Grrl Power #1003 – There’s two of… uh, both of them
Yeah, it’s no surprise that Dad was the larger influence on Sydney. More on that soon.
Lots of talk about genetics under the last page. And yes, I know brunette hair plus blond hair doesn’t necessarily equal dirty blonde, or dark blonde or light brunette or whatever Sydney is, but really, a lot of traits tend to skip generations. My paternal grandfather’s pinkies both tilted slightly inward on the last joint. My dad doesn’t have that, but I do. (It’s fairly slight, it makes no difference when wearing gloves or typing, in case you were thinking I have crazy pinky claws or something.)
The purple uniforms aren’t so weird looking, are they? I know some people were like “Purple dress uniforms? Ehhh…” I just wanted the team to have a unique color from the other branches, and yellow and orange were definitely off the table. Granted, they’re a dark, desaturated purple. English doesn’t have a lot of words to describe desaturated colors, which is a shame, because I think a medium-light desaturated purple is one of my favorite colors. There’s just no word to describe it. There are words for non-primary colors like “gun-metal blue” but even those have a much larger range than “yellow.” What some people call gun-metal blue are straight up violet, so if I google some paint swatches and say “mauve” that could be anything from pale orange to peach to lilac to periwinkle to fuchsia. Honestly I think having only like 9 solidly defined colors is a real failure for English.
Speaking of books, is anyone aware of a series in which the MC get transported to a world/time that’s hugely patriarchal, like 1500’s Europe or another world where women are uneducated baby machines/homemakers, only the MC is a woman who’s an ex-Army Ranger or a Valkyrie or even a bio-weapon super soldier or a cyborg or something? I think that would be fun to read. If it was well written. If it was just a series of “Women can’t drink beer in this bar” -One Fight Scene Later- “We were ignorant men! Thank you for showing us how wrong we were! Please drink all the beer you want!” then that would get boring quick. It would still be gratifying to read probably, but not 400 pages of just that. I’m thinking more of the requisite scenes in Isekai books where the MC invariably shows off some odd advantage they have like being 50% stronger than the typical denizen of the destination world or learns their language in two weeks or whatever. And I don’t mean like a story where a woman does math then gets chased out of town for being a witch, more like a horde of orcs attacks, and the men won’t let the women help defend, and they start getting their asses handed to them, then the ex-Valkyrie grabs a spear and annihilates the orcs like they’re 1 Hit Dice monsters and she’s a Tarrasque. Those scenes are always fun to read. I’ve just never seen it done with a female protagonist.
Tamer: Enhancer 2 – Progress Update: I spent all weekend on the vote incentive. It’ll be done this week, I promise.
This month’s vote incentive guest stars Lana of Spying with Lana. One of my own secret agents, Pixel, is trying to assist, with various levels of success and… nudity. Well, in the Patreon versions. The Vote Incentive will give you a pretty good idea of what might go down. Here’s a dedicated post in case you want to comment.
Check out Spying with Lana. Their current vote incentive features a certain gold-plated glamazon. Also it’s a funny comic with tons of skin.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
“Speaking of books, is anyone aware of a series in which the MC get transported to a world/time that’s hugely patriarchal, like 1500’s Europe or another world where women are uneducated baby machines/homemakers…”
There is a portion of the Honor Harrington series where she is first stationed on and then becomes a leader of a world that is patriarchal and provincial. It proceeds in many of the ways you anticipate, but there are some neat turns and nuances.
The Guardians of the Flame novels, while they don’t explicitly deal with Patriarchal issues, has the MCs be a group of college students transported to a fantasy RPG style world, and deals primarily with them battling against the slave trade in the medieval society and working for societal change.
Great series – Slovotsky’s Laws are a great addition to (not very) popular culture.
Very sad when I found out Joel Rosenberg had died back in 2011.
It helps that Weber wrote an actual *reason* other than “God stuff” for Grayson turning out the way it did – and the less said about Masada, the better – but it’s nice to watch Honor innocently wreaking havoc on Grayson society simply by being herself.
A couple of Iain M Banks culture novels play around that theme a little. Inversions and Matter spring to mind.
I was going to mention Honor of the Queen as well.
Also, for a fun back-and-forth with the trope, Courtship of Princess Leia, one of the early Star Wars EU novels. Luke ends up on Dathomir, which is entirely matriarchal, so they are at first dismissive of him. But then the Dathomiri warrior women who travel into the wider galaxy get to shock others with their badassery.
