Specifically in Urban Fantasy. This is certainly an appropriate place for pointed commentary, because UF is definitely not where you go to find women over . . . what, thirty?
Anyway, here is a post at tor.com from Liz Bourke about that. Liz says forty. Maybe, maybe, but even over thirty seems pretty unusual to me. Across all of fantasy, of course, but certainly in UF. Hard to be your standard kickass sexbomb protagonist if you’re middle-aged, I suppose.
Not that I am actually widely read in UF. But still.
Liz is actually leading into a review of a new title:
…Which makes it downright refreshing to come across a novel whose main character is fifty-five years old and deeply unwilling to take anyone’s shit. E.E. Richardson’s Disturbed Earth is a breath of clean air in a landscape that shies away from putting women over forty front-and-centre. . . . In terms of pacing, Disturbed Earth is a little on the uneven side. And until I realised that there’s a prequel novella, the e-only Under the Skin, my impression of meeting a series in full swing didn’t quite make sense. But I really enjoyed it: it’s cracking fun. And Pierce is an excellent character, with great voice, in the grand tradition of cranky middle-aged detectives.
From Liz’s description, this sounds like very much a crime novel. With necromancers and stuff.
Pacing issues are the single thing that bothers me least (most of the time). I think I will pick up the novella and see if it grabs me.
Please Feel Free to Share:
