Male authors vs female authors

deathwizard said:

I consider myself an open-minded liberal. I would love to see a female president. (How great would that be for our country and the world!) I believe women should receive equal pay in the workplace. Currently my wife works and supports our family while I'm a house-husband (and novelist).

But ... when it comes specifically to epic fantasy, I tend to prefer works written by men. I enjoy Donaldson, Martin, and Erikson more than I do McKillup, Le Guin, or Douglass, to name a few.

Any other males out there agree? Or have I regressed in some way?

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Personal taste in writing isn't a sin, by all means. The fact your wife works while you are a parent tending the home isn't a sin either. I don't think you should worry about this a bit. Now if you had said "...because women writers are boring or don't have a clue about life..." then that is a subject for debate.

Otherwise, sleep well tonight and don't worry about the small stuff.

So far, most of my favoret fantasy books have been written by Wen Spencer and Tamora Peirce. They're both girls...and they write about girls, Tamora Peirce usually being young adult, Wen Spencer erring more on the edge of adult stuff (with elves. In Pitsberg. In the fuuuuuture!). I'm not sure if either of those count as "Epic Fantasy"...but they are fantasy!

Lots of the top fantasy writers are women. I would put Ursula LeGuin at the top of the list of modern fantasy writers, period. She's also one of the few who have delved into more straight SF, which tends to be dominated by male writers.

caw

I prefer science fiction over fantasy, which simply skews somewhat toward male-heavy. That said, I adore Joanna Russ & James Tiptree, & a smattering of Kit Reed & Lisa Tuttle.

Heck I like Tolkien, Le Guin, McKillip, Cherryh, and loathe Donaldson, Eddings, and Jordan.

You like what you like. Don't sweat it.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Andre Norton wasn't a guy!




I think I was well into my forties.

Pthom said:

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Andre Norton wasn't a guy!




I think I was well into my forties.

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What??? Don't tell.

I generally prefer male authors, too. David Gemmell, Steven Pressfield, Matthew Stover, and the father Robert E. Howard - those are my reading bread and butter. Men, I find, tend to be better at depicting action in a visual manner than women. However, Elizabeth Moon's Paksennarion series was one of my all-time favorites, and Donna Gillespie's Auriane books (not technically fantasy, but historical fiction with a warrior protag) have very well-written action. So, it's really a matter of individual differences, but more men than women write what I like to read - what else, but intense hardcore warrior action!

ps. any recommendations for authors, male or female, whose stuff I might like?

I like Tad Williams, Ray Bradbury, and S.M. Stirling.

I really like "Left Hand of Darkness" by le Guin but never got a chance to finish it. I had borrowed it from the library.

I'm not sure about male authors, but I do tend to prefer male main characters. It was different when I was a preteen; I wanted to read "girl stories" then and automatically identified with female characters just because they were female. But later... I don't know... guys just became more interesting to me. There's something neat about the way men experience things that I rarely seem to find in female characters. And even if I do, I'd rather read about men.

~JM.

That's just like me, only reversed; I'm a guy, who prefers female MCs - of a specific type, though. I'd rather read about a female hardcore warrior than anything else, but I'd rather read a male hardcore warrior than anything besides that.

There are more male writers so you preference may have as much to do with frequency as selection. There is an avergae difference in theme between the two but you might try more hard-concept female writers rather than social concept and see if that is the difference.

Yeah, I'm not sure what you mean either. Does "hard concept" mean more of an emphasis on plot/setting, than character?

If so, nope, that's not the basis for my preference. It's the type of characters who take center stage in the story, that matters the most to me. Of course, they have to be presented properly - "telling" that they are hardcore warriors isn't enough. They have to kick enough ass to back that title up!

I have heard that females are supposed to be better with fantasy, while males favor sci-fi, but haven't really experienced anything to prove that.

I'm like Just Me - I'm a girl, but for some reason I prefer to read male MCs (I also write these far more than female ones). I haven't noticed a preference for author gender either way, though.

I'm a girl and while I'm supposed to be writing a fantasy romance (as well as a sci-fi one), I usually end up putting much more action in than is customary in a romance, and I also like writing from the hero's PoV ... a lot. One of my readers actually told me I seemed to write more about the hero than the heroine in my alleged 'romances'. I like reading about the male characters (most of the time) more than female, possibly because in my particular niche, females can often come across either incredibly tough or incredibly insipid unless done well. I'm not saying mine are perfect, mind you.

I agree with DeathWizard, I really think this is an issue of taste rather than a male/female debate. To say one prefers male authors or female authors is to say that one brings something to the table more than the other, and I am just not sure that is true. To say you happen to like a lot of male writers though, I think just seems to indicate you like those writers.

For the record, I like my JK Rowling. Not original, but there's a woman writing fantasy with a male MC too, lest we forget. (And I don't care if it is meant for kids, tons of adults read her too)

I don't care who wrote it; it's good, I'll read it, be it male or female author.

That said, some writers really tend to cater to one audience or another. For example, Mercedes Lackey aims her books at females and the majority of her fans are female.

Robert Adams' books are aimed at males.

You should go play the "You write like a girl!" game! It's on another thread...umm...the one with all the word games...you know the one...

I like: Frank Herbert, Anne McCaffrey, Karen Traviss, Alastair Reynolds, Sean Williams, Julie Czerneda, Larry Niven, Kevin J. Anderson, Ian Watson, Arthur Clarke, Nancy Kress, Julien May, Orson Scott Card, .... these are just a few.

In my case it's definitely taste. I like more male writers simply because there are more male writers in SFF.

I like writers' words more than their gender. I have been reading more male writers lately but that's because I've been reading more military SF lately.

Give me a good book and the last thing I care about is the author's gender.

There are some fantastic woman writers out there – the ones named above are absolutely inspirational in their storytelling ability. They can hold their own against the best of the guys.

What I wonder, though, is if some of any potential statistical skew is more correlation than causitive. More guys in the genre, so by random statistic sampling, more likely a chance that guys would fall into the "favorite" category.

Just a thought.