In addition to my course work (mostly poetry at this point, but a few essays and soon a few actual novels!), I’m currently working my way through two trilogies. I’m just about done book 1 of the Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski, and I just finished book 1 of the Battletech, Warrior trilogy by Michael A. Stackpole.
I’m enjoying both trilogies a lot, although they are pretty old and some of the writing doesn’t quite hold up to modern offerings. But that’s okay! They’re still fun, and I’m enjoying reading them to pick up on little cues and differences between these writers and how I write. Which, after all, is a very important part of being a writer. Roughly, to be a writer, you need to do two things:
1. Read a lot
2. Write a lot
I do lots of the second point, but it’s nice to make sure I’m keeping up on that first one there as well.
It’s also interesting to see the way female characters are portrayed by both authors. You could argue, for example, that Melissa Steiner, a 17-year-old woman who is poised to become the ruler of (arguably) the largest section of human space, is a very powerful female lead who has the same sorts of doubts and uncertainties as the male protagonists seem to. And there are certainly lots of female mechwarriors in the series.
Likewise, the women characters in The Witcher are usually portrayed as powerful magicians (Yennifer, Triss) or rulers (the queen of Cintra)… but by the same token, I wouldn’t say most of them are presented in a balanced way. I think the tv show, for the record, does a much, much better job, but the book is old and the show is new, so I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
Anyway, I could talk about that for hours on its own, and I really just wanted to say that I’ve been enjoying my reading this last week or so. And I am looking forward to book 2 in both series, since book 2s tend to be very difficult to land… but we will see!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!