Recommendations: SF/F books without sexual assault triggers

[Errant Bard]

Personally, I'd stick to pre 'Grimdark' YA:

Watership down, The Wrinkle in Time, Alice in Wonderland, maybe some Eddings or Fiest. Shit like that.

One of the heroes rapes his wife, in the Belgariad, and that is a good guy, just saying. I may have brought up books that included some triggers by error, but they were better than Eddings, he stinks in every way that matters.

That said, if you go with pre-grimdark YA, I will prop the Little Prince, it's awesome.

[DanielAbraham]

FWIW, both Seanan McGuire (http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/470626.html) and I (http://www.danielabraham.com/2012/02/21/malice-rape-and-the-curry-rule/) have taken aesthetic stands on the issue.

If you want to read my stuff, avoid the short stories "Dogs," "Flat Diane," and "An Amicable Divorce" and be aware that, while there is some peril, nothing bad is going to happen to the lady in the prologue to Killing Rites. Other than those, you should be fine. There's no rape in The Long Price books, The Dagger and the Coin, or The Expanse, nor shall there be.

[peterbound]

One of the heroes rapes his wife, in the Belgariad, and that is a good guy, just saying. I may have brought up books that included some triggers by error, but they were better than Eddings, he stinks in every way that matters.

That said, if you go with pre-grimdark YA, I will prop the Little Prince, it's awesome.

Thanks for pointing that out.

I actually can't remember those books very well, so good catch.

Modisett seems to keep it rape free if I remember correctly. Anyone out there better versed with him?

[Lies And Perfidy]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! Lotta really great stuff in here.

The whole concept of "media without triggers" is a little tricky because, well, different things trigger different folks. So it's good to have a spectrum from "books without explicit on-page rape" to "books that completely avoids discussion or implication of sexual violence." And yeah, it's jarring to look back at stuff like the otherwise family-friendly Belgariad (I think I read it when I was, like, eight) and realize "Jesus there's some straight up marital rape in that book. By one of the main good guys." It's funny the stuff you don't really take note of, especially when you don't have any trauma issues to worry about yourself (as is the case with me.)

Anyway, appreciate the recommendations and the ensuing discussion. I'm going to put a google spreadsheet together for public reference.

[felice]

Neuromancer – William Gibson

Snow Crash – Neal Stephenson

Neuromancer - hell no, Molly's backstory had plenty of trigger potential.

Snow Crash - definitely features precautions against rape, though I don't recall if there's any actual threat.

[David Selig]

IIRC in Snow Crash Y.T. is threatened with sexual violence several times throughout the book and barely avoids it one or twice.

Then there is her sex scene with Raven which is problematic for plenty for reasons. She is 15, he is much older, and even disregarding that, it is problematic in terms of consent given that she is basically a prisoner at this point and Raven is in position of power over her.

Anyway, Patricia McKillip books should work, I think. At least the ones I've read - Riddle-Master, The Bards of Bone Plain, Alphabet of Thorn, the Cygnet duology.

[Hello World]

The Culture series would fit the bill, I think.

[williamjm]

I think that's most of SFF. I tried it on the stickied rec thread list, and only mentioning those I read (as far as I can remember of the story):

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay – Michael Chabon

Take some random pick: I don't know, like Gaiman, Bujold, Abraham, or even KJ Parker and you're likely to get a book without sexual assault. I think, if I remember stuff correctly.

Kavalier and Clay has a scene where characters are coerced into having sex to avoid being arrested. Bujold's first (chronologically) Vorkosigan book has the main villain being a Barrayan admiral with a fetish for raping his captives who tries to have Cordelia raped. Admittedly, this might be unusual in the series.

I have not read the Kay you mentioned but both the Fionavar cycle and Tigana have a few slightly odd sexual encounters. The latter more or less a rape in a cupboard and I do not remember exactly Fionavar but one of the guys becomes the lover of some sex goddess or so and one of the female leads is the object of the lecherous philandering prince. Nothing brutal but some bits might offend the sensitive ones.

I think you're forgetting a much more brutal scene in Fionavar when one of the main female characters is captured by the setting's equivalent of Sauron.

Banks has lots of sexual violence. Mostly in the were going to cut of you parts way, though I'm pretty sure surface detail has rape.

