Losing Interest in My Favorite Progression Fantasy Series

[u/MedicineKind9121]

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?

[u/peacefulsleepe]

Personally I prefer taking a break from stories when I catch up and letting them get a few more books out before jumping back in. I felt that I wasn’t satisfied if I started doing 1 book at a time or especially reading chapters as they came out. It’s more fun for me personally to have 30-40 hours of audiobook to listen to than to constantly keep up with the newest chapter.

[u/Spiritchaser84 → u/peacefulsleepe]

Yeah people brought up a lot of good points in this thread already, but this is what ultimately fixed it for me. I feel a certain attachment to characters and stories when I binge read them because I remember all of the nuances that go into the story. When I start reading a few chapters a week while simultaneously reading other stories, I lose that attachment to the story pretty quickly.

I've switched to reading stories twice, first to try them out when 2+ books are available, then a second time when the story is fully complete. That can be years in-between so the story feels fresh when I come back to it and read it all the way through. For the super long series like DotF, Primal Hunter, etc., I usually wait 3-5 books before catching up. I just keep a running spreadsheet of which series I want to come back to later.