Hero vs. Heroine

[The Neuromancer]

Does it make much of a difference? I figured that if it is a good story then the characters gender doesn't matter much but I have heard that most people prefer female characters.
What are your thoughts on this?
Btw, I am talking about the supernatural sci-fi genre.

[Apocrypha]

I don't see exactly how gender matters as long as the story is entertaining and well written.

[Starbeam]

I don't think it's so much that people prefer female characters as much as most of the urban fantasy being written is by female authors, and most tend to use female characters.

[Snowleopard]

I like a well written story no matter what the gender of the protagonist is.
What I don't like is when someone, not so frequent now, does a action type fantasy heroine that is obviously just a guy in a girl suit.
A strong woman does NOT have to be a , pardon the crudity, a ball less guy.
JB does great women characters.  Another writer who did great women was James Schmidtz.

[Electric MacButters]

[rant powers activate!]
The question I would ask is which gender are you more comfortable being flawed?  One of the big reasons I like JB is that male or female, all his characters are are flawed.  It has become one of my pet peeves that in the past few years, nearly all the urban fantasy with female protagonists (and a LOT have female protagonists) she ends up being some sort of goddess (real or otherwise) who will always 'just happen' to have made all the right choices throughout both the book and her life to come together like a demented Rube Goldberg/M.C. Esher brainchild at the moment the villan finishes his/her/its monologe ('Oh!  The muscley antiques dealer I have been passionately dating since chapter 2 gave me the key to the lost treasure of Shangra La as a secret santa present!  Now I can send Davy Jones back to the land of dragons by combining it with the kitschy lamp I bought at a swap meet!')

This is by no means limited to female characters, but it seems decidedly more common than with male characters.  Maybe it's just easier to imagine a guy having to work at it while his mistakes come back to bite him in the ass?
[rant over]

Personally, I don't read books to hear about how perfect the protagonist is; that's what video games are for. 

[Piotr1600]

Gender of protagonist is irrelevant to my enjoyment of a well crafted story.
If the protagonist is the way they are for a reason and the reason makes sense and is believably supported in-story it's all good.
I too have a few pet peeves - one of which Snowleopard put succinctly as "Guy in a girl-suit".
Guys and girls approaching everything in an identical manner or being fully harnessed into some kind of negative gender stereotype.


And [off topic] except for Stoker, Butcher, and one other author whose name escapes me right now, I sooo don't want to read - or even know about - yet another crappy/stupid vampire story of either gender at all, regardless of how 'sexy' or sparkly they may be.

[Snowleopard]

^
What he said about vampires.  I'm so ready to be done with vampires and zombies.
Sigh.

[The Neuromancer]

Well, the pretty vampires don't bother me so much as long as they are not a major part of every plot.

And yes, I agree with the "guy in a girl-suit" point, it is very annoying.

[kunal]

I agree with piotr1600, vampires are done.

Hero or Heroine it doesn't matter as long as the story, and characters have depth.  Although I am still waiting for the Wookie as a hero story.

[Lord Rae]

Depends on what you are more comfortable writing. I'm a pure novice so writing from a female perspective as a guy is something fairly foreign to me. I wouldn't trust myself at the moment to write a female character.

[Starbeam]

Wookie

*Wookiee

Pet peeve of mine.


Also, everyone always says vampires are done.  At a small con I went to last March, Jim's editor was there and said that editors say they don't want vampire stories because they've been done and overdone.  But they keep getting published because people keep buying them.

[Apocrypha]

Also, everyone always says vampires are done.  At a small con I went to last March, Jim's editor was there and said that editors say they don't want vampire stories because they've been done and overdone.  But they keep getting published because people keep buying them.

It sucks when what sells isn't what's really good.

[Serack]

nt

Edited to remove content that may bring negativity to the boards.

[Nickeris86]

A pet peeve of mine with female characters is that in a lot of cases the author (regardless of their gender) turns them into nymphos. one very clear example of this is the Anita Blake series. Started out with a good strong but humanly flawed character who is now nothing more than a whiny super being who has more sex than plot development. Sex is fine in a book but not at the expense of plot.

As for Vampires, I still like them but hate how they are being portrayed as tragic hero's fighting against their vile nature, most of the time they just come out as whiny little dicks. If your going to have a vampire as a hero then they shouldn't just forget that they are predatory beings. I imagine vampires as kind of like cats, not evil but a little sadistic.

[Snowleopard]

I agree with you N86 - why can't a woman achieve something with more than just sex.  Sigh.
Because I'd heard just this complaint about the Anita Blake tales - I've never gotten into them.
Would just irritate me.

Another thing, which JB does so well - is when he's doing a wise-assed, smart mouthed woman she's just that - a smart ass like Harry.  Too many authors and people who do TV scripts when they write a smart assed woman she turns out to be bitchy not mouthy - and there is a great and obvious deference between the two.