Science fiction and fantasy![]() Female Protagonists In Genre Fiction10th May 2013Reviews by year Reviews by star rating Musings and rantsPandemic ReadingAs the Covid pandemic rages, it has affected the way we read in a number of ways. Reading Resolutions For The New Decade Here are seven reading resolutions suitable for the 2020s. Mastodon For SFF Fans Where to go in the Fediverse to find the best speculative fiction and literary discussions. Nine Political Books That Change The Conversation Following news that Simon and Schuster plan to publish an inflammatory commentator, here are nine political books that deserve more attention. Penguin Random House Withdraws Union Recognition Penguin Random House have decided not to recognise Unite and the NUJ as a result of staff negotiations, leaving the publisher with a stain on its reputation as an employer. Authors Support Stop Funding Hate Some authors have had enough of divisive and xenophobic elements in the British press, and are willing to make an ethical stand. Women In SFF: Indie Edition A list of indie and self-published women writing in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other speculative fiction genres. Amazon Finally Makes KU Appealing For Novelists The new per-page payout for the Kindle Unlimited subscription service makes it a much better deal for authors of longer novels. Thoughts On The Sieghart Report On Libraries The Sieghart report on libraries missed its mark by miles. Yet the real cause of the decline of the UK library network is depressingly obvious. A Shout-Out For The Good Guys When nastiness dominates online conversations about books it is time to appreciate the well-behaved authors. Critique Circle: Shaping Fabulous Stories The appeal of a certain writing critique website. Or, why I have neglected this blog. Where Shall I Point This Pitchfork? Some thoughts on Jonathan Ross, Loncon, and the twitchfork mob. Reading Is Not A Race Why I will be abandoning annual reading challenges in 2014. What Book Discovery Is Missing The current state of book discovery is narrowing our reading choices and squeezing out midlist writers. How can it be fixed? An Explosion Of Discovery Tools New book discovery engines are popping up all over the web. But which ones will come out on top? Blog Tours From Both Sides Blog tours are the lastest marketing fad. But what are the pros and cons of this kind of publicity? It's Not Your Story Any More When a book is published, authors lose control over how the story should be read. They should let go the reins and enjoy the ride. Same Old, Same Old Are current methods of book discovery pushing us further away from original literature? Is This The End Of Sweeping Vistas? Do recent trends in fantasy art styles and the constraints of online book discovery mark the decline of landscape cover art? A Rising Tide Floats All Boats Authors: stop thinking of other writers as your rivals. They're not the enemy. Reviews cover these genres :
Emily
Asher-Perrin recently bemoaned YA fiction's monopoly of great female protagonists on Tor.com. In
particular, she pointed out the lack of female heroines in adult genre fiction, in which the woman
is definitely the main character. Fortunately this is something I've been tracking in my own reading for some time, so some quick code-fu was all I needed to come up with this list of adult books with a female protagonist from my review list. It's still somewhat fewer than the number of books I've read which feature a male protagonist. These are just the ones I rated at 3 stars and over. There's a 67:93 female to male protagonist ratio for books I like, and 71:102 for adult genre fiction at any rating. I haven't read as much YA, but the ratio is 17:20 female to male protagonists for the YA genre fiction I've read. These figures are for individual books, not separate characters or series. I don't think we can draw conclusions from one person's reading habits about the state of genre publishing, however. But I thought it might be useful to publish this list for anyone who is looking for something to read featuring a female main character. There are 67 books on there at the date of publication, but I'm going to leave the list to update itself so that more recommendations will appear as I add new reviews. Books for adults with female protagonists
Books I haven't reviewed |