HSU IT Department

I enjoyed reading this post. I never seem to have time to read "real" books these days. This was like a little snack of literature for me. :) I was particularly interested to read your review of the Eddings book. I haven't read it, but David Eddings was like my introduction to fantasy. The Belgariad Series and the sequel series were two of the first that my husband and I read together (literally, sitting together and reading the same book at the same time or me reading to him) when we first got married (28 years ago). At the time I loved it dearly, and still have a soft spot for it. But the first blush didn't last for exactly the same issue with the male characters vs the female characters that you mention. Very chauvinistic. The women seem to all be either bitchy or manipulators. Polgara is such a wonderful character - but even she is presented as a mega-bitch capable of grudge-holding of epic proportions. Anyway. Eddings wife was not given co-author credit in those first series. But in later books where she was, the female characters (and the attitudes of the males - 'women, what can you do?') didn't seem to improve. So, yeah. I'm not really surprised to hear of the characterizations in their latest.
Thanks again for such an interesting post. Hope life is being good to you.