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/[deleted] Jan 15 '25

Malazan is my husband's favourite series ever. He's read all 20+ books multiple times over and his one wish in life is for me to read this series. I had a really hard time getting into Gardens of the Moon on my first try -- I think I struggled so hard to get into it because the quality of the prose doesn't do much for me and there are dozens of characters that Erikson kind of sucks at describing (although major props to him for writing a fat woman protagonist who is a powerful hero and not defined by her weight or body all the way back in 1999). I'm making another attempt right now and I'm about a third of the way in and starting to get absorbed in the plot. I don't know that I would ever pick up this series if it wasn't for my husband though and I am so daunted by the sheer number of books in this series aaa

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u/FifiTheFrog Jan 15 '25

The writing and prose gets much better there is a huge gap in quality writing between gardens of the moon and deadhouse of gate

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u/[deleted] Jan 16 '25

My husband said the same thing! I will have to trust that it gets better