I find it incredible how different I feel about certain books/series now vs how I felt about them 15 or 20 years ago. What sort of major changes have happened to your tastes during your fantasy journey?

I used to own every single Wheel of Time book and spent all my time on wotmania.com, but I have zero desire to read them ever again. Honestly, classic epic fantasy just doesn’t do it for me in general anymore.

I don’t tend to get excited about the next Brandon Sanderson novel, but I was a huge proponent of him when he was signing copies of Elantris in my tiny Idaho mall.

It’d be great if Rothfuss, Lynch or Martin finished their series, but I used to rant and rave about wanting them and now I just move on to things that are done. I can wait, and in the case of Rothfuss I’m not 100% sure those books are going to finish nearly as strongly as I first thought.

  • phario@lemmy.caEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Here’s my personal opinion.

    A lot of us get into fantasy and sci-fi when we’re young. In my case, maybe well before I was ten. While there are many good authors, I do feel that many authors ride on the existing world-building and tropes to write their novels. The actual writing quality of many books is suspect.

    When I read over the books I enjoyed as a child or young adult, I’m pretty surprised at how poorly some of those are written. I honestly didn’t care too much when I was young and I just inhaled books. As I get older, I’m much more critical of poor writing. I know enough now to criticise pacing, or development, or eloquence.

    Finally, of course our personal taste changes over time. Many of us read these books at a super early stage of our development.

  • Seeker of Carcosa@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I just go for completed series nowadays. It’s just not worth the time ranting and actively waiting for the completion of certain series. I’ve made a conscious decision not to start on Rothfuss’s trilogy until he finishes the final book.

    I also find that recently I go for books with more mature themes; not gore- and sex-fests where everyone is morally grey for the sake of it, but stuff like Robin Hobb’s books which explore feminism through a fantasy lens, or stories with characters who confront their flaws rather than being some ideal version of a character archetype.