Guards, Guards
Men at Arms
Feet of Clay

I always loved the City Watch books of the Discworld series almost as much if not equally to those of the Lancre Witches. Vimes is a wonderful character, someone who has been utterly broken down by life when we first meet him, and gradually pulls himself up by his bootstraps, though he never loses his deep cynicism about the world. The books are packed with lovable, memorable characters: Nobby Nobbs who is basically a big mass of personality quirks mushed together into a smelly vest, cautious Sergeant Colon with a quip for every occasion, and the utterly adorable Carrot, a man so damned GOOD that bluebirds sing whenever he walks down the street. We also get some of the best appearances in the Discworld of the Patrician, one of the most compellingly pragmatic evil overlords ever to exist in fiction, and some of the best stories centred around the city of Ankh-Morpork. All this and some clever, airtight plots, mostly based around police procedural or murder mystery structures. All up, pretty good stuff.

But what about the women?

Guards Guards, the first book featuring the City Watch, is pretty light on when it comes to female characters. The most central woman in the whole story is Sybil Ramkin, dragon expert, whom I love deeply, though it has to be said that she emerges as a fascinating, fully realised and complicated female character despite every attempt of the narrative. Each time she appears, she has to wade through a sea of fat jokes, aristocrat jokes, lonely spinster jokes, and in some cases, all three at once. On more than one occasion she is described vividly as something monstrous or other than human, including scenes from the point of view of the man she will marry in later books.

Every time she opens her mouth, though, Sybil proves herself to be awesome. She’s not just posh and dragon obsessed and lonely and less than slender, she’s also smart, brave, funny, generous, and a good person. I don’t know how to feel about the final scene in which Vimes capitulates to her romantic expectations – it’s gorgeously written, and terribly clever, but I did rankle at him only belatedly admitting that he finds her attractive, and the fact that she is pretty much described as a perfumed siege engine rather than a person. But I love her, I love him, and I do find their later relationship one of the best things about these books (gosh I hope it still is, better brace myself for the visit of the suck fairy) so I will forgive Pratchett for giving Sybil such a problematic debut.

The rest of the women in Guards Guards are largely invisible. We are told about Carrot’s mother, his old girlfriend Minty, his new sort-of-girlfriend Reet, and his innocent friendship with the local brothel madam Mrs Palm and her “many unmarried daughters,” all through scenes in which they don’t actually appear, through dialogue or in his letters home. Likewise Mrs Colon is referenced but we don’t meet her. The entire plot, about a man who uses another bunch of men to summon a dragon and overthrow the Patrician in favour of a fake king to rule them all, and the men who stop him, is one big cockforest. But to put it into context, this is a very early Discworld book, one which had (mostly) not yet accepted that women could play roles other than sexy love interests, funny-because-not-sexy love interests, landladies and witches.

As I discussed in the original Pratchett’s Women post, later Discworld books are far more inclusive of female characters, and that holds true for the City Watch volumes.

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Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett, is the best kind of fantasy novel.

For me, the best possible thing that fantasy as a genre can do is to say something important about our world and history, ideally while also commenting in some way on the traditions of the genre itself, and being a damn good read. Add to that a whole bunch of female characters who happen to be the central drivers of the plot and…

Oh, yes. Lords and Ladies is that good.

In some ways, this book is the last third of an unofficial trilogy (with Wyrd Sisters and Witches Abroad) featuring the original trio of Pratchett’s witches: Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick. In other ways, it’s the beginning of an unofficial trilogy (with Maskerade and Carpe Jugulum) about the mortality and power of Granny Weatherwax, with bonus Nanny Ogg at every turn (she doesn’t just steal scenes, she gets them drunk and makes them blush with dirty jokes) and the growing pains of Agnes “Perdita” Nitt.

But this is also, like so many of Pratchett’s best books, a book about stories. In this case, having taken on Shakespeare and fairy tales, he looks at the role of women in English folk songs and folklore. This is a story about cold iron and fairy glamour; of midsummer rituals and blood in the snow and dodgy jokes about morris dancers and maypoles. It’s a story about how practicality trumps romance every time, if you’re lucky.

Most of all, while it has much to say about witches and wives and mothers, this is a story about queens.

[MANY MANY MANY SPOILERS]
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New episode up on iTunes! Grab it from iTunes, by direct download or stream it on the site.

EPISODE 39

In which we defend Mary Sues everywhere, point at superheroes with their pants down, plan a Hugo Twitterparti and reveal which of the three of us is secretly a hardcore horror fan. But most importantly, Alex is watching Blake’s 7 completely unspoiled and she loves Avon the best, hooray!

