What makes a al-Qur’an series manly ? Is it the action ? The ferocity ? The lack of female characters ? Is it male compliments - fulfilment ? Misogyny ? Or a compounding of all these things ?
I do n’t know the answer for indisputable , but I do make out that these 11 fantasy serial are all in their own unique way , very , very manly . This is not necessarily a good thing … but neither is it needs unsound . Just take hold of your axe and your favorite lumbus cloth while we journey to the virile realms phantasy fabrication has to bid .
1 ) The Chronicles of Gor
There are 32 books in John Norman ’s Gor serial , and they all have one thing common : sexy , aphrodisiacal slave women . This fantasy series mostly stars Tarl Cabot , a British professor who just - so - happens to be a master swordsman , who is channelise to the fantastic ( although on occasion - invaded - by - aliens ) land of Gor , which happens to be chock full of woman who enjoy being dominated by men , sexually and otherwise . This would be somewhat less icky if the Scripture did n’t suggest female slavery was in reality a pretty all right affair , or if the women did n’t cease up publicly humiliate in some style so much , or even just if the women did n’t mind being beaten all the time . At any rate , when Daw Books decided to give up publishing the Gor series , author Norman suggested it was because of a vast feminist confederacy in the publishing world , so … yeah .
2 ) Conan the Barbarian
The hulking , muscle barbarian know as Conan is male wish - fulfillment at its most introductory : Conan is a slayer of malefic military personnel and devil , adventurer , stealer , mercenary , pirate , tycoon , and lover of ladies . Although he ’s giant and muscled , he still has the agility of a mountain lion , which serves him well on the field of honor and in the bedroom ; he ’s also genuinely smart and ingenious , which many of his foes undervalue ( and sometimes his media portrayals , too ) . Despite being a peasant , he has a rigorous code of honour , making him more or less the ultimate man . And before you start compare Conan to Gor , it should be note the doxy Conan sleep with he finally espouse and made faggot , and besides , she was a badass with a bow and pointer , fending a few would - be assassin . The Conan series has hatful of princesses in hazard , but Conan ’s independent love interest was n’t one of them .
3 ) The Sword of Truth
Terry Goodkind ’s 12 - volume Sword of Truth series is a pretty standard fantasy narration : A wizard makes Richard Cypher a Seeker of Truth , he gets a Sword of Truth , he fights the vicious despot Darken Rahl , who [ spoiler ] ends up being Richard ’s pappa . And then he fights some other folk . Along the way he fall in love with Kahlen , who who is n’t amazing or malign , but does end up a damsel in hurt just about 18 bazillion time over the course of the series . It ’s traditionally manly !
4 ) The Drenai Saga
David Gemmell ’s first book was title Legend , about 10,000 valet defending a fortress and against an invading force of 500,000 barbarians — specifically , it ’s about two of them , Regnak Wanderer and the sr. warrior Druss , who essentially conduce the fortress ’ defense . Since Legend is one long battle , it ’s plain full of fight , pedigree , valiancy , the comradery of men , blood , awesome before - the - fight ginger talks and men being human around other men – - and the other 10 books in The Drenai Saga are fairly much about the same thing . There are a few woman populating the books , who really be given to be badasses themselves , but they fairly much instantly descend in love with the manlike protagonists . That tends to materialise when your characters are so damn manly , I guess .
5 ) The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
Stephen Donaldson ’s saga of leprous writer Thomas Covenant begins with the titular character raping a char , because he ’s pretty sure she ’s a dream . While Covenant miss the level , Donaldson does n’t , because he ’s trying to establish two things : 1 ) his protagonist Thomas Covenant is an intensely awful person and 2 ) this series is about Covenant ’s psychological journeying , not anyone else ’s . The books follow Covenant as he tries to figure out whether the fantasy realm he keeps slipping into is real , while the series examines the question that even if it ’s not , do Covenant ’s actions count ? One should n’t assume Donaldson is excuse anything Covenant does , but at same time , scan about the adventures of this awful , awful man is n’t for everyone .
