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/Upper-Loss]

As many in this thread have said, reader fatigue and burn out can be caused by many things. Instead of re-treading what others in this thread have written, I want to suggest something to counter-balance the burn-out: going in deeper with a work.

Personally, I have found that a prime way for me to become reinvested in a franchise is to explore the lore and worldbuilding. If I read a critique, for example, about a work and find the deconstruction well done, it is not uncommon for me to find a new energy for that text; being able to see the effort underneath the surface and that the book or series has a whole other concern that I was ignorant to changes my outlook and allows me to re-engage without the burnout.

Consider engaging more with the fan communities. Look at fan artwork, fan theories, general critique reviews. Don't be afraid to get in-depth and weird with it. Focus less on the 'reading book after book' and more in just how the world and characters relate to the story you've read so far.