: Re: What are the standard genre characteristics of contemporary women's fantasy I want to write a fantasy novel with a female protagonist, and I want to familiarize myself with reader expectations.

@Pope4766717

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Well, as someone who reads a lot of those (due to my wife's reading tastes), perhaps I'm somewhat qualified to answer.

There is a small crossover genre of romance/fantasy that you might be interested in. I think the only books I've read that are firmly there are the Alpha and Omega series (the related Mercy Thompson series is much more stock urban fantasy). These seem to be much more likely to have traditional gendered stories. But of course romance is also expected to be a big part of the story.

Aside from that, there really isn't a huge difference between the Fantasy books I've read with female protagonists and those with male protagonists. For most of the books I read, you could do a global replace on the gender of the protagonist and it wouldn't be very noticeable.

An uninitiated person might think it would make sense to have female characters be a little more hesitant to engage in physical combat, as they will be overpowered by most males. However, when you throw fantasy in there, that really no longer applies. A female character with access to magic (like Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan) or superpowers (like Larry Corelia's Delilah Jones) is likely to be so proficient in a physical fight that other characters do everything possible to stay out of arm's reach. Conversely, when villains are Werewolves and Vampires, being just a big strong guy isn't always a lot of help.

Your "classic male fantasy with the gender changed" isn't really that far of the mark. And there's no real reason it should be.

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