L.E. Modesitts ‘Fall of Angels’ & ‘Arms Commander’ have a little of that, though the POV of the first one is a guy. Space-Anarchists fighting Space-Imperialists fall though spacetime to a feudal world where their tech translates to magic. Technically isekai, but doesn’t feel like it, as the MC spends most of his time desperately trying to figuring stuff out, rather than being OP.
One of my favorite authors has a story that is sort of what you described on Bookapy, although the heroine didn’t start out as female – Server Change by Shaddoth.
As for the kind of books you’re talking about, it’s only been one of the most common tropes in for the past sixty or so years once we got past the Campbellian mess. Andre Norton, C. L. Moore, Leigh Brackett, Joanna Russ and so many of the other early female authors in the field did it when they could get away with it, and those were the days when only SF&F could get away with that sexual, racial, gender, and political transgression because it was “children’s stories”. They didn’t always do “We can do the man things better than the men, so we can ignore the culture we are in.” Often it was a matter of finding a way they could change the context or work around the edges of the rules in order to live with fewer restraints.
Wonder Woman was one of the earliest explicit attempts. The horribly patriarchal world was early-to-mid 20th century America. It helps if you realize the creator of the strip was an early proponent of polyamory with soft femdom and believed the world would be a better place it were run by women.
S. M. Stirling’s not my favorite author, but his Island in the Sea of Time series does it well. An island full of 20th century Americans is tossed back to the time of the Agamemnon. The Captain of a Coast Guard ship which happens to be docked at the time ends up in charge of the new Navy. She has her work cut out for her dealing with Greeks, patriarchal cattle-raiding tribes, and Ancient Babylonians (I think it’s Babylon).
C. J. Cherryh does it in several different contexts. Bujold’s Vorkosigan series does in several books, her Chalion series less so. Melissa Scott’s Five Twelfths of Heaven series has a woman who comes from a freer subculture in the galaxy and has to navigate a very sexist larger culture. She isn’t a soldier. She’s a pilot and, eventually, a wizard.
In the real world consider Edith Garrud. In Victorian England when Women’s Suffrage was a dangerous idea roundly condemned by Right Thinking People this physically tiny woman learned Ju Jitsu, beat up cops, and guarded the leaders of the Suffrage movement from all sorts of attackers and government thugs.
There are plenty of stories, fictional and historical, of women who worked around the restrictions by pretending to be men and serving in the military, but those probably aren’t quite what you’re looking for.
One of the irritating things about it is that very often the stories devolve into the Tough Cutie trope where it’s all about how the girl can be exciting and kickass but remain a fundamentally a safe stroke fantasy for the boys. cf. Captain Marvel vs. Alita Battle Angel. The first one had its flaws, but the main character was a functional adult who passed the sniff test; the movie even passed the Ginger Test. The second was all about the big-eyed self-sacrificing anime waifu with a big sharp weapon.
Ummmmmm….. what’s the Ginger Test? Trying to find it, and can’t.
From the old Dykes To Watch Out For comic strip by Allison Bechdel. One of the characters – Ginger – wouldn’t go to a movie unless it had at least two women who talked to each other about something other than a man. She said that the last movie she’d seen had been “Alien”. They talked about the monster
I think that’s usually called the Bechdel test. In fact, this very comic has made reference to it. I’ve never seen it referred to as the “Ginger Test”.
I help curate the wiki page for it. I’ve seen it referred to as the Bechdel Test, the Bechdel-Wallace test, and the Mo Movie Measure (though it’s not Mo saying it), but never the Ginger test.
For years the Ginger Test was a touchstone of sorts for whether a movie was really just for men or if it had something to offer women
It lacks the “Was a supersoldier” aspect, but “Beneath the Dragoneye Moons” has patriarchy as a specific ongoing theme, with an isekai’d female main character. She does become a badass Ranger, but it’s due to her being the best healer (’cause of her Earth knowledge of medicine) rather than any special combat prowess. And overall, the patriarchal theme is more… a C plot?
But the author straight up was like, “Yeah, I’m deliberately writing this with the theme of sexism being unneeded”.
He reminds me of Oliver Queen (Green Arrow).
I wonder who his second favorite Superhero is (obviously Sydney is now his favorite).
He truly is the idealized Geek/Nerd.
I’ll ask WTF IS UP WITH THAT MIDDLE PANEL???!! I was thinking we were having a Lovecraft invasion there, or “It was just a dream!” Is syndey’s mom a business woman then?
