Women and Fantasy: tell me why.

[la_marquise]

The mistress-works of fantasy is growing apace and now has a wonderful array of books and writers. We are light on books first published in other languages than English, and on writers of colour -- there are so many good women of colour writing fantasy now, but there seem to be far too few before 2000. There are sure to be writers I've missed. Keep the names coming, please.

Plus I have a new challenge for you. Tell me about the writers you love. Tell me why you put their name forward. Tell you what they mean to you. Tell me why you love them.

I put together my initial list from memory and from a brief skim of my bookshelves. Those were my automatic names, the women I instinctively want to belong there. These are my touchstone writers, the writers who, to me, make up what fantasy means. Let me tell you about just one of them.

Judith Tarr (dancinghorse) was one of the very first names I thought of. I was 23 or 24 when her first book, The Isle of Glass came out in 1986. (1987 over here in the UK) and towards the end of my PhD (mediaeval history, specifically 11th century Wales.) Before I was five chapters in, I knew that this was going to be one of the books of my heart. Here was a writer who got it, who sensed the same nuances and colours and textures that I sensed in my historical studies, who saw beyond the panoply and Hollywood-shiny popular view of Merrie England. Here was a book with characters who belonged in their mediaeval setting, who were not all high nobles and fated heroes.
It's hard to explain what this meant to me. I'd read a lot of fantasy by then and met a lot of characters and worlds I loved. But somehow, however much I loved and admired them, how much I hoped one day to write as well as them, they all felt a long way away from me. The reigning fantasy writers of my childhood were men -- Lewis, Garner, Tolkien, Andrew Lang, Carroll. They were academics, scholars, important figures who were talked about on television and radio. My 10-year-old self thought I had to be like them, achieve their levels of knowledge and significance to write. Or else I needed to spring forth, a fully-fledged Great Talent, by 17 or 18, as I imagined Tanith Lee to have done, or at least be being published in pulp magazines in my late teens and early twenties. The only other route into fantasy success seemed to be by becoming somehow part of that mysterious American world of sf cons and contacts -- hard to achieve from rural Leicestershire.
And then I wasn't pretty or confident. I wasn't brilliant. I was just a misfit who liked books and always did her homework. I went to university and went on liking books and doing my homework. I joined the sf society and the fantasy society, and discovered that, as a writer, I was good for a girl (and for a non-scientist. Ah, young men. How tactless you are).
I'd written a lot of words by 1986. Fanfic, through my teens, and random stories that occurred to me. Papers for class and the bulk of the 120K of my PhD. I was working on a novel (Illuris -- the tale of Gaverne Orcandros and the first Allandurin kings, which eventually turned into the back-drop of Living with Ghosts), but I didn't have real faith in it.
Then I discovered Judith Tarr.
She was like me, or so I thought. She too was trained as a mediaevalist. She wrote about the sort of world I studied, the middle ages I knew. She wrote about magic and monasticism, about what religion really meant in that context (and not the straw man of 'pagans good, Christians bad' that riddled so much other fantasy), about relationships that weren't fated or easy but needed to be worked at, about political expediency, dynastic breakdown, poverty and battles that hurt people. She wrote about a world very like the one I was researching without shortcuts or simplifications or fakery. She was the real deal. I loved that first book of hers with a passion.I still do. I have all her books, a long shelf of them, much loved, much read, much recommended. Later on, when I'd finished the PhD and was teaching in universities, I used to recommend several of her books to my students as a way of getting a true sense of what the 8th, the 9th, the 12th centuries were really like. She's the finest writer of mediaevalist fantasy we have in English.
And she encouraged me to write, back in 1987. She showed me that there was space for women like me.
Thank you, Judy. You're priced above rubies.

Comments

[akicif.livejournal.com]

Minor thingy: dancinghorse rather than dancing_horse....

I discovered her through Household Gods, her collaboration with Harry Turtledove - far, far, better than I expected it to be.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Whoops. Me and my typing. Thank you.

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

Clearly I need to read Judith Tarr. Where should I start? If it helps choose, it was your comment about monks, monasticism and religion in context that really clinched shifting me from 'yeah, one day' to 'time to look on abebooks'.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I can lend them to you, if you wish. She has written the most magical one based on The Song of Roland.

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

Yes please!

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Which Judith Tarr book would you recommend a reader to try first?

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

It depends on your interests. I think you might like Lord of the Two lands, which is about a young Egyptian woman doctor in the army of Alexander the Great.