6 ) The Dark Tower
Clint Eastwood ’s Man with No Name trilogy let in some of the manliest movies ever made , and they ’re probably the large of the 18 million inspirations for Stephen King ’s sprawl Dark Tower series about Roland the Gunslinger ’s search for the nominal tower . While a woman is one of the primary characters , The Dark Tower ’s Mid - World is a definitely man ’s populace , where death is tatty , monsters bristle , bullets fly , demons rape women , babies eat succubi , and all sort of military action - tamp down violence , horror and other manly shenanigans .
7 ) The Belisarius Series
The wizard of David Drake and Eric Flint ’s serial was a real Roman general , but rest assured these books are still fiction , Published by Baen Books ( purveyors of hyper - manly sci - fi and fantasy stories everywhere ) , this series come after the military effort and adventures of Belisarius , whose Eastern Roman Empire legions fight the Indian Malwa Empire , which happens to be controlled by an vicious cyborg from the future . Oh , and Belisariius is avail by quartz people , also from the time to come . This makes it partially sci - fi , but the sixth century mount work it palpate like phantasy — at any pace , the manfulness is unquestionable . Belisarius is a superior of the battlefield but in action and in scheme , and he ’s equally skilled at play political relation or getting his hands dirty . It might not scandalize you to get it on that Belisarius ’ badass wife was previously a concubine , just so you know she and Beli have lashings of awing sex , you know , when he ’s not busy saving the Earth .
- Wheel of Time
Gender is at the very heart of Robert Jordan ’s 14 - book Wheel of Time serial ( which just concluded a few weeks ago , thanks to Brandon Sanderson ) . The cleaning woman have just as much power and political representation as the men – perhaps moreso , since adult female rule most of the main kingdom , culture and magic societies in the serial publication . unluckily , this mean while the women are constantly screw around with politics , the men are the I generally busy saving the world . This would be less grievous if the womanhood in The Wheel of Time were n’t mostly only bearable when they ’re sleeping with the male character . The remainder of the time they ’re scheming on a macro story or tormenting man with insults and general cattiness on the micro , so that the male characters spend most of their time thinking about how horrendous woman are , if not being outright fox by their insanity . Oh , and the primary character , Rand Al’Thor , gets to have sexual urge with three freestanding charwoman , all of whom are just totally okay with partake him . Aggravatingly manfully !
9 ) Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser
Fritz Leiber ’s beloved Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series is the fun - screw cousin to the Conan stories . While Conan is rarely without a blade in his bridge player and someone ’s descent on the steel , the goodhearted savage Fafrhd and the misanthropic ex-husband - magician ’s apprentice Mouser are less interesting in smite unfit guy than having a good meter . This generally means adventuring , and all the drinking and brawling and wenching that go with it . It ’s no coincidence that both Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser recede their gal pals on the same night early in the series , allowing them to commiserate ( via the aforementioned adventuring drinking and wenching ) throughout most of the series . These books are manful , albeit in a much more toothsome “ son will be boy ” mode .
10 ) The Dresden Files
Despite being do in the present , Jim Butcher ’s Dresden Files novels are undoubtedly fantasy and undeniably manly , mostly they ’re also hardboiled secret eye novel . Harry Dresden is both a genius and a golosh , who endeavor to keep the people of Chicago safe from werewolves , faeries , monster , and other miscellaneous fantastic dangers , either with the Chicago Police ’s Special Investigations Division , or as a individual hawkshaw . Those last two words should be all you need to know about The Dresden Files ’ tier ofmanliness .
11 ) Lord of the RingsThere ’s nothing overtly misogynist about J.R.R. Tolkien ’s seminal fantasy trilogy , but you have to admit the Fellowship is kind of a sausage party . You could cast all the female character from the book and lose probably less than 50 pages . In fact , there are only three distaff character of note : 1 ) Arwen , who is Aragorn ’s mostly off - pageboy making love interest , 2 ) Galadriel , who is the mightiest of all the Elves ( according to Tolkien ) but who really does n’t do anything other than giving each member of the Fellowship a pep talk of the town and lembas bread , and 3 ) Eowyn , who actually does plain some Nazgul fucking , although she has to disguise herself as a valet de chambre to get the opportunity . There ’s a understanding Peter Jackson increase the roles of all three distaff characters in the motion picture . And that reason ? An overmuchness of manliness !
BooksConan The BarbarianFantasyLord of the RingsWheel of Time
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