The 'not good enough' demon

Reading reviews of Kameron Hurley's The Mirror Empire and Anne Leckie's Ancillary Sword, it struck me how far away from my own work these two books are.  I tussle constantly with whether I can make my name as an SF writer. I came into the genre in what seems like a much simpler age.  I read a lot of Anne McCaffrey, and Elizabeth Moon's feminist military SF.  These are writers who write a straightforward story, with a clear narrative style.  They may have multi-viewpoints, but it's always clear who's speaking and thinking.

The same can't be said about some of the more recent published SF.  Confusing, viewpoints jumping  everywhere, switching first person viewpoints without making the change clear, all seem to be in vogue.  I wonder if publishers are looking for clever structure and complexity - a "challenging read" - over simple storytelling.  

Ambiguity, and concepts so high they're stuck in the stratosphere, don't do it for me.  Despite my two Master's degrees, I'm still a five year old kid at heart. I want you to tell me a story, dammit.  Which leaves me wondering if my straightforward style is a disadvantage in the current market.  I'm having an attack of the 'not good enough' demons.

Every review I've read recently has focused on gender representations in the text.  Yes, there's an issue with female invisibility in the genre, but sometimes this smacks of point-scoring.  "My book has characters with three genders".  It almost seems mandatory to consider gender issues in texts.

But I don't want to focus on that.  Yes, most of my protagonists are "strong" female characters with lives and careers of their own.  They pay their own way.  Men and women are pretty evenly scattered throughout my stories, and often the women are in charge of the men.  But they don't spend their time thinking about that.  It's just how things are.

But I get the feeling that reviewers are "keeping score".  This politicisation of story almost makes me afraid to put pen to paper, for fear of judgement.  I'm not interested in exploring gender issues, it's  wildlife and the natural world that fascinates me.  Am I wasting my time writing about deforestation, overpopulation, and species extinction if all anyone's interested in are gender counts and the Bechdel Test?

I want to tell a simple story focusing on the politics and issues that interest me.  And if that's judged not good enough, then so be it.  That's who I am, and what I care about.