I went on a small rant about this subject that nobody responded to (poor me
) I thought at the time maybe I was overthinking, yadda yadda, here's a paste of the post.
OK, this brings up a point that I have been wondering about. I think this is the third time I have seen someone refer to Hobb as a he. Do you think sometimes women authors pick gender neutral pen names because they fear readers will pre-judge their work because they are women? Honestly I may be guilty. Sometimes I'm looking for fantasy or historic fiction with a brutal edge and then I see a women author's name and assume that she'll pull her punches. It's funny because Assassin's Aprentice I think had a strong appeal to the 'boy' need for action and 'badassness'
So that drew me in but it was the Liveship Traders, whose covers look a bit like romance novels, that I liked the best. When I read a different author Lian Hearn, I assumed it was a guy. I thought Lian was like the irish Liam, or maybe it was a greek name. Anyway I enjoyed her Tales of the Otori trilogy and she wrote the male characters just as realistically as the female ones. Now I'm off on a tangent but I have noticed that often male authors have trouble writing realistic female characters. Anyway, I will try better to give authors a chance and not prejudge based on gender. Now I will do 10 hail Marys and a Hokie Pokie for my sins