The scenes in the virtual hells in Surface Detail probably have triggers for just about anything you could have triggers for. I think some of the forfeits in The Player of Games could get very nasty as well.

Neal Stephenson

There's one of Nell's mother's boyfriends being abusive in The Diamond Age, Japanese soldiers raping civilians in The Cryptonomicon and I think the lead female character gets some threats made against her by some of her captors in Reamde.

The Mistborn Trilogy? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember any sexual assaults in that series. Could have been a threat i'm not remembering though.

I seem to remember a nobleman assuring the visiting obligator that he's going to follow the law and kill the skaa woman he's been forcing to have sex with him once he's got bored of her, and that's just the first chapter of the series. Of course, Sanderson is going to show any sort of sex on screen but it's an even more unpleasant world for women than it is for everyone else living in it.

[Errant Bard]

Bujold's first (chronologically) Vorkosigan book has the main villain being a Barrayan admiral with a fetish for raping his captives who tries to have Cordelia raped. Admittedly, this might be unusual in the series.

I would avoid the Cordelia arc entirely (Rape is also one of the main motivators behind the Serg/Bothari stuff) After that, huh, Mark has some disturbing memories in dance of the mirror, iirc, but beyond that, it's OK. I was actually thinking of "A Civil Campaign" when I threw the name, but most of Miles' stuff should pass (Komarr could be heavy though, on the sexual violence subject: it deals with toxic relationships, after all).

There's one of Nell's mother's boyfriends being abusive in The Diamond Age

Nell gets raped on-page, in this one, I don't think there is any need to look further. (But if we needed, the scenes within the drummers caves, with a girl getting raped so much she spontaneously combusts could be mentioned, and both are even big plot points, somehow)

[Darth Richard II]

FWIW, both Seanan McGuire (http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/470626.html) and I (http://www.danielabraham.com/2012/02/21/malice-rape-and-the-curry-rule/) have taken aesthetic stands on the issue.

If you want to read my stuff, avoid the short stories "Dogs," "Flat Diane," and "An Amicable Divorce" and be aware that, while there is some peril, nothing bad is going to happen to the lady in the prologue to Killing Rites. Other than those, you should be fine. There's no rape in The Long Price books, The Dagger and the Coin, or The Expanse, nor shall there be.

Jeez, I Feel super weird about contradicting the author talking about his won work, but doesn't the final LP book deal with the aftereffects of rape during wartime? I know there's not any actual rape IN the books, but I know some people are triggered by even mentioning the act.

Also I love you please never stop writing.

Also yeah I was thinking of The Expanse this morning.

Regarding Banks Culture, some of them might be ok, some of them definitely won't. Surface Detail and Player of games are no nos. Excession and Inversions(I think) should be Ok. Matter and Hydrogen Sonata too. Look to Windward I'm having trouble remembering.

[DanielAbraham]

Jeez, I Feel super weird about contradicting the author talking about his won work, but doesn't the final LP book deal with the aftereffects of rape during wartime? I know there's not any actual rape IN the books, but I know some people are triggered by even mentioning the act.

It probably does acknowledge that the assaults happen. We acknowledge that in Dagger and the Coin too. But we're never putting the characters in that situation or dramatizing it.

So yeah, if you're on a hair trigger, step back from those too.

[HexMachina]

A lot of those books have sexual assault stuff. Dark Tower for sure, pretty sure Robin Hobb stuff has sexual violence, and The Silmarillion has rape and incest, doesn't it?

Pretty sure New Sun has some weird stuff going on in it too, but just trying to remember all that at once is hurting my head.

KJ Parker hrmm, I don't remember any of that stuff in the stand alones, but there's some gruesome, GRUESOME stuff(The Hammer, I'm thinking of you).

Edit: I guess a question would be, does incest count as a trigger?

Not sure Farseer has sexual violence...the places where it might that I could be forgetting are probably around the Forgedd ones, I'd have to check though. Yeah, Silmarillion has incest and Turin also saves a girl from being raped by the leader of the Outlaws too, besides other stuff people mentioned.

There is a rape in the Liveships Trader trilogy, but I cannot remember any coerced sex in the Farseer trilogy, hmm. Who in the Silmarillion? that sounds odd.

Turin and Nienor for incest. Also, there is something of an implication that Brodda the Easterling is not exactly in a loving, consensual relationship with his wife. And the two sons of Feanor who lust after Luthien too I guess has somewhat sexual connotations.

