Twisted Kingdom

We have the end of the author of the month being posted today, so today will be focused on Neil Gaiman, but I just wanted to talk about a site I found through Lynn Flewelling's Live Journal. Earlier, Nath posted a list of the nominees for the Hugo Awards, and while there was a nice list, it was predominately a male list. The Broad Universe did what they call a "Bean Count." In these statistics they take a tour of the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror department. It is scary just how uneven things are. You can read the whole list, but here are some of the hightlights:

For Starters, Romance is the most popular reading choice: (no wonder they are womanizing other genres, women appear as the predominant readers, although men read romance too)

Sales of popular fiction in 1999 including hardcovers and paperbacks. From Publishers Weekly (13 Nov 2000, p.42)

Science fiction/fantasy: 7.3% of sales

General fiction: 12.1% of sales

Mystery/detective/suspense: 25.7% of sales

Romance: 38.8% of sales

Now, let's get into the point of this. While these are older numbers, I would still think that people would find similar results in 2007:

Authors of Forthcoming Books
From Locus (Dec 2000), list of Complete Books by (American) Publishers for Nov 2000 through Sep 2001. Note that not all these books represent new works of fiction; many are reissues of older works.

373 female authors (31%)

812 male authors (67%)

21 authors are of unknown gender (2%)

Total: 1206

Authors/Editors of Books Received
From Locus, Jan-Dec 2000
(Fractional points indicate two, three, or four editors.)

636.75 female authors/editors (31.4%)

1331.75 male authors/editors (65.7%)

57.5 authors/editors of unknown gender (including house names and anonymous) (2.8%)

Total: 2026

The statistics go on, you can read the rest, but these two numbers illustrate why the Hugo's are so male-dominated. If they were to come up with an award for women only, I think, in my opinion, that would not make things much better. Awards, like the Orange Award, are for women. If there was equality in the world, though, would these awards need to be made for women only? Or, do men just write better books? In my experience, I will read both male and female authors, but I know lots of people that will only read their own gender. Men only reading male authors, and women only reading female authors. People say that feminism is dead, but it is not. There is still so many avenues in daily life that are sexist. It is just not the 70's anymore, and people are not as geared up for protests.

Also, this is only one publishing company, there are others.

Before I wrap this up, what started this was the list for the Hugo's being mostly men. Here are some other years numbers for fantasy, science fiction, and horror awards. As you can see, it is an on-going thing:

Campbell
1973-79: 2 women, 6 men (25%, 75%)
1980-89: 5 women, 5 men (50%, 50%)
1990-99: 6 women, 5 men (55%, 45%)

Dick
1982-1989: 1 woman, 7 men (12%, 88%)
1990-1999: 1 woman, 10 men (9%, 91%)

Hugo
1953-59: 0 women, 13 men (0%, 100%)
1960-69: 1 woman, 26 men (4%, 96%)
1970-79: 11 women, 30 men (27%, 73%)
1980-89: 9 women, 31 men (22%, 78%)
1990-99: 13 women, 28 men (32%, 68%)

Nebula
1965-69: 3 women, 19 men (14%, 86%)
1970-79: 10 women, 27 men (27%, 73%)
1980-89: 14 women, 22 men (39%, 61%)
1990-99: 19 women, 21 men (47%, 53%)

Stoker
1987-89: 3 women, 14 men (18%, 82%)
1990-99: 14 women, 44 men (24%, 76%)

Tiptree
1991-1999: 15 women, 1 man, 1 transgendered (88%, 6%, 6%) <-- never heard of this one

World Fantasy
1975-79: 1 woman, 13 men (7%, 93%)
1980-89: 6 women, 32 men (16%, 84%)
1990-99: 11 women, 33 men, (25%, 75%)

Savage Messiah: The Destinies of Blood and Stone by Robert Newcomb: 2.5 /5
published by Delrey in December 2005

This books is the first in the second trilogy of 3 planned trilogies to tell the story of the Blood & Stone. Confused? Simple, first there was a trilogy titled The Chronicles of Blood and Stone. Then we now have this new trilogy which continues where the last book left off. Two more books will round off the Destinies trilogy then finally we will have the Victories of Blood and Stone.

All told there are 9 books telling the story of Prince Tristan and I for once find it silly that it's divided into 3 trilogies.

Anyways, I must say I was extremely disappointed in this book. Seems I'm not the only one. Straight from Amazon we have the plot:

Set in the world of Eutracia, Newcomb's repetitive first volume in a new fantasy trilogy relies on the same gimmick as The Scrolls of the Ancients (2004), the final book in his Chronicles of Blood and Stone series. Once again a villain returns from the dead; Wulfgar, whom the heroic Tristan "killed" in The Scrolls of the Ancients, is now the all-powerful Enseterat, whose mastery of the dark magic of the Vagaries is enhanced by his direct contact with the ancient Heretics of the Guild. A more serious flaw is the book's system of magic. People are drawn toward the evil Vagaries or the good Vigors by the "lean" of their blood signatures. Magic can change this natural lean, but since characters gain their magical abilities not by study or practice or experimentation but by "forestallments" imbued into their blood, they lack free will. Newcomb's prose isn't strong enough to compensate for an uninspired adventure whose protagonists amount to mere automatons.

The characters are all very boring and one-dimensional. In fact, the only characters that intrigued me any where the assassin Satine and the villain Wulfgar. The heroes all seem to act impulsively as if this where the first time they faced an evil villain when in fact they've "been there" thrice before [in the previous trilogy]. From what I've read on those books, well, they seem to be just about a carbon copy of one another. I found myself not caring what happened to the heroes way before we even hit the middle of the book. After that I skimmed the rest simply to find out who got bumped off and how it was all wrapped up. It's a very bad sign when you are rooting for the bad guy simply because he seems the more alive of the bunch.

