What Happens Next: A Gallimaufry

melancholic romantic comic cynic. bi & genderqueer. fantasy writer. sysrae on ao3.

Anonymous asked: Which males writers do you feel give the best portrayals of female characters?

Bearing in mind that I read predominantly SFF and YA:

For good female characters and general all-round awesome, I heartily recommend Nick Harkaway’s Angelmaker and The Gone-Away World. Garth Nix’s Abhorsen trilogy is absolutely brilliant, as is Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan series, and Michael Pryor’s stunning Laws of Magic series, apart from being one of the best things I’ve ever read, features a young female suffragette who is also a ninja. China Mieville is always excellent: his female characters vary in the importance of their roles, but he’s a devout left-winger and his books are chock full of, among other things, social politics (I particularly recommend Embassytown).

Cory Doctorow’s For The Win is also a must-read, and I’m definitely a fan of Martin Millar’s Kalix McRinnlach werewolf pulp series. Perhaps more controversially, I do love the ladies of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire - there’s definitely some problematic elements in the novels, but the prominence, range and agency of his female characters, as well as the unflinching representation of a sexist-chivalrous society, makes them very worthwhile. Terry Pratchett is also another favourite; I particularly love his Granny Weatherwax and Tiffany Aching books. 

I’d also recommend Erick Setiawan’s Of Bees and Mist, Stephen Hunt’s Jackelian sequence (with the notable exception of Jack Cloudie, whose profound genderfail and racefail reduced me to a state of incandescent rage), Richard Harlan’s Worldshaker, and D. M. Cornish’s Monster Blood Tattoo series. There’s probably more, but those will do for now!

  1. lynnejamneck-blog said: Clive Barker, especially the first two books of The Art series, “The Great and Secret Show” and “Everville.”
  2. fozmeadows posted this