Two women with pretty well the same job but different job-descriptions, and happily surprised to see their counterparts in totally unexpected places. “Melding of the Minds” in vibrant Dali.
So she said (thought) AKIRA MUSIC, and I thought: https://youtu.be/HB6Ch_VAfIk
If they’re that similar, Sydney’s mom might end up scouted by their PR team.
The David Weber books you’re looking for are the Safehold series. The Honor Harrington books are great too but Safehold is closer to what you described.
@ DaveB So, book reqs.
Looking mostly for female protagonist isekais (for whatever reason, I’ve been on an RPG apocalypse (where fantasy world comes to you!) kick myself, and I’m honestly surprised there’s not more female lead versions of those):
https://www.amazon.com/Skyclad-Fates-Anvil-Book-1-ebook/dp/B082KTNRWV/ Skyclad is one of my favorites, because her OP nature comes from a rather baller opening move set, although it’s hilarious the way it bites her in the ass afterwards.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FK2PD3J While not isekai, it does feature a female lead with some heavy patriarchal overtones and some weird fantasy aspects, and some of the villainous male characters are repugnant both to us and the female lead. MH Johnson does have a flair for very flowery speech which may or may not be up your alley.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MXIIQLW The Tabitha series is closer to an alien apocalypse where the MC gets some powers, although it’s a much better ‘character growth’ story than a lot of isekai.
Hm, those are the only ones I can really think of off the top of my head, maybe my algorithm thinks I only like male leads? Dunno, I don’t have a problem with female leads, but putting that in as a search term leads to some… weirder than expected results.
Most of the other ones recommended are ones I’ve read (Honor Harrington, Vorkosigan series, Terran Duchy series). Dunno, maybe female power fantasies don’t sell as well (or the editors think that anyway) unless there’s a chain-mail bikini?
I will check those out.
Given the trouble Sydney’s had with her hair before, I assume those are weapon’s grade hairpins holding it in.
Prior theories retracted.
New theory:
Sydles parents are a single entity, each the manifestation/expression of two different sets of characteristics. Still very definitely an Eldritch Being/Space Wizard, and Syd is simply their(singular) offspring, in a sort of advanced neonatal stage of development. The orbs are essentially Nth toys/learning devices that scale with the developmental stage of the juvenile Space Wizard.
The Parent set up shop on Earth because the super population was interesting enough to study and/or useful as camouflage.
If we run with that trope, Sydney would be unaware of her origins until the suitably traumatic transformation begins. She would at first resist her true nature but in the end would consume a large swath of humanity to nourish her transformation into her next stage of development. ALL HAIL OUR DARK MISTRESS!
Oooor, we subvert the trope, and the reason they are on Earth is to make sure Sydney learns how to Play Nice & get properly socialized with other sentients.
As she develops, the orbs are no longer necessary to focus & direct her native powers; the ‘passives’ are just expressions of her own natural abilities.
Lol, that is what comes of having read too much Lovecraft as a teenager. The power development and socialization line could be an opportunity for a story line crisis. Sydney panics as the orbs start to fade away and she thinks she is losing her powers. This conversation reminds me of an Asimov short, “Does a Bee Care?”.
See, I like this idea.
It would be a fantastic arc.
…on.
I’ll show myself out.
Part of me is wondering if Sydney’s Mom is actually a huge science nerd. So then sydney would get her sci-fi and non-sci-fi knowledge from her mother while her father is the ADHD madman, possibly a writer which gives him the trope knowledge.
Nah. Worse. Sales/marketing. “It’s not about what it’s worth, it’s all about what we can charge for it.”
If you’ve not already read it NK Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy has a powerful female main character.
This was just an utterly epic trilogy, and there’s a reason it’s the first trilogy/author to win the triple Hugo.
I believe it’s currently getting adapted to a movie/tv show, and that Jemison has a scriptwriting part in it, so I’m looking forward to that.
Her other stuff is pretty great too
‘Akira music’, specifically this track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fshgWIpcPeE&list=PLfzW_wEeYxk7IbUshBz-23-NHQ_KYB5vE&index=7
Not quite the combat badass, but the Merchant Princes series by Charles Stross
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_Princes
feature a protagonist who discovers she can cross over to an alternate timeline Earth by focosing on a specific knot-work pattern. It’s an Earth stuck at a medieval technological level. Later, she also gains access to an Earth at about the start of the Industrial Revolution. And gets to work trying to kickstart technological development. It’s kinda equal parts portal fantasy, crime, and spy genres all tangled together.