At first I thought I may want to find out just who the destined queen will be but, after having to skim just about half of the book I realized I don't care one bit just how this entire trilogy or series ends.

A migthy disappointing read.

This is such a great week! Two guest reviews in one week! LOL :D All right, let's be serious. The following guest review is by Katie from Rhinoa's Ramblings. The book reviewed is Moon Called by Patricia Briggs! I hope everyone enjoys!

(psst- the week is not over, contest is ending on Sunday!)


Moon Called - Patricia Briggs
Published by Ace Books, New York 2006

Rating: 4/5
Genre: Horror, Fantasy
Series: Book One in the Mercy Thompson series

Mercy Thompson's sexy next-door neightbour is a werewolf. She's tinkering with a VW bus at her machanic shop that happens to belong to a vampire.But then, Mercy Thompson is not exactly normal herself... and her connection to the world of things that go bump in the night is about to get her into a whole lot of trouble.

A new series by Patricia Briggs about Witches, Werewolves, Vampires and Walkers. Mercedes (Mercy) is a Walker and can transform into a Coyote at will who was mostly raised by Werewolves. Since growing up she became a car mechanic sharing a back wall with a werewolf and fixing cars for local vampire Stefan. Her life changes when a newly Changed werewolf turns up on her doorstep looking for work.There are obvious parallels with the books by Kelley Armstrong. Both have a female lead character, a variety of supernatural creatures, danger lust and love and a smattering of violence. It did retain some originality and I preferred the characters in this book as they seemed somehow more real despite the supernatural element. I liked the idea of Mercy being a Walker and the stories about the Fae coming out in public was interesting.

At times though it seemed the author was over complicating the plot. It seemed she was trying to cram in a few too many twists, turns and ideas and could have perhaps toned it down nearer the end a little. There were also a couple of discrepencies eg only Bran was supposed to be able to communicate with other werewolves but it seemed Mercy as a coyote and a couple of the wolves could talk to others of their kind as well as humans. It was a little unclear.Overall though I really enjoyed this book and will definately be reading the next in the series.

I was so excited when I got the opportunity to be a guest-blogger here on Twisted Kingdom! This is such a cool site, and I know a lot of the regular visitors here from other blogs (hi Zeek!) that I frequent.

Or, rather, try to frequent, but have done a horrendous job of it in the last few months. (Sorry, Zeek. DC. Mailyn.)

Anyway, Kelly said that I could write about anything I wanted to (little did she know I’m going to make you all think….mwahahahahaaaa!), and since I’m going to be interviewed here on TK next Wednesday, I figured I’d turn the table and ask ya’ll some questions this week.

Next week, you can badger me with anything you want. (Well, actually, you can badger me this week too and I’ll answer questions as well. So knock yourself out.)

…And you’re going to want to, because this week the gals at TK are giving away a freshly autographed copy of The Rest Falls Away (the first in the Gardella Vampire Chronicles, if you didn’t already know) and next week….well, they’re giving away an Advance Review Copy of Rises the Night (which won’t be released until June). Publishers Weekly says, “A fast-paced carnival ride of a book!” about Rises.

(I’m very excited. I’m hoping to get to meet the cover model some day. *sigh*)

All you have to do is make a comment, or two, or three, to this post and you’re entered in the drawing. (Right, Kelly?)

So, since I have your full attention now…I’d like to pick your brain from an author’s perspective.

First, how do you feel about cross-genre books? What I mean are, books like mine, that really creep over the genre boundaries of horror, romance, paranormal, etc. Do you like the mix up, or would you rather read a romance when you want a romance, and a fantasy when you want a fantasy?

In general, what makes you buy a book by an author who’s new to you? Friend recommendation? Blog review? Amazon browsing? Bookstore browsing? Ads in a magazine? What?

And when you’re in a bookstore, and browsing, what makes you pick up a book? Where do you browse? Where do you never look? Do you only buy books you have on your list, or do you do impulse buying too?

Is there anything you’re tired of seeing, as far as premise of books? Do you ever go into a bookstore and feel like you can’t find something that you want to read? Why? What do you want? What’s missing?

How about interaction with authors? Do you feel that authors should be accessible to their readers—by blog, website, message board, private loop, etc.? Or do you just want to know when the next book is coming out, maybe an excerpt or two?

Have you ever seen a book trailer? (If you haven’t pop over to my website and you can see mine on the homepage.) What do you think of them as a promo tool?

What do you think about MySpace for an author as a promo tool? Personally, I haven’t found it that helpful, but I’m all ears. Any suggestions? How about Facebook? (Yeah, I’m there too….)

What kind of freebies do you like from authors? (Be honest now!) Bookmarks, cover flats, excerpts, podcasts, t-shirts, vampire-hunting stakes? ;-)

What do you think is the best way for a new author like moi to reach non-Internet readers?

Is there anyone who wants to join my SWAT team for the Gardella books and have extra chances to win ARCs, t-shirts, autographed copies, etc.?

Okay, that’s it. I’ll check back for questions, answers, and comments!

Thanks again to the TK ladies for having me here! I look forward to a fun discussion.

(This is Kelly, just wanted to say that if you want a copy of The Rest Falls Away, comment in this post. If you want a copy of Rises the Night, save mentioning it until next Wednesday when she comes back for her interview. We will draw for The Rest Falls Away next Wednesday, so that gives you a week, and Rises the Night, the Wednesday after that. But, while all you have to do is comment to be entered, you cannot just say "pick me", you have to at least attempt to join in the conversation. That sounds fair, right?)