gender equity in fantasy fiction

I started editing “Soul of Serpents”, the sequel to Demonsouled and Soul of Tyrants, and I noticed something amusing.

I have three male POV characters: Mazael Cravenlock, Lucan Mandragon, and Malavost.

And I also have three female characters: Mazael’s sister Rachel, Sykhana of the Calibah, and a character who I won’t name due to massive spoilers.

It’s amusing because I didn’t plan it that way. There are all kinds of angry Internet tests on the topic – like, if all the female characters of a book are the girlfriends or the wives or the mothers or the sisters of the male characters, it’s overwhelming proof of the author’s burning hatred of women. Or something. Though to be fair, a very large percentage of women are someone’s girlfriend or wife or mother or sister.

Anyway, the point is that I don’t go out of my way to write stories that pass the angry Internet tests. So it’s funny that “Soul of Serpents” turned out to have perfect gender equity in the POV department.

And if you’d prefer a book that has an entirely female POV – well, have I got the book for you!

And the protagonist is 1.) an only child, 2.) an orphan*, 3.) unmarried, and 4.) expecting to remain that way.

-JM

*Technically, the orphan bit is 50% self-inflicted.