[merlinpole.livejournal.com]

The good news and the bad news about authors with a lot of books out, is that there can be a bunch of different starting points. I haven't really read the prehistorical and more historically-oriented novels. I started reading her work with her first book, was it The Hound and the Falcon? My favorites over the years have been mainly in her originally purely fantasy universe series, the starting point for the series would be the first one in it, if it is available.... I liked Lord of the Two Lands, that could be a starting point. Her more recent books I;m not that up on--I have the most recent of her books published under the name Caitlinn Brennan (it landed on me last night, actually...) but have been reading other things (and books landing on me is not an unusual occurrence, the books pile on the books pile on the books....) ... Household Gods co-written with Harry Turtledove, is one which goes from this world into ancient Rome, the modern woman pitched back into ancient Rome is a vehicle for the reader to identify with someone dumped into an alien society.... There's Alamut, which has the Assassins and the medieval Levant and lots of action and adventure....

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I've added it to my wish list on Amazon.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Since my answer got too long too lard up someone else's space, I put it here.

[aliettedb.livejournal.com]

Patricia McKillip--I first read her Changeling Sea and Book of Atrix Wolfe in French translation, and she was the first author who showed me that fairy tales didn't always end the same way, that there were no Dark Lords, no Cruel Queens of Faery; but simply beings that made mistakes--that loved, and hated, and quarrelled, and were caught in the snares of greater spells (because magic is never tame and there is always a price to be paid for it). And, more importantly, both those books spoke to me (but especially Atrix Wolfe) because she totally understood what it was to be stuck between two worlds and belong to neither of them.

And then I read her in English, and she taught me to love the language and its rhythm, and I fell in love all over again.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Her prose is beautiful, isn't it? I don't get on with all of her books, but the ones I do love, I really love. And the marquis is a huge fan.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

I was younger (fourteen), the book was The Hound and the Falcon, and I merely had a crush on medieval history, not a degree.

Otherwise, What. You. Said, including the feeling that this was the real deal.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

'The Hound and the Falcon' is the title of the whole trilogy, at least in the edition I have (UK first). I think there may have been a later reprint with all three books in one.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

I first read them in German, and then got the omnibus edition, so I was a bit shaky on the individual titles. So even more What. You. Said. ;-)

[aberwyn.livejournal.com]

My favorite is ARS MAGICA, an absolute gem of a book. But I've liked all of Judy's books. And totally admired them as well, something I don't do easily. :-)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I love that one, too. It's so quirky and yet so precise.

[miintikwa.livejournal.com]

Much love for Judy, here, too. :)

For me, the first writer that I fell in love with was Mercedes Lackey. I joined her fanclub, I wrote (bad) fanfic, I adored her. I wrote a letter, and got one back that said "write if you love it," and somehow, that permission was something I needed. I did, and have, and still do love it.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Letters like that are so important. I had one from Anne McCaffrey when I was about 14 and it meant so much that she was encouraging.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

Katherine Kurtz. I haven't been happy with her last few novels, but the original dozen or so Deryni novels were great. The prose is invisible (which I like), and I liked that she often put her characters in the position of choosing between two evils. Her books more than once made me cry.

Lois McMaster Bujold, of course. I'm not a fan of the romance-y things, and the third Chalion novel didn't hold me, but the Vorkosigan books and the first two Chalion books I loved. Like Kurtz, Bujold forces characters to make some hard choices. I like that she can make me laugh on one page and gasp three pages later and cry a couple pages after that. She has an exquisite sense of timing when it comes to breaking the tension either with something off-kilter funny, or by pushing you over into tears.

And I know a lot of people give crap about the Dragonriders books, but you know what? In the first trilogy and the Harper Hall books, and in Crystal Singer (not a dragonrider book), McCaffrey had an exquisite sense of pacing. (A skill she lost in later years, sadly, when her books started to read like unedited first drafts.) Nothing dragged, nothing felt rushed. The surprises and twists coaxed me along like breadcrumbs.

[ex-triciasu.livejournal.com]

Thank you for saying this! I put McCaffrey down as one of my biggest inspirations as a young writer, but McCaffrey-bashing is now a popular sport (guess that's not surprising considering what happened with her later work). People don't realise how radical her stuff was in the context of the popular fiction of the day. Those books you mention, I've reread them countless times since I first encountered her at age 10.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

She's hugely important, especially to women. Her heroines get to be stroppy, to be pushy, to be wilful and difficult and demanding -- and to be right. And the men admit that and admire them for it.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Yes to all of those, though I read Bujold late. I wish she'd been published when I was in my teens. And the Deryni books taught me so much about structure.
I loved the harper hall books. The Killashandra ones I'd read in their original novella form and as a result prefer them that way. But I do have a huge affection for Restoree.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

I read Bujold late, too. I had been despairing of ever again finding something that could capture my attention the way books had when I was young. But then malkatsheva and ccfinlay, entirely independent of each other, both insisted that I read them.

