I consider myself a big science fiction/fantasy genre reader, but...
(1) I don't understand the fuss over Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time Series.
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Originally Posted by Imre
My confession: I can't stand Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books. The way he characterizes women, the way the books drudge on and on and on!
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This. I bought the first three books, read two, then donated them all. I don't remember anything other than I thought it was bland and I couldn't stand the characters.
(2) I've never finished anything by Tolkien.
I love high/epic fantasy and it's hilarious that I've never read LOTR. I've had several false-starts with Tolkien's books but I was never interested enough to finish them. I think it's because I've absorbed so much LOTR from pop culture that reading the books is almost unnecessary. I did, however, finish reading a giant biography of Tolkien's life. I seem to also dislike/not be so interested in books that are described to be "in the vein of Tolkien".
Quote:
Originally Posted by caleb72
I am glad I read LOTR. I do think it is an important work to read if you like fantasy. But oh my god, what a boring piece of crap! Being the first has its importance, but it was done better later. I would rather die than read it again.
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Caleb, since our tastes are similar, I'd probably feel the same way.
(3) I couldn't finish Stranger in a Strange Land.
It grew to be annoying mid-way through. But I still really want to read more Heinlein.
(4) I agree that 1984 is a powerful book, but the act of reading it feels like work. Bludgeoning you over the head with its message, much.
(5) Despite the fact that he's already popular I still think H. G. Wells deserves more attention.
Other than being a father of science fiction, his prose has that insanely fun pulp-era flippancy and he had an amazing sense of humour.
(6) I love anything pulpy with a sense of humour.
Books with a devil-may-care attitude oftentimes can be more subversive than what first meets the eye.
(7) I have a love-hate relationship with Catherynne M. Valente's books.
I've only read two so far, but one I really liked, and one I mostly disliked. I have no idea if I will read more. I just can't seem to connect with her characters.
(8) I love epic/high fantasy, but I am sick to death of the familiar Reminiscent of Ye Olde England during the Dung Ages setting and Farmer Boy Becomes King and Ends Up Being in a Harem Anime characters. I am far more likely to check out an epic/high fantasy book if it has a very different setting, or has a very different protagonist. Female heroines in epic/high fantasies seem to play more complex roles other than "Acquire Power From Meeting Lots of People then Go Goku".
(9) The science fiction community seems to bring up the lack of optimism in current sci-fi literature.
Why is that a bad thing? I welcome escapist space opera as much as anybody, but cynicism about the future isn't going away. Feeling positive about humanity's future was a temporary blip in world history, as far as I'm concerned.