Sex in Fantasy Books

It seems like over the past couple of decades there has been an increase of sex in Fantasy. Sex has even shown up in Young Adult Fantasy (i.e. the third book in Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle Trilogy). The Gemma Doyle series was published for ages 12 and up; and there was a sex scene in the final book (between two older teenagers). It was brief and not too graphic, but totally unnecessary, especially for a book geared toward middle school teens (not to mention that there were other mature subject matter in the series—sexual abuse of a child and drug use). I was already shocked in book two when the main character in the trilogy was having a pretty steamy fantasy about the Indian boy she was fond of.

We all know that George R. R. Martin throws in his explicit sex/rape scenes in his A Song of Ice and Fire series. Jacqueline Carey had her Kushiel series where the main character is a prostitute; so those books are loaded with the character doing her thing. I have not touched those books since it is well advertised of what the main character is. Even Peter S. Beagle (the author of The Last Unicorn) threw some sex in his 1993 book, The Innkeeper’s Song.

There was a time when I went to the library and picked up a book by Laurell K Hamilton, not knowing that I was going to run into pornographic-like sex scenes between other-worldly creatures. I did not finish and took the book back. I should have done my research. The same thing happened when I picked up a book by Sherrilyn Kenyon from the library. Again, pages and pages of graphic sex—I should have done my research. This was at a time where I pretty much had no clue about the sub-genre that these books fell under (Paranormal Romance). I got it now; and I have learned my lesson.

As you can now tell, I’m not in to sex in Fantasy. I am in that group of people where we would like to sit down and read a good story without having to go into the “bedroom” with the character(s) and watch them go at it. There is a group of people that say that sex in Fantasy is “realistic” or “reality”, and that sex is a normal part of life, and should not be excluded, as long as it carries the story. Yes, sex is a part of life (of course), but so is going to the bathroom, but I don’t want to read about a character grunting and straining on the commode. I know…bad example. But, my point is, I don’t want to sit in a room and watch people going at it…yuck. I don’t need to read sentences, paragraphs, and pages of characters having sex to feel bonded with the character.

Karen Hancock, in my opinion, did a great job in her book, The Light of Eidon: The characters got close, there was a degree of passion where you felt the moment, and then it was the next day, and the author was able to convey the aftermath through the character, and we, as adults, were able to feel what the character felt; and later on in the book see how that night effected him. The author did not have to break it down for us in detail. We got it. I challenge authors to be creative. Produce a story that is so compelling that it is obvious that a sex scene would only disrupt and/or quench the magnitude of the story.

Patrick Rothfuss had some sex scenes in his second book, The Wise Man’s Fear, but he did not get explicit. I thought he wrote it well, without  getting x-rated on us. I could have done without it, but Mr. Rothfuss deemed it necessary to put it in his great story, but I did feel it kind of halted the story (for me).

But, I know, a lot of authors feel that they have to do this. They feel that sex will enhance their story and/or their characters. Some feel like it’s their obligation to write sex into their story and hope that their readers enjoy it. This is an instance where I kind of liken it to comedians… You have the comedians that have the foul and vulgar jokes, and that’s the only way they can do their act. It would be difficult for them if they could not produce those kind of jokes through their entire show. Then you have the comedians like Sinbad and Bill Cosby, who can get up there and have you crying in laughter without an ounce of vulgarity. In the same case, you have writer “A” who cannot convey their story without laying out the sex details; and writer “B” works to give a little more effort to be creative in their story without sticking the frank scenes in your face.

Call me dumb, but I was shocked to see how many women crave the books with the graphic sex. I should have known, since the Romance genre is huge, and primarily read by women. Also, it is women writing these pornographic scenes in their books. It is not the majority of male authors that are writing pages and pages of graphic sex, it’s the women. Look at the success of the Fifty Shades Trilogy by E L James. The sudden rave is just unreal.

