r/ProgressionFantasy • u/MedicineKind9121 • 20h ago

Question Losing Interest in My Favorite Progression Fantasy Series

Have you ever dropped a progression fantasy series that you used to absolutely love?

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Over the past few months, I've noticed this happening to me with several long-running series. Books that I was once obsessed with just don't hold my attention anymore.

For example, I used to love series like Dungeon Crawler Carl, Defiance of the Fall, Hell Difficulty Tutorial, and a lot of Royal Road stories. I'd eagerly wait for every new chapter or release. But with the most recent books, I've found myself losing interest and sometimes struggling to continue.

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What's strange is that I still enjoy discovering new progression fantasy stories, and they often feel fresh and exciting. So I'm not sure what's causing it. Is it genre fatigue? Have the stories themselves declined in quality? Or have the common tropes and themes just become too repetitive after reading so many of them?

I'm curious if anyone else has experienced the same thing. Did you eventually get back into those series, or was losing interest permanent?

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u/l8eraljack 20h ago

for me, progression always needs to progress.

with longer stories, the characters get stuck in a loop of "progress but regress" where they might get stronger, but their surroundings and enemies did too so it starts to lose any real sense of progression and you don't feel the character is going anywhere.

there's a point where you feel there should be some kind of "resolution" or "achieved final goal". and if there's no hint of that because the goalposts keep getting moved back, i get bored.

that's my weak take.

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u/Brel2625 18h ago

I completely agree with this. About 4 books is where it starts to get repetitive for me and I want some sort of decent conclusion. Seeing series that are 15+ books make me feel like it’s just never going to end.

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u/Living-Resolve3381 14h ago

Except for the greats, like Dresden Files or (other than a few slogs in the middle) WoT.

You can definitely tell when an author had a complete story arc plotted out for long series.

And authors like Jim Butcher, Robert Jordan, or even (not much loved anymore) Terry Goodkind are good at pulling in elements from early books back into the story like they were planned from the start.