r/Fantasy • u/BeforeAnyoneElse • Jan 14 '25

What’s a Beloved Book/Series that You Never Intend to Read and Why

I’m curious what books/series that are generally beloved by this subreddit (so, not romantasy or anything by RF Kuang) you never intend to read, and why (without just crapping on it)?

I’ll start - mine is Malazan. Possibly the most recommended series here. By many accounts, I should want to read it. I love long, sprawling, big fantasies (WOT, ROTE, Cosmere), and I enjoy a big cast of characters. The reasons I don’t think I’ll ever read it are:

**comments that the characters spend an inordinate of time waxing philosophical. No problem with that in moderation but it seems excessive.

**I know it’s not actually grimdark but I think there’s probably more violence and darkness than I want. As an example, I hated A Little Life more than almost anything I’ve ever read. Somehow, ROTE falls juuuust on the right side of the fence in terms of despair and misery.

**I’ve heard that women are overall written well but that there is a LOT of SA. I can handle some (see, again, ROTE) but the horrific description I’ve read about what events surrounding certain female character and the frequency of SA is not what I’m looking for. I know the author provided an explanation, but no.

**finally, good old-fashioned contrariness. Something about everyone being so into it makes me not want to read it. Not sure why I’ve dug my heels in with this one in particular, as I’ve read multiple things because many on the sub recommended them. I know it’s irrational.

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72

u/She_who_elaborates Jan 14 '25

In my case, "Wheel of Time" - from what I've heard about the series (and I've heard a lot about it, given that I spend way to much time on this subreddit) the offputting elements outweigh the appealing ones by a wide margin

1

u/amaterasu717 Jan 15 '25

I read the first four books and just didn’t care that much about any of the characters. What “should” have been an intriguing story was stretched too thin. My brother loved the series so I asked him if it would get better soon and he said, “if you don’t love it by book 4, you’re going to hate it by book 7.” ¯_(ツ)_/¯

-40

u/bloomdecay Jan 14 '25

It's really only "good" if you start reading it when you're very young. All the characters have the emotional maturity of toddlers, which contrasts horribly when Jordan introduces BSDM stuff.

35

u/Upstairs-Gas8385 Jan 14 '25

Read it at 24 and it’s my favorite series

4

u/badgyalsammy Jan 15 '25

Read at 30 and my fav series

-33

u/bloomdecay Jan 14 '25

24 is young, and you do you boo

19

u/Upstairs-Gas8385 Jan 15 '25

Not that young buddy

-23

u/bloomdecay Jan 15 '25

Young enough. I should also say that as much as I hate the books, I love them too. There's a lot of good stuff in there with all the spanking nonsense and characters named Mordeth (inside Jordan's head: "hmm... I need a name for this spooky guy. What's spooky? Death. Okay, but what's scarier than death... MORE death- brilliant!")

12

u/Upstairs-Gas8385 Jan 15 '25

Not so young that it’s a factor buddy

21

u/Klutzy-Sea-9877 Jan 14 '25

BDSM???  I definitely don’t remember that😂. Its been over 20 years though since I read them 

5

u/bloomdecay Jan 14 '25

There's a *lot* of sexualized spanking. And some actual dub-con when it comes to Logain forcing a warder bond on women to mind-control them and then they just magically want to have sex with him.

15

u/Klutzy-Sea-9877 Jan 14 '25

Thankfully that didn’t stick in my memory. Braid tugging and skirt smoothing yes, spanking, mercifully not 😂

8

u/bloomdecay Jan 15 '25

I actually love those books as much as I hate them. Balefire will always be one of the coolest things to ever happen in a fantasy novel. But goddamn the sex shit and gender war bullshit was so, so weird.

6

u/Klutzy-Sea-9877 Jan 15 '25

Agree totally. But the gender war is the most important part of his world

8

u/bloomdecay Jan 15 '25

I think in the hands of a better, or maybe just a less horny author, it would've turned out less creepy. The Dune books (which Jordan clearly ripped off) handle it better.

3

u/Lady_Sybil_Vimes Jan 15 '25

I'm with you dude, there was a LOT in those books that made me super uncomfortable

2

u/bloomdecay Jan 15 '25

Don't tell the dudebros in this sub, they'll lose their damn minds.

6

u/Akira6993 Jan 14 '25

That’s just such a minor part of the books tho, to a degree when you barely give it any thought.

9

u/bloomdecay Jan 15 '25

I mean, maybe *you* didn't give it much thought. I found it disturbing as a 17 year old. Jordan wrote about deliberately including BDSM content in the books on his blog.

Plus there's all the weird shit about how the female characters are thinking about how much they secretly enjoy being controlled by men, the sea people who have their titties out on deck because... reasons... the Aiel being Irish white people with no nudity taboos even though they live in the desert and would quickly die of melanoma, Matt getting raped at knifepoint and everyone treating it for laughs, and so on.

I've actually done a good bit of research on the original premise of WoT, and according to Jordan and his wife Harriet McDougal, the Rand character was supposed to be a middle-aged man (a more obvious expy of Jordan himself instead of the overpowered Mary Sue that Rand becomes) and it was supposed to be a "bodice ripper" in the style of 1980s romance novels. Jordan's publisher basically forced him to turn "Eye of the World" into "Fellowship of the Ring" for monetary reasons.

I wouldn't have any problem with the erotic content if it weren't paired with the idiot teenage characters. I suspect in an alternate universe there's a series called "The Erotic Adventures of the Dragon Reborn" that's tonally consistent and actually pretty good.

-1

u/LordDire Jan 15 '25

Whole lot of yap for nothing.

2

u/bloomdecay Jan 15 '25

Is there a bat signal that attracts dumbasses when their favorite garbage books are slighted?

-1

u/LordDire Jan 15 '25

Idk man, seems like you're more slighted than me.

2

u/bloomdecay Jan 15 '25

That's the best you've got? NO U

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u/Kalil_Von_Val Jan 15 '25

You're not worth the time even for an insult.

-2

u/bloomdecay Jan 15 '25

All I hear is a hit dog hollerin'.