He’s a great author, and I think really geeks out on the concepts he introduces to his books, so there aren’t the huge “why didn’t they just send a text” type plot holes sometimes present when trying to introduce world-changing elements into a fantasy/sci-fi series. so, yeah, I’m also recommending pretty much anything else written by him as well…
I protest this inaccurate depiction of Sydney Scoville Sr.
Obviously, he should have a monocle.
I presume it fell off during his rush across the stage, but I presume he has some backups in his utility belt.
Also a wicked gnarly cane which he does not need, left behind on his folding chair.
Of course, he also has renaissance fair/medieval garb for the true formal occasions that matter.
and a leftover hammer somewhere that Thor wants to borrow
The gnarly cane transforms into Mjolnir when Dr Blake (Scoville is his code name, bestowed upon him when Sif got a glimpse of him and declared “S’truth, he is hot!”) thumps it on the ground, becoming himself Thor, god of thunder!
Sword-cane!
With a flintlock pistol built into the hilt.
We can safely assume that the boots have compressed gas pistons hidden in the heels to give him a ridiculous jump boost in an emergency.
…so now we’ve re-canon’ed Senior as a bizarre gadgeteer-Holms-ish-adventuring rogue.
Well I guessed wrong on what her father looked like the distant view.
I am seeing some touches of both Quicksilver and Green Arrow. Like if those two fused together.
“Quickshot”
You’re welcome.
Unless I am missing another character isn’t that a Korean Vampire from Marvel comics.
“but really, a lot of traits tend to skip generations. My paternal grandfather’s pinkies both tilted slightly inward on the last joint. My dad doesn’t have that, but I do.”
Basic rules of inherentiance by Mendel. Once you get to 3 generations, the visibility of the gene can skip a beat.
My little fingers, are shaped like that, as well!!
the genetics thing and what conditions bore what traits (environment and social) along with general mutations and which got selected for from the above would make seeing alien world humans after so many generations especially with gene-modification as an option, and make it curious how humans in a “human pet trade” would end up. I have toyed with the idea of high end alien civilizations keeping humans as pets but not really gone into how different those humans after so many generations could end up depending on if the aliens were into specific aesthetics or modified their “pets” for health reasons only.
Hello. I know you said you wanted novels/books, but I’ll give you a few comics that fit perfectly, just in case you decide to stray (I noticed a LOT of suggestions for other stuff, so why not?). All of these are pretty much Korean:
Guiding a Rival to Become Emperor (Raising the Enemy Only Brings Trouble)
The Brilliance of a Lady’s Revenge (My Great Life After Rebirth)
Special Agent K by Kuangsheng (this one stopped getting translated, sadly, but fits perfect!)
Hmmm G.A Aiken the blacksmith queen series is a good one tho not an isekai. Keeley Smythe is a female blacksmith in a males world and is written beautifully. Her dragonkin series is also a good start with Annwyl the bloody. G.A Aiken is a keffing great author who does phenomenal female characters!! She also goes by shelly laurenston and has shifter series and a viking series dealing with female “crows” women who have died (murdered and come back) and given their service to the goddess skuld. i know most guys in the world wouldn’t touch a “romance” novel but Aiken’s worlds have a TON of adventure, comedy, mystery and so much that will suck you in, and they are phenomenal in my opinion. CHECK THEM OUT!!
Another female author i adore is R.J Blain whose worlds are in-depth and make you think while also having great comedy. Her series magical romantic comedy (with a body count) is a great world to fall into.
Thank you if you actually read this sqwee about my fave authors and I hope ya’ll will try them.
You’re describing most media for the last decade.
Everyone has so many great female protagonist portal fantasy suggestions! I wanted to drop in some of my favorites.
I love the Chicks in Chainmail short story collection edited by Esther Friesner. There’s like 6-7 books in the series because there was so much interest in the trope, and short stories can be much easier to read a little of without using up your whole day. The writing prompt for the series is just “What if the women are the heroes who save the men?” Only, there’s over 70 short stories in every type of permutation and culture, and I love it so much.
Mathematics, by Margaret Ball is about an alternate world badass sword fighting lady who gets portaled to our world, present day, and has to show our patriarchal society that she’s better at swords than anyone.
