I really love Kay's work - I think his use of language is stunning, precise and beautiful. His plots are sweeping and are clearly well researched without showing off. All of this, and he writes awesome women.
He writes female characters who I would love to be. They are powerful, intelligent, and interesting. They are part of the team, contributing as much as the men in the story. Jehane, the doctor, from the Lions of Al-Rassan, Catriana from Tigana - they are women who have opinions, personalities and skills that push the story forward. And, nearly uniquely in the fantasty genre, they have not had to undergo a terrible sexual trauma to scour away their feminine weakness. They are simply stong people, and it's so refreshing to read.
There are other authors who are getting there. Brent Weeks has had several strong women who've gone through the rape crucible (Viridiana, Karris White Oak), but finally seems to have written a women who is both a bad ass and has escaped the "de-womanizing" process (Liv Danavis). Katherine Kerr's Gill goes back and forth - set on her path as a conflicted love interest, but eventually arriving as a power in her own right.
But generally, female characters exist to reflect the male protagonists. They are virgins or whores, sweet or evil, love interests or vindictive exes. And it just gets a bit boring. Most real women are somewhere in between and equally complex as the men with whom they interact.
It fills me with hope that writers are realising that, as women have related to male heroes, so can men relate to female heroes.
Are there any writers that you think write great women? Who do you recommend?
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