fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #6112 ]

[ SECRET POST #6112 ]

⌈ Secret Post #6112 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[Remnant: From the Ashes]

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 40 secrets from Secret Submission Post #874.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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04. https://i.imgur.com/bebEnmz.png

I've been feeling this recently. I miss reading fantasy/scifi books, but I just haven't found any that's been appealing.

I'm mainly reading non-fiction books and fanfics, but I'd like to get back into those genres - especially any lgbt leads who are over 20 years old (the amount of times I keep picking up books that sound good or were recommended with my interests, but turned out to be YA. I don't mind YA, but I'm beyond ready for something with adults in it).

Have you read The Priory of the Orange Tree or its prequel A Day of Fallen Night?

As a fantasy fan, I just find it hard to get something from the library that’s complete. It’s always the third in the Something Cycle, and the first got checked out two years ago and never returned.

Honestly I'm so sick if every fantasy book needing to be part of a series. I just want to read one story. A single, completed book. I don't necessarily mind if it has a sequel, as long as that sequel isn't necessary to understand the first book. But heavens am I sick of trying out a new book and realizing that I'm nearly at the end and the plot isn't even close to wrapping up because surprise a sequel will be out in two years (by which time I'll have forgotten about this book entirely and won't care).

The Stariel Quartet by AJ Lancaster is fantasy (fae, which I usually don't care for, but I really liked this one) with adult leads. The main romance is m/f, but there's also an m/m couple that gets its own book set after the main series. That book could probably be a standalone, but I'd say having knowledge of the rest would probably make it better.

Same. I've read some stuff that i really enjoyed (Murdbot books comes to mind), but I'm not dying to re-read, or trying hard to find the whole series so I can have them. Nothing I've read just lately stacks up to 'Downbelow Station', or 'Brideshead Revisited', or 'The Bull from the Sea'. I dunno.

I really did enjoy The Expanse, a LOT, and have re-read that series several times, but that is the exception in a lot of years of finding and reading and just going ...eh.

*Conspiracy tinfoil hat on* I think it's down to the greater use of Big Data, the shifting perception of morality and (for want of a better term) appropriateness in the English-speaking world, and the greater accessibility of ebooks.

Big Data - if the goal is to sell books, publishing houses are going to prioritise books that sell. Most people like things that are a little predictable, that's why popular music has got so samey, and if you're able to churn out the same book that's just different enough to be worth buying and just samey enough that people aren't scared of buying it in case they don't like it, numbers go up. A book that relies on people willing to be challenged and take a risk = low numbers, so the data says "avoid!". This kind of data is being farmed more now, to a more detailed level than it was 10 years ago, so although the principle has been there from the beginning the key beats identified as selling points have got a lot more specific.

Shifting perception of morality and appropriateness = people are scared of being cancelled or representing different people with different backgrounds/ sexualities / gender presentation in a problematic way. Add in publishing houses not wanting the bad kind of controversy and you have a whole lot of bland going on to avoid harassment and boycotts. This bland pap isn't particularly riveting reading.

Ebooks = books are accessible from anywhere in the world (with a signal) in an instant. Algorithms recommend books more than friends and family, and they will recommend what's read most often, and usually that's a combo of already popular authors and stuff that people found really easy to read. Not necessarily good, but ones where they didn't have to look up any words or stop and *feel* the moment in the book because of emotional tension or, well, do much other than get the dopamine hit from a simple quick read. So people don't find the interesting books as easily, and authors are incentivised to write more and fast rather than take their time. So those books they could have made incredible are just "ok".

For what it's worth, I suspect you're right. I think it also helps explain why so much television and so many big budget movies are so bland and inoffensive as well.

Oh, I don't think it's too far fetched to think there's something to this. I think publishers have been sloooowly scaling back the effort they put into books as they figure out that sloppy editing, sloppy and repetitive plots, cliches, crappy covers, etc. don't affect sales so much that it's worth it to correct all those things. If sales plummeted, they'd probably try harder, but if they don't, why bother? There'll be enough of a market out there for books that are just so-so to okay.

Kind of like how McDonalds isn't the best tasting burger in the world, but enough people think it's okay that they'll buy it and eat it.

YES. Capitalism is BAD FOR ART. Under capitalism companies have not only a financial incentive, but a RESPONSIBILITY to employees and shareholders to make money, to prioritise profit. Making Good Art can never be the top priority.