And then there’s an actual Japanese light novel called “JK Haru is a sex worker in another world”, about a girl who is isekai’d to a patriarchal fantasy world, and then chooses to be a sex worker of her own volition, but still ends up changing her town for the better, partly because of her real world knowledge, and partly bcause she’s secretly stronger than everyone else. (Available on BookWalker)
Regarding the invotive: if there is a naked version, what is Pixelicious holding on if Lana is not wearing a top? o_O
Also, Pixelicious looks kinda taller than she should be (she’s supposed to be Sydney’s height, or shorter, right?)
Both images would be pretty naked? I presume the non textile version looks like Lana slipped out of Pixel’s hand and is falling, instead of looking like she got haphazardly scooped up.
You could’ve held a gun to my forehead and said, “Tell me the color of their uniforms, get it wrong and I blow your fuckin’ brains out!” And I would not have said that they were purple. So no, it’s not weird-looking since it just looks black.
Allowing for variations in monitors and human vision, I would have agreed with you until I zoomed in to look at a detail and by golly the uniform is purple.
I would recommend this, though try to find an alternative non-pirated version, as webnovel is kind of expensive in the long run.
https://www.webnovel.com/book/it's-not-easy-to-be-a-man-after-travelling-to-the-future_8534263705001005
His name is Sydney Scoville, after all.
… I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that Sydney gets her tactical/strategical analysis skills from her mom.
“A failure for English”? I think you’ve missed the point. English is the linguistic equivalent of a Meccano set. It has established conventions for inventing your own words. (Not that Americans speak English anyway, but that’s a separate argument. Oh come on, you use different spelling, pronunciation, cadence, rhoticity, grammar and idiom, and you can’t have the name “English” because that means language of England. It’s ridiculous to tell people you speak the language of England when quite obviously you don’t. A linguist – an American one, no surprise there – tried to tell me it’s English because it’s mutually intelligible, but if that were true Hollywood wouldn’t find it necessary to dub and subtitle English films.) At any rate, those construction patterns mean that when someone invented “marketroid” and “confusopoly” they didn’t need explaining. Colours are harder, I’ll grant you that. But “dark unsaturated purple” is fairly specific. Germans would probably call it Sehrdunklesungesättigteslila (very dark unsaturated purple).
Aaaaand i instantly like her dad. Her parents are definitely an ‘opposites attract’ kind of scenario tho. XD
Opposites Attract:
https://youtu.be/xweiQukBM_k
I love the way she’s got so many bobby pins in ther hair, and the way they are seemingly placed all haphazardly.
Junior clearly gets her bangs from Senior :D
Swearing, check. Uncontrollable hair, check. Anime eyes, check. Abrupt actions, child-like excitement, no social propriety, disregard for personal space, check-check-check.
Definitely the genuine Scoville Mk I here.
Judging from her reactions, they both apparently, embarrass the poop out of her.
Current favorite webnovel with an isekaied female main character: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/42579/phantasm. The mc isn’t a fight her way through hoards of orcs kind of character, more sneaky and stylish. On a break for the rest of December.
A little related to the genetics discussion, and fits with all the discussions we see in the comments from alien technology, magic like quantum manipulations, hard light, Nth tech, genetics, evolution, and even things like gun types, machinery, military procedure.
a new video explaining the need to simplify (kid lies) to get the jist and general understanding of a subject across (which i feel is something any sci-fi writer really should take to heart), and why sometimes some details can or need to be cut; trying to over explain is time consuming and can lose people; however over simplifying has its dangers too as this video by Kurzgesagt points out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFqn3uy238E
Seeing as how they’re a brand new military organization, I wouldn’t see a reason why the uniforms couldn’t be made exactly how she wanted, especially considering they’re supposed to be licensed superheroes, so symbols would be a thing.
Change an existing military branch, sure, but this is a new branch that pays more than the other branches (that pay the same) so rules can be put in place for branding and merchandise sales.
Founded by members of other branches who have had military tradition pounded into their heads. Might think it disrespectful to their own training and tradition to not base it on them to some degree with only enough distinction for a new branch.
Have you looked at “The Mirror of Her Dreams” by Stephen R. Donaldson?
Perhaps not exactly what you requested, but…
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/16946/azarinth-healer
WARNING!! This is not an afternoon read! It’s at chapter 780 & does NOT appear to be ending soon.
I read Dr Asimov’s autobiography, three volumes, of ~300 pages each. :)
Thank you for sharing. You may enjoy this one if you haven’t already found it. https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/46709/enduring-good-the-rationalists-guide-to-cultivation
Starts all magical and the adventure is the deconstruction and transformation of woo-woo into tech.