News

The Mary Sue Conversation:
Zoe Marriott
Sarah Rees Brennan
Holly Black
Elizabeth Bear
“Sometimes a book is about a female character because there are female people in the world.”

What if Male Superheroes posed like Wonder Woman?
Gender Bent Justice League
Bonus, superheroes without pants (except Wonder Woman):

Cat Valente steps down from Apex Magazine as fiction editor, Lynne M Thomas steps up.

Alex wants to be in Reno.
Watch the Hugos!
Join @GalacticSuburbs in whatever the right time zone is and Twitterparti the Hugos with us!

What Culture Have we Consumed?
Alisa – The Hunger Games, Life on Mars UK, The Women’s Hour Podcast, Doctor Who
Tansy - Lords & Ladies, Terry Pratchett; Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical, Rob Shearman; Rob on the Big Finish Podcast, Xena & the mystical pregnancy
Alex - Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi; Blake’s 7; Across the Universe, Beth Revis.

Featured Feedback:

Grant Watson (as well as our producer) pointed out to Tansy that Jason Todd died in “A Death in the Family” and not “The Killing Joke.” She is very sorry.

Kirstyn McDermott took us to task over our dismissive attitude to horror, and we decided to address her concerns and chew over our complicated relationship with the darker side of spec fic.

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

[SPOILER ALERT for several older Discworld novels and one key scene in recent release I Shall Wear Midnight]

Some time ago, I talked on Galactic Suburbia about how I felt Pratchett was one of those writers who you can see noticeably improving and honing his craft as he goes, and that one of the elements he hugely improved in over the years was his treatment of female characters. Someone commented that they hoped we would elaborate on that at some point, and I have always intended to, though I don’t know that Galactic Suburbia is the best place for that discussion – largely because I think I’m the only one of the three who is a huge reader of Pratchett.

I started reading the Discworld books in the early 90′s, when Small Gods was the latest release. This meant that I read all the books before that in (mostly) the wrong order, and all of the books after that in (mostly) the right order. So it took me some time to figure out what was going on with Pratchett’s women, and the chronology of those early books is still a little muddled in my head.

The first ten books of the Discworld series are quite problematic in their portrayal of female characters, particularly the younger women. I certainly don’t think this was intentional on Pratchett’s part, but an unfortunate result of the fact that in these early books he was largely writing parody of various fantasy worlds and tropes, just beginning to develop the Discworld into something more substantial and complex. I also feel that Pratchett was very much aware of some of the dreadful sexism in his source material, and the female characters he wrote were often in direct response to what he saw in the fantasy genre.

His intentions to point out the silliness of the portrayal of women in fantasy, sadly, backfired somewhat.

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Thrown into a tizzy at the lack of new Downton Abbey in my life, I fell back on one of my favourite costume drama stories of all time, by listening to the audio dramatisation of The Forsyte Saga. The down side of Audible is that there is often little/misleading information on the as to the source of the material – I guessed this was a radio production, and also that it wasn’t produced at ALL in 2010 as the copyright info suggested, thanks to the presence of Sir Michael Hordern (died fifteen years ago), Dirk Bogarde (died ten years ago) and an unrecognisably young Amanda Redman as Fleur. I eventually pinned it down as this 1990 production, which at the time was the most expensive radio series ever made. My favourite bit of the article is where Dirk Bogarde came in thinking his role as Galsworthy (the author and narrator) would just involve a bit of “topping and tailing” but it turned out to be a major performance. He is lovely in it. I adore Galsworthy’s prose, which I think is third only to Austen’s and Pratchett’s for sophisticated, dry observational humour, and it was nice that despite it being a dramatisation, an awful lot of the original text appeared.

As a side note, why is it with so many major radio dramatisations of big classic books and serials such as this, there are so few of fantasy novels? I know there’s a well-regarded audio dramatisation of Lord of the Rings, but surely the serial and substantial nature of epic fantasy, as well as the incredible popularity of some series and authors, PLUS the crazy expense of adapting them to visual media like film or TV, would make them ideal for audio? I find it interesting that there’s such a strong history of science fiction in radio/audio plays, from Hitchhiker’s Guide and Earthsearch all the way through to today’s Big Finish. I first encountered Asimov’s Foundation through a radio play… so where are the radio dramatisations of Pratchett and Gaiman and David Eddings and Mercedes Lackey and… okay, let’s scrub the Americans as they don’t have the cultural history of modern radio drama like the Brits, but where is the 24 part radio serial of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, or Lord Dunsany or HARRY POTTER?