There's the social media aspect too I think. Books get drilled down to a list of easily digestible tropes that are popular, so now every book must have Found Family and Love Triangle etc etc. And lately it seems like publishers are less interested in things like decent writing or an interesting plot and more interested in how many followers a writer has so that the company doesn't have to do their own marketing.

I sometimes feel like maybe my standards are a LOT lower than everyone else or I am much easier to please LOL!

Like, I've read 83 books this year, all new to me, and out of them, 2 were 2-stars, and everything else was 3 and above which in my brain is (I enjoyed this, I had a good time).

The two 2-stars, one was just... it had an AMAZING premise but the writing was up its own ass so much, and the second was an exciting premise but every other sentence was a simile (and also the weird incest vibe that no one seemed to address at all lol!).

I mean, you gotta help your fellow readers out.

DA - my 5 star recs for books from this year and last year, an incomplete list

Translation State - Ann Leckie
Lone Women - Victor LaValle
The Tea Ladies - Amanda Hampson - murder mystery set in Sydney, Australia

Novellas

Ogres - Adrian Tchaikovsky - third in series, works as standalone
Nothing But the Rain - Naomi Salman
Lost in the Moment and Found - Seanan McGuire. This is part of a longer series, which I find patchy; works as a standalone
Into the Riverlands - Nghi Vo - part of series, works as standalone

Another DA

(Anonymous) - 2023-10-01 03:16 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Care to share some recs?

(Anonymous) - 2023-10-01 17:08 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Care to share some recs?

(Anonymous) - 2023-10-02 08:23 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Care to share some recs?

(Anonymous) - 2023-10-02 20:28 (UTC) - Expand

feel this. still feeling this. years have gone by while I fluctuate between trying and giving up, asking for recs and avoiding people whose recs sucked. still can not for the life of me find any good books to read.

I don't even need it to be newer, I will happily go to a library and pick something 30 years old up (so long as the iffy elements are not wholly omg fuckin no like...Piers Anthony for example). But not wanting much romance at all (zero is ideal) and no more European sword-and-sorcery leaves me absolutely hurting. I picked up exactly two trilogies in the past 20 years that hit on all cylinders, and now I have nothing but another two sets of books to re-re-re-re-read.

I've never reread a book. I've just never had interest in doing so for some reason.

Do you re-watch tv or movies?

Just curious because my friends and I have this discussion a lot. I reread books regularly, some I reread once a year even. But it is extremely rare for me to rewatch a tv show or a movie. Whereas a friend of mine loves to rewatch favorite episodes and series etc but doesn't reread books that often.

(no subject)

kaijinscendre - 2023-10-01 02:13 (UTC) - Expand

Same, honestly. Same with movies and TV shows. Unless I really, really adore them, once is enough for me and I never feel the urge to reread/rewatch them.

The quality of writing has absolutely deteriorated, unfortunately. It’s been on a decline for at least 20 years and there are studies about it from 2007 onwards that you can read online. The decline rapidly increased with the rise of social media but SM is likely only one factor. Self publishing is less of a culprit than many in academia like to claim; the decline first appeared in works from major publishers.

Got any links, nonny? This is pretty interesting to me, as an ex-bookseller and someone who's got the same problem as the OP. I put it down to increasing age, decreasing mental concentration and general illness - but if writing quality has something to do with it, well, that's encouraging, in a way.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2023-10-01 03:19 (UTC) - Expand

This genuinely surprises me and I'd be interested to see how many books/how many genres etc were involved in the data set, because as someone who also reads a lot of 'older' books (and I am talking about anywhere from 1800s to 1980s as older), I still see the same amount of good vs bad/like vs dislike when I read things, but I am also not a study and my tastes are not everyone's tastes lol.

Gotta disagree with the majority here, most of the books I read are always fairly new and just as good as or better than the books I read 20+ years ago. But maybe I'm just bad at discerning quality.

Anon above, but yeah same. I have always been a HEAVY volume (and no genre specific) reader, and my 'did not likes' are still always very slim compared too books I enjoyed/had a good time with. The only two genres I don't really read too much in are high fantasy and sci-fi and to be fair that is probably a me thing because I find it hard to find HF/SF that doesn't take itself too seriously. I mean I am sure it's out there lol, but I'd rather stick with genres where I know I am more likely to enjoy something than slog through a genre in an attempt to find something I might enjoy.

depending on how much money you got to spare, you might wanna look into some of the book sub boxes there are. you get sent a new Release book each month (sometimes with items and trinkets if you want) and its been great for me to read new things or authors i would not have bought at a bookstore.
And if its not your things, most of these books are pretty special editons that sometimes fetch a reasonable price in resale

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