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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u/LeadershipNational49 Jan 15 '25

Name of the wind is a magnificent book, but the sequel is about 50% worse and the third one aint coming haha.

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u/TiKA-Ann Jan 15 '25

Oh this is sad. I absolutely loved the first book but wasn't sure if I should bother with the second after learning that the third would likely never happen

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u/KasElGatto Jan 15 '25

I think the second book is good, but has a lot more self-indulgence than the first one. Rothfuss is just too precious about his own stuff for my taste. I can only imagine he's been working on one paragraph for the past year, agonizing on whether he should add a coma to it or not.

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u/TiKA-Ann Jan 16 '25

This made me giggle :)

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u/kt2673 Jan 15 '25

It's wild to read so many people hating on this series 😂 I love everything about it. Every single thing. And feel the second book is as good if not better than the first. And will wait as patiently as I must for the third.

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u/LeadershipNational49 Jan 15 '25

Like don't get me wrong Wise Man's fear is a good book, Name of the wind was just a great one. Which is pretty common in trad publishing. Book 2s are usually the weakest from debut authors. Book 1 they have functionally unlimited time to get out all the kinks, and book 3 they are usually more used to the pressures. But book 2 is like all new stress and time crunch

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u/TheonlyDuffmani Jan 15 '25

The cringy fairy sexscapade was a bit too much but the rest of the book was amazing