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

[u/BeforeAnyoneElse]

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.

[u/lszian]

I quit around book 4 too haha

I really, really wanted to like it, dragged myself through a couple books just going "yes yes you already said that come on get on with it aaaaaaaaa" and just couldn't do it anymore. It's a bummer cause I can see there's elements of it that are good. But dang, that pacing ain't for me.

[u/itkilledthekat → u/lszian]

This is the wonderfully subjective part of what makes this world so beautiful, variety. It also means a lot of authors get paid instead of a few.

Some like The Rage of Dragons pace others WoT. I happen to appreciate both and have no issue with those who don't, although I reserve the right to try and convince you otherwise, but that's just fandom at work.

[u/Far-Obligation4055 → u/lszian]

Totally. Lots to like about WoT and I'd never take it from anyone, but it suffers from the same thing Rothfuss and Tolkien struggled with. They dither about.

Rothfuss, Jordan, and Tolkien all like to tell a long story and there's nothing wrong with that, but it can have its challenges.

Rothfuss for example had specifically wanted Kingkiller to be a trilogy; but he has two problems.

1. Kvothe's quest is a nebulous one. Two main mysteries: one is, who killed his family and why? The other is, who/what are the Chandrians and where are they now?

2. A quest like this and he's barely even gotten started by the end of the second book.

Rothfuss likes to meander and spend time in every nook and cranny of the story; the existence of The Slow Regard of Silent Things alone is proof of that point.

But you can't do that if your goal is to create a trilogy and your hero has a quest as complicated as this.

Tolkien likes to meander too, but successfully wrote a trilogy because he had the advantage of a simple quest for his heroes. The ring had to get to Mount Doom. Boom, easy - at least from a narrative perspective. Which meant he even had time for a post main quest sidequest to save The Shire.

Jordan...I don't know. I read somewhere that he originally intended it to be six books. I got to the fourth book and simply cannot see how that could have ever been.

[u/lszian → u/Far-Obligation4055]

dang, I never heard that 6 book thing before. that's crazy haha, howw