Feb-20-2011, 06:11 PM (UTC)
Er... lots more Tawny & Farseer spoilers for me here LOL I love it how almost everyone brings those books into discussion in every thread, it reminds me why I should go and read them 
I'd like to add some of my feelings on the "controversial" nature of the Rain Wilds Chronicles. Firstly on the point that if feels a bit like Hobb had so many gay characters in order to prove a point, I do agree that I got that impression. However, as someone said earlier, I think she was right to bring up the topic of homosexuality, and to finally have a main gay character in her books. For Hobb to do this, (her being such a prolific and respected writer) is very much a step in the right direction, in terms of representing sexuality in the fantasy genre. And making it acceptable for there to be gays in fantasy books, without the books having to be targetted at a gay audiance. I hope Hobb is beginning to alter people's perception of the inclusion of gay characters in fantasy, because in that genre, I still see a considerable lack of gay characters.
I'd like to randomly mention The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan, another fantasy series which includes some gay characters, (I dont want to name who they are, it will ruin the books if you decide to read them
) and it also deals with the homophobia of society in the world of the books. I'd recommend them, although I do think the author was a bit tame in her writing when 2 gay characters formed a relationship... she didnt even show them kissing or anything, it felt like she had different standards for portraying romance between the gay characters than she did for the hetro couples... Anyway, I will not go into a rant about that here
I'd like to add some of my feelings on the "controversial" nature of the Rain Wilds Chronicles. Firstly on the point that if feels a bit like Hobb had so many gay characters in order to prove a point, I do agree that I got that impression. However, as someone said earlier, I think she was right to bring up the topic of homosexuality, and to finally have a main gay character in her books. For Hobb to do this, (her being such a prolific and respected writer) is very much a step in the right direction, in terms of representing sexuality in the fantasy genre. And making it acceptable for there to be gays in fantasy books, without the books having to be targetted at a gay audiance. I hope Hobb is beginning to alter people's perception of the inclusion of gay characters in fantasy, because in that genre, I still see a considerable lack of gay characters.
I'd like to randomly mention The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan, another fantasy series which includes some gay characters, (I dont want to name who they are, it will ruin the books if you decide to read them
) and it also deals with the homophobia of society in the world of the books. I'd recommend them, although I do think the author was a bit tame in her writing when 2 gay characters formed a relationship... she didnt even show them kissing or anything, it felt like she had different standards for portraying romance between the gay characters than she did for the hetro couples... Anyway, I will not go into a rant about that here
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