I was in my mid-30s when I bought The Warrior's Apprentice, and then devoured the rest of the books three per week for the next month.

[estara.livejournal.com]

Restoree LOVE!!! Also love the Crystal Singer trilogy in novel form - as well as The Ship Who Sang and the collaboration she did with Mercedes Lackey - The Ship Who Searched... oh and her Powers That Be collaboration and the Generation Warriors/Sassinak books.... hmm.. I think I better stop listing ^^

[ceffyl.livejournal.com]

Yes. Yes. Yes. What you said. :) I fell in love with the Arthurian legend through Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising series (especially The Grey King and Silver on the Tree). Ms Cooper showed me the joy of how a language gives you way to express yourself.

Judith Tarr showed me the importance of the context of a story or a time. The characters were part of the history. Everything fits. She captures the worldview of the time she is writing about, whether medieval Europe, ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece, etc. I first read the Hound and the Falcon series and then the Avaryan Rising series.

I love the Author's Notes in the back of the book that describe the history and where it might have been modified for the story.

She gets the horses right too. My mom breeds Arabians, so I gave Mom a copy of A Wind in Cairo. (It's Mom's favorite book now.)

The writing style is also beautiful.

If you are just discoering Judy's work, a bunch of her short stories are available at Book View Cafe (including an electronic edition of Ars Magica): http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Judith-Tarr-ss-Bookshelf/

Definitely check out "Classical Horses" at BVC. iTunes has three of her novels available as audio books. Amazon has lots of copies of her work too.

Thank you so much for writing this post. It is a shame that so many people have never heard of such a fantastic author.

[aberwyn.livejournal.com]

Judy even has an e-book at BVC that's a how-to manual on writing about horses accurately -- something a great many fantasy authors could profit from reading! (Alas that they need it, but it's a great way to get the information.)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I do not understand why she isn't huge. She is stands head and shoulders above her male contemporaries.
And yes to Cooper. Those books are so magical and moving and lyrical.

[ex-triciasu.livejournal.com]

I love this post!

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

:-)

[anef.livejournal.com]

Am I allowed to add Judith Merkle Riley to the list? Just because what you said about Judith Tarr made me think of her. And there are some fantastic elements to her historicals. She really gets the medieval mindset. As does Sylvian Hamilton in The Bone Pedlar although the fantastic is now I think only in the characters' minds. Sorry.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I wondered about J M R too. They're not very fantastical, and yet.... Hm. Ponders.

Great Judith Tarr reads:

[loldoc.livejournal.com]

ARS MAGICA would make a great Ace Double with Umberto Eco's THE NAME OF THE ROSE. A heavy book, but well worth it.

LORD OF TWO LANDS is an excellent book, in addition to being the inspiration for Turtledove's GUNS OF THE SOUTH; _that_ would be a cool Ace Double, too.

Re: Great Judith Tarr reads:

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

What a cool idea. A Wind in Cairo would go well with Chaz Brenchleys' Tower of the King's Daughter, too.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

My tastes have changed a lot over the years, and most of the fantasy books that I owned before 2000 have disappeared from my shelves. There are a few exceptions:

Barbara Hambly - I love her dense atmospheric prose, her exact sense of timing, and above all her depth of character. And I have a crush on Antryg Windrose. Ahem.

PC Hodgell - I love the contradictions in Jaime's character, how she's fighting both nurture and nature to try and do the honourable thing. I love the way that her powers are so distinctly dogdy. And I love PC Hodgell's gift for inspired mayhem.

R. A. McAvoy. I still have 'The Lens of the World' and 'The Kind of the Dead' on my shelves and re-read them every year. I can't say too much about the themes without giving away crucial plotlines... but I love the Enlightenment setting and the way that the magic is always ambiguous. And it's one of those first person narratives where the character is so strong that it temporarily changes the way you view the world.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Antrygg is lovely...
And McAvoy is a wonderful writer. I haven't read Hodgell, but I think I will have to, given what everyone is saying.