Oh god, LKH. Do not even get me started. I read her until either Obsidian Butterfly or Micah -- I think it was Micah -- and decided, "Yeah, I'm done." I didn't mind her faerie series because it seemed designed to be porn, but then Anita started banging everything like a one-woman drum kit and yeah. Done. (And the rampant Mary Sue-ism! Holy crap!)
I'm thinking over the urban fantasy series I have been reading, and I definitely recognize the trend to which you're pointing. I love Patricia Briggs's Mercy Thompson and Alpha and Omega books, but she has a real paucity of recurring female characters other than her two mains. Seanan McGuire's October Daye books are probably the least problematic ones I follow: Toby is badass and getting badassier, and she's got at least three female friends I can think of off the top of my head. Not a lot of diversity, though.
Do you have any recommendations for ones that don't utterly suck? What are some of the good steampunks you've been reading? (I hear Meljean Brook's steampunks are amazing.)
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I'm thinking over the urban fantasy series I have been reading, and I definitely recognize the trend to which you're pointing. I love Patricia Briggs's Mercy Thompson and Alpha and Omega books, but she has a real paucity of recurring female characters other than her two mains. Seanan McGuire's October Daye books are probably the least problematic ones I follow: Toby is badass and getting badassier, and she's got at least three female friends I can think of off the top of my head. Not a lot of diversity, though.
Do you have any recommendations for ones that don't utterly suck? What are some of the good steampunks you've been reading? (I hear Meljean Brook's steampunks are amazing.)