Ahem, anyway.

I love the Forsyte Saga. Like, crazy, adoring love. I first discovered it through the 2002 TV adaptation with Damien Lewis and Rupert Graves, then read the books at least twice through, then got hold of the epic black and white “TV event” version from the 60′s, thanks to my university library. Finding another fully dramatised version was a delight, especially as it turned out to be a very good one. Old Jolyon was played by Sir Michael Hordern, an actor I came to through many classic British movies, notably A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. Young Jolyon, who is my favourite and my best, was played by Anton Lesser, who also won my heart as Falco in the audio dramatisations of Lindsey Davis’ novels. Diana Quick is a gentle and affecting Irene, Alan Howard is a suitably creepy and horrifically compelling Soames, and when she finally turns up, Amanda Redman captures the caprice of Fleur with that perfect balance of adorable and oh-I-want-to-slap-her.

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New episode up! Grab it from iTunes, by direct download or stream it on the site.

EPISODE 35

In which “best” becomes “superior,” Pottermore is Pottermeh, one of us wins all the awards, and we visit/revisit classic non-hard works of SF and Fantasy by Bujold, Willis and Pratchett (with bonus Russian fairytales by Valente).

News

Pottermore announcement made during our podcast…

Theodore Sturgeon finalists

David Gemmell Awards…

NatCon professional guests for next year are Kelly Link and Alison Goodman.

Chronos Awards

Sidewise Awards finalists

Translation Awards winners

Stoker Awards announced

Coode Street Horror Special with Stoker winners Datlow & Straub

Gender Spotting Tool – Naff.

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Connie Willis’ Passage in progress, the next 3 Twelve Planets.
Alex: so much Bujold (Cordelia’s Honor and Young Miles omnibuses… omnibi… whatever, Fly by Night, Frances Hardinge, Red Glove, Holly Black. Series 2 of V (reboot)
Tansy: Deathless, Catherynne Valente; I Shall Wear Midnight, Terry Pratchett; Wyrd Sisters audiobook, Terry Pratchett/Celia Imrie.

Next Fortnight: Galactic Suburbia’s Spoilerific Book Club Presents: Joanna Russ. Reading How to Suppress Women’s Writing, The Female Man, “When It Changed.”

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

Day 14 – Favorite character in a book (of any sex or gender)

Miles Vorkosigan
Miles is one of the most complex fictional characters I’ve ever read. He is pure charisma and ego, overcoming some of the most extraordinary physical limitations to become a truly legendary figure. His ability to talk his way out of (or into) any situation is nothing short of breathtaking, and watching his career and life unfold is a truly fascinating journey. I’m very excited to see what is next in store for him when the new book comes out soon!

Nanny Ogg
I know, I know. Granny Weatherwax is one of Terry Pratchett’s most amazing, iconic and timeless character creations. But I still love Nanny Ogg best. There is a brilliant confidence about her, a madcap humour, and a complicated history that unfolds every time she opens her mouth. She is outspoken, bossy, uninhibited and for such an old lady, kinda sexy. I love her to bits. Or maybe I just want to have a dozen faceless daughters-in-law who do my housework for me…

runners up: Alanna of Trebond, DJ Schwenk, Falco, Alyx, Countess Ashby de la Zouche, Spenser, Calypso Grant, Sophie & Howl, Cordelia Naismith, Nancy Blackett, Harriet Vane, Peter Wimsey, Granny Weatherwax, Mia Thermopolis, Nick Ryves, Scarlett & Spencer Martin, Trixie Belden, Young Jolyon Forsyte, Elizabeth Bennet and Freddy Honeychurch.

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Day 04 – Your favorite book or series ever

There were a bunch of books/series that I would regularly reread every two years or so; I last read the lot of them when I was pregnant with Raeli, and suffering from what I called booksickness – that was, an inability to read anything new. Those included pretty much the complete works of Tamora Pierce, Connie Willis and Diana Wynne Jones, the Vorkosigan novels, Tam Lin by Pamela Dean and Absolute Nobodies by Lee Tulloch. For my twenties, at least, these were the books that I returned to over and over, enjoying new layers every time.

Then there are the books of my childhood: the ocean of Enid Blytons, the boatfuls of Swallows and Amazons, the Edward Eagers and Beverly Clearys.

Then there’s Terry Pratchett, and I’m sure I could write many, many words to express how much his books meant to me fifteen years ago, and what they mean to me now.

But I’m not going to talk about any of them. Ha!