One of the heroes rapes his wife, in the Belgariad, and that is a good guy, just saying. I may have brought up books that included some triggers by error, but they were better than Eddings, he stinks in every way that matters.That said, if you go with pre-grimdark YA, I will prop the Little Prince, it's awesome.

Who in the Belgariad? Been a while since I read them, I'm not trying to contradict you but I'd like to know because it's going to nag me now, haha.

I suppose Pratchett, or at least quite a lot of his Discworld stuff, would be suitable? I've not read a lot of it but certainly there are some that would fit.

[williamjm]

Regarding Banks Culture, some of them might be ok, some of them definitely won't. Surface Detail and Player of games are no nos. Excession and Inversions(I think) should be Ok. Matter and Hydrogen Sonata too. Look to Windward I'm having trouble remembering.

I can't remember anything that happens that we see, but in Inversions there are references to rape in one character's backstory that play a significant role in the plot. I can't remember any potential triggers in the other books you list.

[Darth Richard II]

I can't remember anything that happens that we see, but in Inversions there are references to rape in one character's backstory that play a significant role in the plot. I can't remember any potential triggers in the other books you list.

Ah yes. The entire book just came back to me.

[Darth Richard II]

It probably does acknowledge that the assaults happen. We acknowledge that in Dagger and the Coin too. But we're never putting the characters in that situation or dramatizing it.

So yeah, if you're on a hair trigger, step back from those too.

Yeah I'm not saying there's actual rape, but I know for some people even a mention of it happening can be a trigger.

It realy depends on the person making the list, and who for.

[Lies And Perfidy]

And as the person making the list, I think the detailed discussion is very handy. Like, I'd be comfortable recommending (for instance) Kavalier & Clay to someone whose only trigger is graphic, violent sexual assault; the scene in question in that book involves coercion and is faded-to-black. But there's other people to whom a scene like that would be a deal-breaker.

Man, I gotta find a way to catalog these that doesn't end up with a spreadsheet with one column dedicated to cataloging different instances of literary sexual violence. That would just be depressing, and possibly counterproductive.

[Galactus]

Yeah, New Sun definitely has a rape in it. Although, like most things going on in a Gene Wolfe story, you kind of have to read between the lines to pick up on it. Urth of the New Sun makes things explicitly clear.

Not only does New Sun has rape on page (committed by the protagonist) but it's also apparently a common punishment and is discussed. (hey, torturer and all that)

[Galactus]

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

Err, society is based on people being drugged up and having sex, which *at best* would definitely compromise consent.

Discworld – Terry Pratchett

It's definitely mentioned, if not explicitly. IIRC at least in the "Not-Troy" segment of Eric.

The Dying Earth – Jack Vance

Not sure if you're talking about the actual story called The Dying Earth or the entire mythos, but there's definitely rape in there.

The Earthsea Trilogy – Ursula K. Le Guin

Nope.

The Farseer Trilogy – Robin Hobb

No, it's definitely mentioned as a threat, IIRC. And I believe in some of the background stories.

The Foundation Trilogy – Isaac Asimov

Isn't Arkady threatened at one point during her story bit? The Mule muses that he force people but couldn't actually perform.

The Man in the High Castle – Philip K. Dick

There is the entire deception guy whose backstory constantly changes. Depends on how you take sleeping with someone using a false identity though.

Le Morte D'Arthur – Thomas Mallor

Gods no. Uther rapes Igraine, just for starters. (and as a bit of curio, Malory himself was in prison for rape)

Neuromancer – William Gibson

While I'm not certain it counts as rape in the technical sense, the entire "meat dolls" thing would likely be triggery as fuck. (especially Molly waking up to something... really bad, being done to her)

[The Reckoner]

Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion series: Elric, Erekose, and Hawkmoon should be fine. Oddly enough, the first three chapters of the first Corum novel are basically a storm of everything that gets lumped in as Grimdark, even though this particular character isn't known as one of Moorcock's darker ones. I'd recommend these if you're interested in the history of SFF, as they've been big influences on a number of authors, including Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, George RR Martin and Brandon Sanderson.

The Dark Tower had sexual assault?

[Darth Richard II]

Yes, but Moorcock sucks.