Identity and Readership: The Feminism Problem of Erebus Dawning

By AJ Super

I have Women Who Write Women in Science Fiction Problems. It’s well known in sci-fi circles that women who write sci-fi get the short end when it comes to readership. Namely, a certain demographic of certain male readers is a gas-lighting, mansplaining, mess of wannabe critics. And it doesn’t matter if you are with a Big 5 publisher or a small indie press, anything written by a woman with a female lead gets hefted into the “it’s a woman, I don’t read that” category. And if they deign to crack the spine, their minds are so filled with notions of “feminist sci-fi” that their inner critic is already ticking the negative check boxes.

And unless an author has tons of clout, “feminist science fiction” is a hard sell. I should have known that my little book was going to have challenges. 

You see, my book, EREBUS DAWNING, is billed quite sneakily as a female-forward villain origin story. Female-forward because many of my main characters are female, and they kick some serious cul (read: French for “ass”). But I want to call it feminist.

Nyx, my point of view character is just a woman struggling to get ahead in a patriarchal constructed pirate society created by her own father, ahead of men who have had preferential treatment merely because they are seen as “strong” and the “strong rise.”

She takes on some masculine characteristics; she’s ambitious, loud and crude, and she says what’s on her mind. However, as iterations of the book were produced and edited, I had to put more and more emotion into her, lest she feel cold and calculating, or too male. Because readers want to identify with the softer side of a female character.

But now… I’m getting interesting reviews. Reviews from that certain demographic of that certain male reader saying that Nyx has a low IQ and that she can’t face reality… Of course, her reality is that her father has chosen men over her repeatedly. When she is “chosen” by Kai, her somewhat love-interest, she slowly learns he doesn’t really have her best interests, or her ambitions, at heart even though they’ve been together for many years.

And when she is finally “chosen” by her sister, an AI God, she is given God-like powers that she can’t cope with at first. I’m not sure what reality would be easiest to face… Let alone what her IQ has to do with it. Especially when most of my female pre-readers reported back with positive comments on my “smart” and “intelligent” female characters, including Nyx.

Perhaps if I wrote the touted next best thing in commercial sci-fi with a dual perspective? One a rich white man and the other a military woman to explain away the lack of emotional depth required of a single point of view female driven science fiction book. Then I might be excused for having a “lack of practice” as one typical male science fiction reader mansplained. Perhaps not.

I have even been warned not to go “Daenerys” with Nyx. But after doing some Daenerys-oriented research, all I can think is that people don’t want women to be dictators. People don’t want women to make bad choices. Especially women they have labeled as “moral” and “just.” Women are held to a higher standard than men.

On a side note, I read some great articles about how if you were really watching GoT, Daenerys made horrid decisions from the moment she walked out of the flames in the first season, but because she was “righteous” people forgave her. And that’s the point, right? It’s all okay until the character can’t be forgiven. Until the character makes that once in a century mistake.

But isn’t that what makes a villain, an honestly good villain? And remember, “female-forward villain origin story.” EREBUS DAWNING is just the start of the story, and Nyx has so much more to offer because she is strong, smart, and kicks putain de cul. EREBUS DAWNING has been described as a story about wrestling with identity. So, whether or not it’s feminist or female-forward, doesn’t really matter. Though, I think I could cultivate a much more accepting readership with the former despite the fact that this book isn’t a feminist coup de grâce. It’s just a little book struggling with its own identity along with its point of view character.

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AJ Super is the debut author of EREBUS DAWNING, the first of a planned trilogy, the Seven Stars Saga published by Aethon Books. She has two degrees, one in Creative Writing and one in Theatre, from the University of Idaho. Currently, she lives in Kansas with her husband and three fuzz-brained kitties.

Twitter @AllBrevityWit

IG @AngelaJSuper

FB @AngelaJSuper

Website www.ajsuperauthor.com

EREBUS DAWNING

Those who can destroy a world can control the universe.

Everyone wants the Star of Erebus. Space-pirate Nyx Marcus is no exception. With it, she can prove to her father that she is worthy of his legacy.

But she’s come up empty-handed aboard the space-ship Thanatos and now Malcam, her father’s First Officer, is mutinying. As Nyx flees with a loyal skeleton crew, she discovers that the planet-killing weapon, named after one of the seven gods, is more than what it seems.

Erebus isn’t a simple weapon. It’s an ancient AI and a technological god.

With the oppressive Queen of the Protectorate and new pirate captain Malcam searching for the Thanatos and Erebus, the AI god has more surprises for Nyx. Waking dormant AI code in Nyx’s blood, Erebus reveals they are family and Nyx is the head of the Seven Stars pantheon. Now Nyx must learn to control her power without sacrificing her own humanity or give her enemies a new way to oppress the known universe and lose the family she holds dear.

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