My Fantasy and Sci-fi Novels Rant…

I love reading fantasy and science fiction novels. Well… I used to before my child came along. Now I listen to audiobooks. It means that I can do stuff like washing-up, laundry, making crafts or mending holes in trousers while I enjoy my stories.

In my attempt to find something new I thought I would try Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series…. The man has over twenty books and they keep publishing new ones so they can’t be that bad … can they?

I only got about 3 hours into the first book before giving up. Oh my goodness! The female lead needed rescuing twice by then. She’s supposed to be this super competent, powerful magic wielder. (What?! Plot holes anybody!?) The male lead had fallen in love with the female lead in about the first hour, and she was in love with him but denying it by about hour two. I checked on wikipedia and (Spoilers) they’re an item for about the whole series.

This was the deal breaker for me though. Everywhere the female lead goes she is either threatened with rape or sexual assault or she is actually sexually assaulted and it is just brushed off. It’s just a thing that happens and apparently is the norm if you have a vagina. I thought my brain was going to explode in boggle-ment.

If there is gonna be rape or sexual assault in your story then you had better show the consequences. Crap like that doesn’t just get shrugged off after a paragraph. Also the perpetrator does not get a free pass, cos they have/are a dick and can’t help it! Someone had better point out that it is unacceptable and the real and brutal journey of recovery had damn well better be at least touched on even if it doesn’t drive the plot in any way. Maybe Terry Goodkind improves as a writer in his later books, but wikipedia does not give me much hope. I don’t think I shall risk it.

An excuse (George R R Martin I’m looking at you) I’ve heard for this kind of place for female leads or POV characters in a story is that the fantasy era is based on medieval western europe or some other historical setting. Often it is an era when many women were treated little better than slaves so for the purposes of authenticity this attitude should be replicated in the fantasy story.

Arrrg! For starters there were plenty of extraordinary women in the historical eras who did other things than: spread their legs, give birth or get rescued. It’s just that for anyone less notable than a queen, we don’t hear about them because most surviving records of the time were written by (you guessed it) men!

Also it’s a fantasy! It’s got damn great dragons, ice zombies, magical swords and weird elf things. If you’re picking a setting you don’t replicate everything or else you are making a historical drama not a fantasy novel.

Women can have stories or motivations or things happen to them that don’t revolve around sex. Either yay! Let’s have a romance or Oh no! someone save me from this sexual assault. We are whole people. Not just a vagina on legs. We can have stories that are moved by the love shared between sisters or friendship or family. We can struggle with things that have nothing to do with romance. Women can feel pride, despair and all the other emotions!

I leave you with this thought. Where are the stories about mothers who have adventures?

Mostly either the mother is conveniently dead, gets left behind - a vanilla caretaker of the home until the hero’s return or she possessively tries to stop the adventurer from setting out. Unless she is the evil step mother of course.

Mums are fierce, passionate and sometimes (or often) desperate people. Where are their stories in fantasy / sci-fi land?

The only story I have come across so far is Race the Sands (by Sarah Beth Durst). Its fantastical elements are based around reincarnation and giant monster racing. Also it has a kick ass single mum as the lead! Yay!

I’d love to see your comments on mums in Fantasy / Sci-fi novels as a main character or lead Point of View character. If you disagree with me on my reasons for giving up on Terry GoodKind’s Sword of Truth series let me know in the comments section! ~Ann