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.
Speaking of Sanderson. I loved Mistborn the first time I read it. It was one of the first modern fantasy books I’d read at the time mostly being a science fiction aficionado. I was super attracted to something that wasn’t elves, dwarves, and generic wizards.
Fast forward a few dozen more series and a few years later I re-read it, and was thoroughly unimpressed. Tired character tropes, overwrought magic system, unrealistic interrelations, and little substance beneath the glitter. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad series, just not the revelation I felt like it was the first time around.
Malazan on the other hand, I don’t think I’ll ever tire of re-reading. Though, I haven’t really gotten much into the books outside of the main, ten-book series.