The series that comes to mind are the Masters of Rome books by Colleen McCullough. It’s hard to think of a set of books that have influenced my life more. Sure, Enid Blyton taught me that you could grow up to be a writer, and Terry Pratchett taught me the meaning of meta-fantasy, but Colleen McCullough started me on my love affair with Rome: the city, the history, the symbol. And I’ve never stopped.

I was given the first book in this series as a teenager (possibly a TOUCH too young for it) by a well-meaning relative. I fell in love with it – a dense family saga with the weight of Roman history pressing all around it, plus plenty of sex, violence and grotesquerie. It’s a series just packed with sensible women and damaged men and, oh yes, it’s the reason I took up Ancient Civilisations at college, the reason I kept taking those Classics subjects at university (oops, was that a major?) and the reason I spent a good seven years of my life working towards a PhD.

These books are huge. You might think you’ve seen big books, if you are a fantasy reader, but I advise you to look again. Every time a new book in the series was released, I would read back all the others, laboriously (okay, sometimes I skipped the battle scenes). I have the most recent sitting on my to read shelf after a year and a half, though I was so desperate to read it I purchased it within 24 hours of finding out it existed – it’s still sitting there because my brain keeps insisting I need to read all the others first and honestly, I don’t have three months to spare.

The First Man in Rome gave me the sisters Julia and Julilla, one a sensible matrona-to-be, and the other a spoiled, self-destructive brat. It introduced Marius, a great leader I didn’t care one sestertius about, and the wilfully horrible, poisonous and utterly wonderful Sulla (Avon to Marius’ Blake) whom I adored with a terrible passion.

The Grass Crown gave me lots more Sulla madness and political machinations, but most particularly it gave me Aurelia, sensible young patrician bride, and the elaborate domestic set up she arranges with her dowry, so that she was the landlady of an insula in a poor area by the time she had her son, young Gaius Julius Caesar. Yes, I named my firstborn daughter after her.

Fortune’s Favourites, ostensibly about the fall of Sulla, is the novel that made me fall inexorably in love with Julius Caesar. There was no going back.

Caesar’s Women, perhaps my favourite of the series, gave me tons more Aurelia action, but also brought the horribly unpleasant and yet compelling Servilia into the limelight. It also introduced me to the women’s ritual religion, a topic that I became so interested in, it ultimately served as my Honours topic. [this one was released 1996, the year I started university - after this, my knowledge of and interest in studying Classics informed my reading of the novels rather than the other way around]

While I very much enjoyed Caesar and The October Horse, they had rather more military action than family politics, which was of less interest to me – I had a habit by then of skimming until I got to scenes with women in them – but then along came the brilliantly twisted Octavian, and I was completely in McCullough’s hands all over again.

I still don’t know if I’m going to pick up Antony and Cleopatra any time soon. I am fascinated to do so, but also a little scared. Mostly I’m scared because I’m used to letting McCullough define a historical character for me – her Sulla, Julia, Aurelia, Caesar and Servilia are all ‘canon’ as far as I’m concerned, but this book has Livia in it. And no one can write Livia well enough to please me. She’s MINE.

Yeah, okay. I’m going to read it soon. Any day now. Really, I promise.

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Galactic Suburbia Episode 7 is now live! (that is, you can play it on the website and it’s up on iTunes, the download should be available by tonight our time) In this episode we welcome our first special guest to the show, editor and anthologist Jonathan Strahan. Jonathan is the Locus Reviews Editor. He is a three time Hugo Award nominee and Locus, Aurealis, Ditmar, Peter McNamara, and William J Atheling Jr award winning editor of nearly fifty books. His most recent books include Legends of Australian Fantasy and Swords and Dark Magic. Coming up are Godlike Machines and Engineering Infinity.

Check out our show notes below!

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There’s been some talk around the internets in recent days about how rare it is for women to declare and own their awesomeness, without apologising for it, or putting conditions on it, or basically explaining it away until it doesn’t exist any more.

This reminded me of a conversation that went around the traps a while back, I believe centering around Sarah Rees Brennan, who often endorses such wicked ideas, about how actually maybe it’s time we stopped calling female fictional characters Mary Sues every time they display awesomeness.

As with Twilight-hating, I fear I have to also come out against Mary-Sue-callage, something which may be utterly justified at times and yet contributes so much anti-female sentiment that it makes my skin crawl. Yes, that was a convoluted sentence, wasn’t it. Still, I stick by it.

Critiquing the portrayal of women in fantasy is a perfectly valid pastime, but that’s not what I’m here for right now. I want to talk about some of my favourite female characters from my early years of fantasy reading, why I love them and how they have influenced me. Let me know your favourites in the comments!

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