The book involves only a few female characters: Is it justified?

Lynnmarie Braddock · Post by **Lynnmarie Braddock** » 18 Oct 2020, 07:51

Gender is irrelevant to the plot of a good story. I believe that an argument can be made that "strong female characters" are fairly ubiquitous and sometimes artificially injected. So, I have no problem with a male dominated plotline now and then.

Wordlessly · Post by **Wordlessly** » 18 Oct 2020, 10:21

Female representation is quite a problem in the few fantasy novels I've come across on here. But I do see a scope for the future of female characters as handful of interesting female characters were introduced in this book. I really hope there will be more female characters to come in the future books or else the series will be quite a disappointment. I also disagree with the argument that justifies the lack of female representation due to medeival setting as the book is a clear mixture of modern and medeival.

Abi_kanda · Post by **Abi_kanda** » 18 Oct 2020, 11:43

Am I the only one who thinks it was just okay? Later in the series, although the women characters were not many, they were well portrayed. Look at lady Angela Velys and Harper Reinards in the sixth book. Both were powerful and commanded presence in some way.

Kenzy Lilly Pulitzer · Post by **Kenzy Lilly Pulitzer** » 18 Oct 2020, 14:19

Even though the female characters weren't part of the major roles in the story, I'm just glad the author thought to include them at all. The housekeeper really intrigued me; the author portrays her character as a survivor that can adapt in any given setting. Her intelligence and quiet strength impressed me.

LiannaPrudz · Post by **LiannaPrudz** » 19 Oct 2020, 02:34

It's completely hard to judge based on only the first book. Perhaps Tysz plans to introduce strong, independent female characters in the following books in this series.

Thoto · Post by **Thoto** » 20 Oct 2020, 00:24

rahilshajahan wrote: ↑01 Oct 2020, 06:40 Even though the book hasn't portryaed any female leads, the series does so down the line. And their characters are crucial for most of the pivotal scenes in the series. This book is just an introduction to the 9-book fantasy. So, I wouldn't worry about it much right now!

Goad to hear it. Now I am all psyked up to continue. I thought it was a glaring mishap on the author's end t have such few pivotal female characters. But I have only read the one book, so I'll just have to wait and see.

Wy_Bertram · Post by **Wy_Bertram** » 20 Oct 2020, 16:46

I definitely found the lack of any proper female characters weird. I can see arguments saying it has to do with the medieval setting, but there were at least a couple women in medieval times.

Iconicsmt · Post by **Iconicsmt** » 20 Oct 2020, 17:28

I know I may be in the minority on this (no pun intended), but I don’t like the interjection of characters that may impose a historical (or simply factual) inaccuracy into a story just for the sake of having a character that is such-and-such with a personality that happens to be so-and-so. Not every story has to have a strong female character, strong male character, someone seen as comic relief, the possibility of romantic attraction between characters, etc. It just has to be a good story to me.

Ify_Reviewer · Post by **Ify_Reviewer** » 22 Oct 2020, 01:28

I personally had issues with the lack of strong female characters in the book. But then, on reading other books in the series, I found very strong female characters that I am pleased with.

_Bokeh · Post by **_Bokeh** » 22 Oct 2020, 04:33

Acording to how the author advances his plot and characters, it is justified. I know some people might want to argue on the premise of feminism, but as much as feminism is about equality, equality means giving people opportunities on basis of merit. If the author felt male characters would advance his story the way he pictured it, that is okay.

_Bokeh · Post by **_Bokeh** » 22 Oct 2020, 04:35

Acording to how the author advances his plot and characters, it is justified. I know some people might want to argue on the premise of feminism, but as much as feminism is about equality, equality means giving people opportunities on basis of merit. If the author felt male characters would advance his story the way he pictured it, that is okay.

Jabril Miller · Post by **Jabril Miller** » 23 Oct 2020, 02:33

I don't think the setting being medieval in context excludes the possibility of females being in the main lead-- even the Legend of King Arthur had Guinivere and Morgan-- though, it didn't seem as if it was the author's intent to exclude women from the narrative in any aspect. To the contrary, it seems as if females become more important in the latter part of the series (at least from what I've heard of the narrative so far), so it seems to be more of a literary "incident," rather than intentionally excluding women from the story.

Nelson Lyric · Post by **Nelson Lyric** » 23 Oct 2020, 04:00

According to the set up of this book (medieval setup), I think the author did a wonderful job in those lines. Mostly in the stories of History, women were less valued hence the scenes of such setups focus on Male Characters. Nevertheless this book has characters like Beth. I really think it is okay.

Oyedeji Okikioluwa · Post by **Oyedeji Okikioluwa** » 23 Oct 2020, 05:29

I believe we will see more from female characters as the series goes on. However, the few female chatacters here are great. For example Beth was an interesting character in the book.

raj_nandani_poet · Post by **raj_nandani_poet** » 23 Oct 2020, 09:40

I agree with your point. However, there are female characters introduced further in the series who prove to be crucial to the story at hand.

They are not just damsels in distress but capable women warriors who help out our protagonists a lot. You will notice variety of female leads changing the course of the story.