I’ve been trying to figure out how to express my discomfort with a certain thing I saw a few times before PRIORY with published. I think it’s time to give it a shot. *deep, cleansing breath*

So before PRIORY was published, some other authors and reviewers generously compared it to Tolkien, Martin, etc – the old guard of fantasy. And I noticed that a small number of people, who all appeared male, would immediately veto those comparisons.

‘Now, let’s not go jumping the gun and making out she's the new Tolkien’

‘Sick of these comparisons to a masterpiece like GAME OF THRONES’

(Those are paraphrased, but that sort of vibe.)

Please note: I am not suggesting that I merit comparisons to Tolkien or Martin. Tolkien was a master linguist whose breadth of worldbuilding I do not achieve in PRIORY.

But this was before PRIORY was published. Before the wider readership had a clue what was behind the cover.

Please note, too, that I wouldn't have cared so much about this if I knew those people had read PRIORY and were giving a considered opinion.

What I found uncomfortable was the *assumption* that I wasn’t as good as Tolkien or Martin, based on nothing but the cover and my name.

It gave me a sense that there are a not-insignificant number of SFF readers who believe that no one in the modern age can or will ever be as good as the founding fathers of the genre. Their work is held up as sacred. Any comparisons are therefore blasphemous.

Of course we should pay respect to those who wrote before us. All of us in SFF are standing on the shoulders of giants.

But that respect becomes a problem when a small group of men are venerated as the only giants. When it's assumed by default that no one else can ever compare.

Anyway, just had to get off my chest. In short:

If you see a woman being compared to a renowned male fantasy author and you haven't yet read her book, please resist typing ‘She's No Tolkien’ and think about the implications of those words.

Because it made me feel terrible, reading that. It made me feel like I'd always be considered less-than in my own genre. That I'd always be judged as inferior to those who came before me, based only on my name.

I crushed that feeling. But I wonder how many voices it's silenced.

Now I will go away and wipe the ice-cold sweat from my brow and do some deep breathing into a bag.

(I've been too afraid to broach this subject for months in case anyone misread it as me personally comparing myself to Tolkien)