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maderrI am finding, much to my dismay, that I simply cannot stand fantasy these days.
I'm simply tired of it. Tired of five hundred page books o'doom, tired of said books being part of a trilogy if I'm lucky, and more in the range of a series if I'm fucked as usual. I just don't want to do it anymore. More and more, they read like text books rather than novels. It's great these authors build these awesome cultures. Believe me, I admire that. I love their skill political weaving, the intricacy of plot....
But there are better ways to do it. I swear to god, every book I pick up is just a cardboard cut out and the author took no pains to even paint it creatively. They just cut it out, slapped it on a preset background, and were finished.
I'm not casting stones, mind. Nothing I've written breaks the world, or probably even contributes to my genre. Hell, I can't tell you the number of times I've heard it was good even though there was no smut, even from those persons whose opinion I value. So, in the eyes of my genre, I fail rather than succeed. So maybe I have no room to talk, after all.
I picked a book up this weekend because it sounded good, and the first few pages showed promise. I wasn't thrilled about it being a trilogy (at least, three books are all I saw) but it's the nature of the genre. Mystery novels are at least as annoying, and don't get me started on fucking modern supernatural (which, really, is just mystery with werewolves and vampires and slutty hunters -__- It's a wonder to me anyone can stand DwtD, trust me. I had a sad realization about that series the other day, and it's sort of put me in a funk). So, whatever.
Except 130 pages I want to tear my eyes out, or throw it across the room in an irritated snit. I don't like any of the characters. Worse, I don't even hate them. I just don't give a fuck. The writer is not very good at making sense. He's trying to be all zomg mysterious and instead I just have a vague feeling of 'where's my aspirin?' I started reading it because the other book I'm reading is a bit more difficult to read. Some books take more focus and energy than others, and I like something fun on the side when I'm working my way through what i guess tends more toward the literary end of the spectrum (not that I'm being pretentious, I'm not. I just mean it when I say I read everything).
Same ol', same ol'. Nothing about this so far surprises me, the characterizations are not consistent, but change as is convenient to the story...and like I said, I don't care about any of them. In my eyes, that is total fail.
On the other hand, it has reawakened yet another love of mine--that of assassin/spy/whatever who gives up life to be totally ordinary, but is outed someway, somehow. Regency verse may be getting a visit, if I can make the niggling idea work. We'll see. Right now I'm going to go try and find something interesting to read to erase the disappointment from my recent acquisition. Bah!
The book, if anyone cares, was The Way of the Shadows. It had awesome potential, and I'm going to try and finish the first book, but I do not think I'll be buying the others. Ah, well.
I'm simply tired of it. Tired of five hundred page books o'doom, tired of said books being part of a trilogy if I'm lucky, and more in the range of a series if I'm fucked as usual. I just don't want to do it anymore. More and more, they read like text books rather than novels. It's great these authors build these awesome cultures. Believe me, I admire that. I love their skill political weaving, the intricacy of plot....
But there are better ways to do it. I swear to god, every book I pick up is just a cardboard cut out and the author took no pains to even paint it creatively. They just cut it out, slapped it on a preset background, and were finished.
I'm not casting stones, mind. Nothing I've written breaks the world, or probably even contributes to my genre. Hell, I can't tell you the number of times I've heard it was good even though there was no smut, even from those persons whose opinion I value. So, in the eyes of my genre, I fail rather than succeed. So maybe I have no room to talk, after all.
I picked a book up this weekend because it sounded good, and the first few pages showed promise. I wasn't thrilled about it being a trilogy (at least, three books are all I saw) but it's the nature of the genre. Mystery novels are at least as annoying, and don't get me started on fucking modern supernatural (which, really, is just mystery with werewolves and vampires and slutty hunters -__- It's a wonder to me anyone can stand DwtD, trust me. I had a sad realization about that series the other day, and it's sort of put me in a funk). So, whatever.
Except 130 pages I want to tear my eyes out, or throw it across the room in an irritated snit. I don't like any of the characters. Worse, I don't even hate them. I just don't give a fuck. The writer is not very good at making sense. He's trying to be all zomg mysterious and instead I just have a vague feeling of 'where's my aspirin?' I started reading it because the other book I'm reading is a bit more difficult to read. Some books take more focus and energy than others, and I like something fun on the side when I'm working my way through what i guess tends more toward the literary end of the spectrum (not that I'm being pretentious, I'm not. I just mean it when I say I read everything).
Same ol', same ol'. Nothing about this so far surprises me, the characterizations are not consistent, but change as is convenient to the story...and like I said, I don't care about any of them. In my eyes, that is total fail.
On the other hand, it has reawakened yet another love of mine--that of assassin/spy/whatever who gives up life to be totally ordinary, but is outed someway, somehow. Regency verse may be getting a visit, if I can make the niggling idea work. We'll see. Right now I'm going to go try and find something interesting to read to erase the disappointment from my recent acquisition. Bah!
The book, if anyone cares, was The Way of the Shadows. It had awesome potential, and I'm going to try and finish the first book, but I do not think I'll be buying the others. Ah, well.
