, and it's my humble opinion you should avoid Kate Elliott at all costs. I think that, aside from Goodkind, she's the worst fantasy author I've ever read.

Good luck.

This post has been edited by Garet Jax: 12 March 2010 - 01:40 AM

[Giles]

 Mirthmonkey, on 02 March 2010 - 10:29 PM, said:

 Abyss, on 17 February 2010 - 08:32 PM, said:

CS Friedman blew me away with Coldfire and the first nine of LK Hamilton's Anita Blake series are awesome, but both of those writers self-destructed as far as my tastes went and I realy haven't found any other femals writers that i like. Parker is on the radar but opinions of her are so varied i haven't quite managed to try her work yet. Ditto Bujold.

I love the Coldfire trilogy. I was going to recommend that and P.C. Hodgell's books (though I don't know why it's taken over twenty years to get five books from Hodgell).

But Hamilton? Wow, I made the mistake of reading one of her books on a whim, Cerulean Sins, which I believe is one of the later Blake novels. Rant time! The book is absolutely dreadful. It mostly consists of Anita Blake f**king everyone in sight. That's lamely justified by the plotline. Apparently she's got both vampire and werewolf powers courtesy of her partners and one or the other of those, I forget which, makes her need sex frequently. I don't give a damn what color of bikini briefs her effeminate vampire lovers are wearing. Gah! The book was essentially a crappy serial romance novel with vampires and werewolves. I now picture the author as a sexually frustrated middle aged woman writing books for the same. I'm told her books haven't always been that way, but I'm very hesitant to risk it.

I found Hamiltons series really good for the first few, its only later in the series that she starts turning them into porn. Luckily id heard about this on Amazon before i bought any of the later ones and just sort of flicked through them in the book store and it was actually silly how often the sex scenes were. So id recommend Hamilton but give the book a flick through before you buy it to make sure your not getting when of the porn ones

[Aristai]

The late Kage Baker is an amazing read. I'll miss her.

[Use Of Weapons]

Second the Kage Baker recommendation. Only discovered her just before she died, great writer.

[Salamander Cake]

Just finished reading The Company by KJ Parker. I was looking for a stand alone book and decided to try it out. It was a quick read which was nice. I don't know about the rest of her work but the detailed character descriptions that you see with some authors was pretty much left out completely. If you're looking for a ton of action and lots of the typical fantasy archetypes this is not the book for you. There are a couple descriptions of a battle and no "magic" to speak of. Change the names of the places and people and you'd think you were in Medieval England. Overall I was happy with it. It was clever and a good weekend read.

[Abyss]

 Mirthmonkey, on 02 March 2010 - 10:29 PM, said:

...
But Hamilton? Wow, I made the mistake of reading one of her books on a whim, Cerulean Sins, which I believe is one of the later Blake novels. ... I now picture the author as a sexually frustrated middle aged woman writing books for the same. I'm told her books haven't always been that way, but I'm very hesitant to risk it.

 Giles, on 12 March 2010 - 02:06 AM, said:

I found Hamiltons series really good for the first few, its only later in the series that she starts turning them into porn. ...

Yeah, by jumping in at Cerulean MMonkey you pretty much dove into the steamy icky deep end. Any of her first nine, Guilty Pleasures thru Obsidian Butterfly are way better, tho i recommend reading them in order. But after OB, apparenly she started working out her relationship issues via her books and it was all downhill from there and then some. I just ignore her books now. (The Meredith Gentry faeriepron seres does not exist in my plane of reality). Sad really because i genuinely enjoyed the first nine.

- Abyss, notes author self-destruct is an ugly thing.

[Giles]

i did read a while back that apparently the latest one toned down the porn a bit, but i dont really want to have to read through 3-4 books that are porn just to catch up on the story so i can check

[Primateus]

I recommend Patricia Bray's The Sword of Change series, stupid name but good stuff. The first book is titled Devlin's Luck.

I agree with an earlier poster who warned against Trudi Cavanan. I invested in and read her books. I should write her and demand my money and time back!

[Baco Xpuch]

I also liked C.S. Friedman and Sussane Clarke and C.J. Cherryh, however, there are other female authors I didn't care for such as the before metioned Kate Elliot and Terry Goodkin:) I don't personally think sex has anything to do with wether or not I like or will read someone - I actually had no idea C.S. Friedman was female until years after I'd read the Coldfire trilogy.