Now, in my conclusion, my real point in this case is that I would like to see some kind of label of some sort on books so that there is at least a head’s up of what the book would contain. You see ratings on movies and video games. You see warning labels on CD’s with explicit lyrics. Why not something like this for the book industry? I love being able to look at a movie and say, “why is this rated R?” I flip over the Blu-ray/DVD and see what the contents of the movie are that give it the rating. Then I have a choice in whether I want to watch that movie or not. I would like to have the same option with books. Is this asking too much?

Black Authors Writing Fantasy…Where Are They?

Several years ago, a thought crossed my mind, wondering if there were black authors that wrote Epic Fantasy. I couldn’t really think of one. I was at a writer’s conference back in 2003, and I was talking with an editor from Tor, and I mentioned to him that I was not familiar with any black authors writing in the fantasy genre. He mentioned Steven Barnes and the Dark Matter anthology, but that was pretty much it. When I researched Steven Barnes and the Dark Matter anthology, I discovered that the fiction was mostly Sci-Fi and Speculative Fiction; with maybe some Urban Fantasy. That still wasn’t quite what I was looking for. Where were the black authors writing Epic Fantasy? Something set in another/alternate world, with characters of color. I couldn’t find any at that time. After that, I pretty much gave up and continued reading what is normally available in the genre (at the mainstream level, of course). A few years ago, again, I started looking for black authors writing fantasy, and I stumbled upon N.K. Jemisin, a little before her book, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, was released. I thought, cool, finally a black author writing fantasy—and it’s a woman, which is even cooler. Later on, I discovered David Anthony Durham, with his Acacia book coming out. Again, I thought cool. These two authors have put out some pretty solid fantasy, and the books and their series are being well received. Then I thought: But…is this it? Just these two authors? Nnedi Okorafor has some works of YA fantasy which is being well received; they are not Epic Fantasy, but they are pretty imaginative.

Back in the late 70’s and early 80’s, DAW Publishing (a major Sci-Fi/Fantasy publisher) published 4 books by Charles R. Saunders. This was the Imaro series, which is kind of like a “black Tarzan”, in comparison to Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan and Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian. Imaro takes place in an alternate Africa; an epic adventure with sorcery wars and stuff. The books were not well received when first published and went out of print pretty quick. A few years ago, these books were re-released. So, I can see Charles R. Saunders pretty much being the first black writer to put out fantasy books (correct me if I’m wrong). Despite the history of the series’ failure, a major publisher published the books. Maybe Mr. Saunders was ahead of his time back then, or it was bad marketing on the publisher’s part; or maybe readers in general (black or white) were not in to Imaro, the great African warrior. I have not read any of the Imaro books, but I read a little of the excerpt on Amazon.com, and I thought the beginning was pretty good. I’m not a fan of heroic fantasy, so I’m still weighing whether or not I will try reading the books.

So, why are there not more black authors writing Epic/High Fantasy? I think the answer is pretty easy… Black people, in general, are not in to fantasy. The same could be true of other people of color (Latinos, Asians, etc). I think Americans in general love watching the big fantasy movies like Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, etc; and people of color will watch those movies, but cinema is a different medium than the written word. When I was growing up, movies like The Dark Crystal, Legend, and the Never-ending Story (and Star Wars, of course) were like the best thing to me. Watching cartoons like He-Man, Dungeons & Dragons, Smurfs, and The Hobbit were so cool to me, because of the fantastic elements. Now, those movies and cartoons I’ve mentioned were a few of many that I enjoyed (Conan the Destroyer, with Arnold Schwarzenegger, was one of my favorites back then), but I couldn’t have been the only black kid that dug that stuff. Surely, black kids all over the nation loved these movies too…right? And they grew up and wanted to write stories about fantastic worlds and characters…or are people like me the exception? It sure feels that way. There is always a few.

