I was inspired by a recent post about male characters in fiction. Reading it, I realized how few GOOD examples there are. Since I know of some I thought why not share. All of these really stood out to me as stories that I was A) able to personally relate to and B) depicted the male experience in an empathetic light. All of these are surprisingly by female authors as well.

  1. Books of the Raksura by Martha Welles: Fantasy series about a man who belongs to a race of shapeshifters. The catch is he didn't grow up around members of his own race, so he feels like an outsider among them as well as the other species in the world, who often mistake him for a member of a very similar but evil species of shapeshifters that kill innocent people. I thought this one was really interesting because its a "fish out of water story" and it really shows what kind of damage being constantly ostracized and unfairly labelled a threat (despite real threats that are most certainly not you) can do to a person. I don't think its a coincidence the main character is both male and has dark skin (literally black in his transformed state) so its clearly an allegory to intersectionality of black men and misandry as well. Also, the shapeshifters in this world have inverted gender roles, where the main character is expected to act in what we would consider a more traditional feminine way but doesn't want to, so there is also commentary there about unfairly forcing gender roles on men, with the roles reversed as to make it more palatable to mainstream audiences.

  2. Heartstrikers Series by Rachel Aaron: In this one we have a world where dragons are stereotyped as being very ruthless, tyrannical, and superior, especially to humans. The main character is a dragon that just doesn't want to be like that though, and is being punished for it by his own kind (often being mocked as a "nice dragon", ring any bells?) While there are lots female dragons in the series that are just as ruthless as the men, I think that only enhances the metaphor. Dragonkind as a whole represents what society wants men to be while the humans represent women, and the fact that there are women who support the typical draconic way of acting is a direct analogue for how many women in our society tacitly encourage toxic masculinity. Its even explained that there are many humans in this world that idolize dragons despite being treated like pieces of dirt by them. This could possibly be seen as misandrist but ultimately the dragons are a very small group compared to humans, about the same as actual misogynists compared to normal men. Anyway. I see this is a pretty clear commentary on "nice guyism" and subverting that trope by showing the "nice guy" get the girl and win all while rebelling against what society wants him to be (but simultaneously hates him for).

  3. His Secret Illuminations by Scarlet Gale: Its often mentioned on this sub that true "role reversal" can be pretty rare and is often done with a modern feminist slant that paints men in a bad light. This is one example of RR being done correctly, I think. It may not be everyone's cup of tea as its basically a romance story about a buff warrior lady and a feminine cleric boy. At first the main character is pretty cringy and you'll be forgiven for wanting to put it down. However, it gets much better as it goes on and surprisingly evolves into this sort of diatribe on male sexuality and how its often seen as "disgusting" or "evil". The MC is a monk who grew up being taught that his sexual desire was wrong and degrading to women. The book is from his perspective and he struggles with it for the course of the novel. There are also some allusions to touch/affection starvation as well. As a guy who was a "lonely virgin incel creep" until about the same age as the character in the book (late 20's) I related A LOT to his way of hyper-analyzing everything he said/did and finding ways to assume he'd offended the female lead over every little thing. Its very satisfying to see his growth and basically get a female lead in a book that's like "yeah, its not wrong to like looking at my ass dude, come on".

Anyway, that's all I can think of right now, I'll post more if I think of or come across any others.