Fantasy novels and overt sexual themes...over it!

[Arcadia]

I am not adverse to sexual themes in a book. I don't mind sex scenes and erotic tones, but I am finding the weird, perverse and explicit sexual tones of some fantasy novels just too much!

I have read Game of Thrones and found that challenging at times because of the incest and just language like "she needs a good raping" which is just extreme misogynistic crap, even though I understand its a tool to explain a character.

I have read one Sarah Douglas book and found that too extreme in its weird sexual stuff, and now I have abandoned a Raymond Feist book "Faerie Tale" because a 7 year old boy becomes eroticised and ejaculates all over a nurse in the hospital and smears defecation on her breasts. SERIOUSLY! It is unnecessary and gross.

So, yeah. Why all the overtly perverse themes in fantasy novels. Is it just an attempt to disturb the reader and make them unnerved and therefore 'believe' in this other fantasy world?

What do you think? And can anyone recommend a fantasy novel that isn't like this??? (I love isobel carmody and have read heaps of hers).

[onthefly]

I'm reading lots of Robin Hobb at the moment. I have not come across any 7 year olds smearing **** on nurses. (WTF??!!)

[Arcadia]

Ok great! My dh has some robin hobb books so I can start tonight.

Phew! I was thinking of moving back to bodice-ripper romances!

[Astrid]

I read Faerie Tales years ago and never felt that way about the scene you are referring to. Never crossed my mind that it was sexualising a child as it was not the child being written about, but the changeling

Have only read some of Game of Thrones, but have watched it. I liked the grittiness of it, that it was not portraying a medieval inspired time as being all sanitised. Maybe I got over the typical way sexuality and women were presented in other novels I read. The petite, swan necked, pert breasted heroine, who is an educated lady, but can wield a rapier when needed, who is always married to an oaf who is terrible in bed, but finally meets the "one", so is suddenly able to have wonderful sex.

[Artechim]

The Sword of Truth series is good.
The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King.

[AnyDream]

I must be reading completely different sorts of fantasy, then... oh yeah, that's right, it's YA fiction . Nuthin' grubby going on there. Good YA fantasy authors include Maggie Stievater (Shiver, Lament, etc), and Holly Black (White Cat, Tithe). I also enjoyed Gregory Maguire's books, based on fairy stories, like Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Mirror, Mirror and Lost. Hmmm it was a while back that I read them but I don't remember any weird stuff going down in those. Also Diana Wynne Jones wrote a few novels for adults/crossover that are very entertaining, eg Deep Secret. These books aren't really choppy/army/dragonny/elvesy type books but they're still fantasy and a good read.

FWIW I think there are so many fantasy books that are set in essentially the same kinds of worlds with essentially the same kinds of things happening in them, there's a lot of pressure to come up with some kind of twist, and having something that's more "out there" than the others is guaranteed to make it stand out/sell well. Same goes for big hollywood movies too, come to think of it.

[onthefly]

I must be reading completely different sorts of fantasy, then... oh yeah, that's right, it's YA fiction . Nuthin' grubby going on there. Good YA fantasy authors include Maggie Stievater (Shiver, Lament, etc), and Holly Black (White Cat, Tithe). I also enjoyed Gregory Maguire's books, based on fairy stories, like Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Mirror, Mirror and Lost. Hmmm it was a while back that I read them but I don't remember any weird stuff going down in those.

Have you read Maquire's Wicked....?

[Amity]

Trudi Canavan lives in fern tree gully in Melbourne. She has a number of awesome fantasy books. I'm a big fan.

[leckert]

Feist's other books are better fantasy - magician, silver thorn, darkness at sethanon (first trilogy set in world mikedema - think I've spelt that wrong).

Books by Tamora Pierce are good too and Mercedes Lackey.

[2CheekyMonkeys]

highly recommend ALL Robin Hobb! Amazing! Farseer trilogy was my first series and i have fond memories of that but really it gets better and better with all the other series written after that! :-)

[Astrid]

highly recommend ALL Robin Hobb! Amazing! Farseer trilogy was my first series and i have fond memories of that but really it gets better and better with all the other series written after that! :-)

Awesome trilogy. Just wish I could get into Liveship Traders, but one of the characters is so like my first BF, that I can't switch that off and just get into the books. Must try again soon.

[2CheekyMonkeys]

i remember it was a little hard getting into liveships but it is most definately worth it!!! plus its good to read that series before you go onto the other as well.. :-)

[onthefly]

yeah, i like the farseers much better than traders

[indie24]

Maggie Furey's "Aurian" series is quite good. It's a series I read over and over

[misty]

I think I've liked every single book and author mentioned so far (including those in the original post).

Also Tamora Peirce - they are YA, but still a great read, I Love the original "Lioness" series. (these books are literally in tatters because of being read so often, I can recite most of it by heart).
Raymond E Feist - Love all of his, start with 'Magician' and work your way through, that will keep you busy for a couple of years.
Forget who the author is (some big name I would know if I saw it), ut "Wizard's first rule" and all of the subsequent books are fabulous.

[misty]

also (after a breif look at what's laying by the side of my bed) here are a cople of my favourite authors:

David Webber
Richard (Mickey) Ziechart (s?)
Terry Goodkind
Terry Brooks
L.E.Modesitt
David Zammel
Terry Pratchet
Trudi Canavan
Garth Nix
Mercedes Lackey

[The[cookie]Doctor]

MY DH liked Ian Irvine, thats a name i havent seern mentioned

[Starfish]

I don't think that anyone has mentioned Kate Forsyth. She's an Australian author who writes fantasy for both adults and YA. I think she's really good.