nitpicking, 11 days ago

1/3
@jdnicoll

Nice review. My comment was blocked from your site due to "Security policy", so I'll post it here (later in thread).

nitpicking, 11 days ago

2/3

@jdnicoll
I think Schmitz was the most feminist of the Golden Age writers. His most popular character, Telzey Amberdon, is a teenage girl. She gets in trouble, but you could never call her a damsel in distress. Unless his most popular work was the Witches of Karres series, in which the protagonist was male but the titular witches are mostly female and, again, have full agency and are developed characters. They aren't walking, talking rewards like women in Christopher Anvil's early work.

nitpicking, 11 days ago

3/3 @jdnicoll

(I was amazed on rereading Anvil decades later how many of his early stories had no female characters at all.)

Consider also Trigger Argee and Nyles Etland. I'd say he was a specialist in strong, female lead characters.