My Helpful Friend alerted me to an interesting post on the Guardian books blog about the growing number of women writing fantasy. Blogger Damien Walter mentions the science fiction side of the house first—Nancy Kress, Connie Willis, and Alice Sheldon/James Tiptree—before going on to talk about fantasy writers like Kelly Link and Catherynne M. Valente.

Since it's a blog, other folks weighed in and commented on his opinions, some arguing with his positive assessment of these writers' style, and others agreeing. There was a lot of discussion of some lines from an early work by Valente called Labyrinth:

"My body is bound with guitar strings, nipples like fawn's hooves strumming E minor chords ..."

Some people found this intriguing, while others found it nonsensical. After several pro and con comments on these and other works, the comments included one by (this is the wonderful thing about blogs) Catherynne M. Valente! She pointed out that her style had changed over the years, so that not every reader would necessarily like all her books.

It's an interesting discussion. I'm lucky MHF pointed it out to me!