When I was a kid, I loved walking to the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section of the bookstore (back when there were a lot of them) and looking at the great covers, thinking that the pages within were just the best stories of all time--and there were so many to choose from. Well, I didn’t start reading fantasy until my late teens (probably more after high school), and I found out, that despite the really cool book covers, not all the stories were all that fantastic. I thought maybe it was just me. Maybe I’m reading the books wrong. After a while, I discovered that I was just plain finicky, and not all these stories were so great. Even if there are a lot of people praising the book(s) (hint: The Wheel of Time series).

So, getting back on topic, I can only conclude that Epic Fantasy is not the genre that a lot of black writers desire to tell their stories. How many writers and publishers out there are afraid that the same thing that happened to Imaro over 30 years ago would happen again. But, hopefully, it’s not like that now. Hopefully, a good story can just sell because it’s a good story that readers enjoy; not because of who wrote it and what ethnic the characters are. My hat off to the handful of authors mentioned above that wrote their stories within the fantasy genre, and giving the genre different kinds of characters than what we are used to seeing. I think the genre needs more diversity; and maybe this would be the next fad. Who knows?   


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Search For Good Content

 I have been on a journey in search of good books to read in the Fantasy genre, but I seem to be having difficulty in the hunt—or at least it’s more difficult than I had expected. I don’t want to spend my hard earned money on a book unless I’m confident that the book is going to be worth my time and money. At least when I go to the library I can take my chances, because it’s free. But even getting a book from the library would still cost me my time—I value my time. So the method I use in searching for a good read is through good critics like the Fantasy Book Critic blog, and the bulk of reviews found on Amazon.com. Even with good reviews from these sources, I’m still hesitant to give some books a try, because it may not hold the content that I’m itching for. That’s the basic premise of this blog.

My main struggle is finding books that have good content. It seams that Epic Fantasy these days is leaning toward dark and gritty. If done well, dark and gritty is okay, if the story is good. But how many books do we need to go this route? Dark and gritty, that is. Why is a book only good if it is laced with sex, profanity and violence? I’m enjoying the early A Song of Ice and Fire books as much as everyone else, but most of us know that there are graphic scenes within the books that are not necessary for the story or the characters. I guess when you have a story that drags on and on, you have to throw in some graphic scenes to keep the readers awake.

During my search, I have enjoyed the Fate of the Jedi series, which continues the story of Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa Solo and Han Solo with intrigue and quick pacing as they battle an ancient evil (I know…I know… Star Wars is considered Sci-Fi). But in the fantasy genre, I really enjoyed Tracy Hickman’s The Annals of Drakis trilogy. It’s a typical Epic Fantasy, with warriors, elves (bad elves, that is), dwarfs, dragons, and a variety of other fantasy races, but I found the story and the characters very enjoyable throughout the whole series. The hero, Drakis, in the story is the typical Caucasian warrior, but there is a black lady warrior in the story who’s strong and likeable, and becomes very important to the hero in the series; which I thought was really cool, because you don’t find much stuff like that in the fantasy genre. You don’t find many people of color in the fantasy genre, period (I will write about that in my next blog). There was no sex, profanity, or graphic violence in the books, and it was really good!

I have enjoyed Patrick Rothfuss’ The Kingkiller Chronicles (The Name of the Wind & The Wise Man’s Fear). They contain some suggestive scenes and language, but few enough. These books go on and on, and the characters seem to just hang out at times, but Rothfuss made Kvothe (the main character) and the other characters so interesting and likeable that you almost kind of enjoy “hanging out” with them. But even with that said, I like for my stories to pick up the pace. I am looking forward to the 3^RD book in the series though.

For anyone reading this blog, I’m interested to know your thoughts on Fantasy books and the kind of content you look for (keep ‘em pithy). Also, if you have any recommendations for me...I’m open. In addition, I’m also looking for some good Historical Fiction that takes place in the 1800’s that is not cheesy and/or graphic romance, steam punk or about the U.S. civil war. Does such a thing exist?