Being a fan of a particular genre doesn't blind you to its flaws. So being an unabashed admirer of both science fiction and fantasy hasn't prevented me from seeing how, aside from a few notable exceptions, both genres are lily white and Euro-centric. While apologists can probably make a case for writers like Tolkien describing his villains as either "swarthy" or "svart" while his heroes are universally pale skinned by employing the well-worn "product of his times" argument, those writing in the later decades of the 20th century can't be offered the same out. In fact one would have hoped those in the business of writing about the future would have taken that opportunity to create worlds reflecting the social changes that occurred during the years they were writing. At the very least it would have been nice to see a few darker-skinned characters created without the adjective exotic tagged onto their description.
In some ways fantasy has been the worst of the two, as title after title rolls off the presses with stories whose roots lie somewhere in Europe. When you consider the wealth of material from around the world that could spark an author's imagination, or the fact that you can't walk down a street in any major Western city without seeing an exciting mix of colours, sizes and shapes among the populace, it's disconcerting to be reading freshly published books perpetuating old stereotypes of dark villains threatening the virtue of some pale-skinned lovely.
Part of the explanation could lie in the fact that when you look at photos taken at gatherings of fantasy writers, you'll notice quite a difference from what you'd see on the street. It's awfully reminiscent of shots taken at what used to be referred to as exclusive or restricted clubs; i.e white Anglo-Saxon Protestant only. This isn't a deliberate thing, nor is racism implied, but it is a fact, and one that doesn't look like it is changing with any speed. For in spite of the subject matter, science fiction and fantasy publishers are just as conservative, if not more so, than their mainstream counterparts. All of which goes a long way in explaining my interest in a title being released by Penguin Canada on February 7 2012 - Throne Of The Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed.