Loading ...I’m feeling the paranormal/fantasy fatigue. What are you feeling?
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Particularly shifters.
Fat fantasy (quest/epic) – I’m reading all the Australian fantasy novels released in the past twelve months for a national award, and I’m a bit over it. I’m taking a break with some Jodi Picoult :)
Hmm. Generally it is the quality of the storytelling that make a book an enjoyable read for me, rather than the genre. I read very widely and I’ve liked paranormal romance for a long time. However it is a curious happenstance that I only started reading romance as the straight fantasy/scifi was no longer interesting to me. Nothing was fresh any more. So far I quite like many of the current paranormals as there are still authors coming up with interesting twists with decent storytelling and compelling characters.
When I started reading Romance I read only Historical. Then because I was watching Paranormal TV I started to read tons of Paranormal. But now it’s lost all interest for me and I’m back to almost exclusively reading and writing Historicals.
The fact that European Historicals are third on the list at the time of my post is very interesting because, from what I know and hear, non-European Historicals are still a hard sale to most major houses. Thank goodness not all! :)
Series. Esp. urban fantasy and e-book series that follow the same couple, rather than giving them a true HEA in the first book. Sure, I like to revisit the characters, and I know you have to work for your HEA, but I’d like to be able to pick up a book and not HAVE to have read the previous eight. It’s okay when you get in on the ground floor, but when you don’t…
I voted Paranormal, but actually I’m only sick of Blood-Sucking Dead Guys and Guys Who Shed. Never understood the appeal in the first place. Do you realize how much work goes into cleaning carpets of blood and fur? Utterly and in every way UNsexy. I never read Urban Fantasy, but only because I hate cities. Someone called ARMED & MAGICAL by Lisa Shearin Urban Fantasy and I loved that.
Seems like everything is a series these days, esp when the author had to work so hard to worldbuild (with paranormal and urban fantasy).
As an author I understand the temptation. Certainly my editor understands! As a reader, sometimes I crave true stand-alone novels, not ones that are always pimping other couples, future or past plotlines, etc. Does anyone know any great stand-alones in paranormal or urban fantasy?? Or are they novels that happen to be part of a series but CAN stand alone? Two different things.
I’m not really tired of an entire genre, but I am getting pretty tired of long series about groups of guys (usually vampires, I’ll admit, which makes this mostly a paranormal problem, but not completely), who are all uber-bad-tough Alpha warrior-dudes, each one badder than the previous. Especially when the writer is silly enough to start out with the leader, king, prince, whatever, ’cause how the heck do you escalate from there?? Six or twelve books in, the gods themselves are trembling. Me? I’m eyerolling, ’cause seriously, after a while, most of the entertainment comes from watching the writer try to explain why this guy she’s writing about right now is even badder than the previous eight guys.
Folks should take a lesson from Jo Beverley — she saved Rothgar for last. :D
Angie
I agree that I’m not tired of a genre so much as a whole series of boredom. Most offerings lately aren’t catching my interest in the first place, never mind parts two thru twenty of I Can’t Come Up With Anything Original, So I’ll Keep Going With This Until I Do.
I can understand why writers might like it though. Do all the work with the first book, and keep it as a template. Just change character names, slap a new cover on, and send off to be published.
I’m over the whole “kick-ass heroine” thing, regardless of genre. It’s gotten to the point where I really can’t tell them apart anymore, and they all annoy me.
I am so over vampires and vampireana.
I’m tired of 1) kick-ass, invariably tattooed chicks who wear nothing but leather and 2) bands of warriors who share living space and fight (fill in the blank).
@karmelrio – your comment about the “band of warriors who share living space” made me choke on my water. What is it with all these guys living together like some paranormal frat house?? JR Ward, you have a lot to answer for.
Series with different heroes/heroines who (surprise!) aren’t really that different. The obligatory setup-for-next-book paragraph is a total turn-off. E.g. this, from Lisa Kleypas’ latest: [I haven't read the book; just found the quote here]
That kind of pimpage–when it’s not worked into the story–doesn’t make me want to read the next story; it cheapens the story I’m already reading. (Suzanne Brockmann’s intertwined stories don’t strike me the same way.)
YES to this:
My problem with series is not that there’s so many of them. It’s that they never end. Generally I love things like trilogies and quartets, but start getting past 5 or 6 books with the same damn characters and it grows old.
Regencies. Very tired of regencies.
Yes, I know I’m in the minority. ;)
I am currently tired of romantic suspense. I love mysteries but I hate figuring out the bad guy by chapter 3. I’ll just take a break for a while and stick to the regencies.
I voted Paranormal, but that’s really a vote against vampires. I’m still ok w/shapeshifters. What I’m not ok with is mediocrity, which unfortunately is genreless.
I’m not tired of paranormals or urban fantasy as a genre but am tired, tired, tired of vampires, shifters and the whole destined mate (and the ones who immediately decide the woman is their soul mate at first meeting) story lines. I’m still okay with demons since some authors are pretty creative with them.
I find myself reading and rereading Jim Butcher and Simon Green for all their action and adventure, great monsters, and light love interest. I truly love romance but any more, with all the hopping into bed in the first chapter, it’s harder and harder for me to enjoy.
Urban fantasy is my favorite (except for love triangles).
I selected romantic suspence, but I don’t think that’s it.
It’s just so hard to find a really good, well-written book in any genre.
I got tired of werewolves when I was 12 and glommed all the nonfiction I could find on the myth. Last week’s foray into werewolf romance (because it had a cute blurb) for the first time in almost 30 years ended with me mentally throwing the book at the wall. (Because it was an ebook and on my precious ebook reader.)
I got tired of vampires after Lestat #3 (circa 1990) and a 3-year Vlad Tepes glom. I’ve read a few here and there, but the premise has to be unique, like… this one, which I reviewed here. JR Whard’s whasn’t uhnique enough for me to bother and mhore Hs aren’t ghoing to hhelp.
I never really liked romantic suspense, but I’d read it in a pinch. That stopped about 10 years ago.
I tried an urban fantasy; that was a no-go after about 10 pages. I like kick-ass heroines, but why does it have to be fantasy/paranormal?
So I’m still with historical romance (no, I’m not particular about locale and crap, I’m waiting for some good ones set in Asia) and straight contemporary and hey! I like standalone titles and I don’t mind pimpage for the next book. Actually, I’m kind of starving for a few really long contemporary romances (i.e., not category length, thanks–I’m too hungry to be happy with a snack).
However, what I really like is a standalone contemporary (or historical) that serves as NOT the beginning of a series per se, but the hub of a wheel of standalone novels that tie back into the hub by family or friendship.
And please may I get something longer than 300 pages? Especially the ones with the humongo font?
I was never into werewolves. Probably never will be. Just like I’ll never get tired of vampires per se — just badly written vampires.
I don’t mind time-travel regencies (I like time-travel in general), but the constant focus on the upper class of that period really grates on me after a while. As a costumer, I can’t stand 75 percent of the fashions between 1800 and 1910, which of course doesn’t help, but still. I have a hard time reading or writing about the 19th century without constantly thinking of the classism and the rigid caste structure of Europe and England especially at the time (not to mention the sexism and the racism of the period, but that’s another rant for another day).
It’s actually more depressing to read about characters who behave as if another way of life didn’t exist all around them than it is to read about characters enduring real and painful suffering while trying to overcome the life around them as long as it works out in the end, believe it or not. I think most historical fiction that focuses mostly on upper class white people has to deal with the issue of the ‘superior normalcy of the good life,’ while a lot of medieval and renaissance literature, and even Colonial and American Civil War lit, I find, doesn’t have that affected state of ignorance and insulation that some Regencies do, and it bugs me much more than it did a few years ago. JMHO.
“Sex and the City” knock-offs: I’ll write ‘em, but that doesn’t mean I always to want read ‘em. The present is depressing enough as it is; I want to read to escape sometimes.
Paranormal, urban fantasy, series…
I’m ready for a nice contemporary. When’s the next SEP or standalone Crusie coming out?
Hard to do with so many publishers cutting word count to save on costs.
As an aside, it’s hard to kick ass in leather, especially the tight leather worn in these books, because it restricts movement.
I voted for “other” because I’m not tired of any genre, even reading about a book a day. I just finished a “read around the genre” challenge and read 10 different genres in about 5 weeks, even a couple I didn’t think I’d like (but did). I guess I’m feeling Half Full Glass today – maybe I shouldn’t have voted? Maybe only those tired of something should vote?
I’m with B. When I think a series is about to end… nope there’s the dreaded ‘To Be Continued’.
Shifters and chick-lit. Everything else is fine with me as long as it’s well written.
That, too. I’ve depised the type from the moment of my very first groan over Anita effing Blake.
I’m confused about something. If everybody is hungering for more straight-up contemporaries, how come they don’t sell worth a crap? At least they don’t in ebookland, anyway.
The very few that are released are shoved into the background by paranormal and urban fantasy, so I’ve been reading more and more categories from Harlequin. I think contemporaries might be making a slow come-back; even NR’s upcoming trilogy sounds like straight contemporaries.
(I still, however, have no desire to read comedic contemporaries because I think grown women should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.)
ETA paragraph break.
ENOUGH EUROPEAN HISTORICALS!!
*cough* Okay, I’m done now. I’m ready to be an mature, reasonable adult again.
I worship the woman, but I wish great historical romance authors like Julia Quinn would expand their horizons a little bit.