Space and fantasy books are becoming more popular than ever, thanks to a wave of exciting new authors. These epic genres are being enjoyed by hordes of proud new geek girls around the world, who not only embrace their inner nerd, they climb to the highest rooftop to shout about it.“Doctor Who is awesome” declared one enthusiastic girl at a recent event I hosted, which is a view shared by millions of young female fans across the UK, including my own nieces.
This year, I’ve toured schools and libraries to promote my new novel, Spacejackers, which is about a teenager called Jake Cutler who is on the run from space pirates. I have two young sons and I wanted to write something that would appeal to boys. However, I’ve been surprised at how many girls have queued up for signed copies. Not only that, I’ve been contacted by Mums, who have secretly read Spacejackers at night when their children have been asleep and want to know when the next book is out.
Why is this surprising? After all, roughly half of science-fiction and fantasy authors are women. However, there was a time when these genres were dominated by teenage boys, or at least that’s how it seemed. I grew up reading books by Douglas Adams and JRR Tolkien, but there were not many girls at my school who would admit to liking The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
or The Lord of the Rings.
A lot has changed over the years. Where there were once small clusters of nerds and nerdettes, there are now huge online communities, who find each other on social media and share their common interests. A quick search on Twitter reveals an army of female book bloggers, many of whom claim to be Gryffindors, Whovians, Tributes, Half-Bloods and Shadowhunters. Sam Maggs, author of The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy, recently declared that she is “a fangirl, a feminist and a force to be reckoned with” and compared herself to “Buffy, not Bella.”
There are now thousands of men and women who dress up for science-fiction and fantasy conventions, such as WorldCon and ComicCon. This cosplay (short for costume play) often means weeks of preparation, so fans can impersonate popular characters, whether it’s Han Solo or Hermione Granger. Lucy Saxon, the teenage author of the fantasy novel Take Back the Skies, is well known for her cosplay outfits, including a female Captain America.
The internet has helped to bring some less conventional genres into the mainstream, providing a platform for books to go viral. Harry Potter by JK Rowling sparked global wizard-mania in the early 2000s, inspiring a whole generation of fantasy fans to dress up as witches and wizards for the book launches and film premiers. I remember various online forums speculating about which characters might get together, turn evil or be killed off.
Strong heroine Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards), seen here with the evil Mrs Coulter (Nicole Kidman), in The Golden Compus – the film version of Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights. Photograph: Laurie Sparham/New Line Cinema/Handout Northern Lights by Philip Pullman, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Divergent by Veronica Roth have also helped to blur traditional boundaries and make their genres accessible through their iconic heroines: Lyra Belacqua, Katniss Everdeen and Beatrice Prior. This trend has continued with such books as Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare, Throne of Glass
by Sarah J Maas and The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon.
What about space? It’s true that science-fiction has not enjoyed as much attention over the years as fantasy and dystopia. In fact, you would struggle to find it as a children’s book category on most publisher websites. However, space adventures are starting to take off and we can expect a lot more of them in 2015.
For starters, the Red House children’s book award 2014 was won by The 5th Wave
by Rick Yancey, which is a story about 16-year-old Cassie Sullivan, who is one of the last survivors of an alien invasion. At the cinema, Gravity won seven Oscars, Star Trek has rebooted and Star Wars is producing three new episodes. Apart from Spacejackers, other new books include Phoenix by SF Said, Replica by Jack Heath, Harvey Drew and the Bin Men from Outer Space by Cas Lester and Cakes in Space by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre, as well as a number of Doctor Who spin-off novels.
Sandra Bullock, star of Gravity Photograph: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Picture/Courtesy of Warner Bros. Picture Most of the children I’ve met have been unaware that there have been at least 40 women pirates and over 60 women astronauts from different countries. Therefore, I’ve tried to ensure that there is a good blend of male and female characters in Spacejackers, including robots, aliens and a foul-mouthed parrot called Squawk. After all, who can say whether the skull on the cover is male or female?
I no longer think of my novel as written for boys, but for all young (or young at heart) readers. Children’s books should be for anyone who likes a good adventure. If space and fantasy are becoming more popular with both geeks and geekettes around the world, we’re going to need exciting new stories that are as diverse as the people who read them.
Your thoughts
Jess, on email
Just a thought on gender balance in fantasy/sci fi, which is a whole lot better than it was, but let’s not consider the problem fixed. My daughter wrote to Cressida Cowell after reading ‘How to train your dragon’ to ask why there weren’t any girls in it. (Not just no female characters, there are no females at all other than two (minor character) female dragons and a passing reference to Hiccup’s mother’s bra. Not his mother, you note.
Her bra.) Cowell replied that there were no girl characters because she originally wrote the book for boys, but put a girl character in book 3 after realising that she had a lot of girl fans. I love these books, I think Cowell is a very talented writer, but I HATE the idea that a writer would pretend that there are no females in existence to pander to some assumed prejudice on the part of her target readers (do boys evaporate if you mention women or something?), and would only put a girl in there ‘for the girls’.
Women exist, I think my son can cope with that information... Equally bizarre, at the very junior end of the fantasy spectrum, are the rainbow fairy books, where the only males in existence are evil goblins... and The King. Males are either naughty and destructive, or in charge.
Kirsty, on email
Please! This perpetuates the myth that Sci-Fi is for boys and girls are just catching up! A woman invented Science Fiction (Mary Shelley), it was women who saved Star Trek via a strong letter writing campaign after it was marked for cancellation, and the president of DesiLu, Lucille Ball was the person who advocated for it to be picked up in the first place.
The Hunger Games, a sci-fi trilogy, has already made one and a half billion dollars and is only half way through its film tetralogy. It joins Harry Potter and Twilight as one of a trifecta of multi-media franchises, written by women, which have dominated the book sales and box office charts over the last decade. Don’t write women and girls out of sci-fi history, we started it!
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