McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Are Readers Growing Tired of New Urban Fantasy?
Marie August:
I think readers are tired of poorly written, derivative novels that imitate best sellers. Readers are always happy to read something original and well done, and never happy to read all the other authors that try to profit off of the original success.
Zuriel:
It's just part of the game that authors pick up on the formula of a successful UF - or any other genre. If they can turn their book into something with a twist, something original, along with the copycat portions, and write well, then it becomes a book of its own right. But yeah, I cringe thinking of all the followers that try but never quite pull it off. I'm sure I'll run into a bunch of those as I branch out and read other UF besides DF.
There's nothing new under the sun. Everyone is just re-working what's already out there, so the challenge becomes making it their own, unique storytelling that uses what's been learned and read into a fresh, new perspective. It's not that easy.
Marie August:
I think that the "new" thing that's been becoming popular over the last decade is throwing all of the "old" things into a mixing bowl. You're more hip if your book is a Mystery-Fantasy-Dystopian-Zombie Thriller-Romance. Luckily most of these are also YA (because authors need to ride off the popularity of Twilight and Harry Potter), so the libraries don't have as miserable of a time figuring out where to shelve these books.
OZ:
Like UF in general, I like the mixing bowl when it's done well. Like a good cook, a good author can cook up something that is wonderful from the same ingredients that others use to make something disgusting and of course tastes vary. We may mostly agree that part of the problem with UF is the amount of poorly written books that are out there. I have found, however, that when you start talking specific books, the ones that I was referring to as being lousy may be the very ones that you think make the cut while you may believe that some of my favorites are horribly written. That's part of the fun.
Marie August:
--- Quote from: OZ on June 12, 2012, 06:30:11 AM ---I have found, however, that when you start talking specific books, the ones that I was referring to as being lousy may be the very ones that you think make the cut while you may believe that some of my favorites are horribly written. That's part of the fun.
--- End quote ---
There are books that I dislike because they aren't my thing, and there are books that I don't like because they're done poorly. Sometimes I'll like something despite the fact that it's done poorly, because it's a genre I enjoy. Like I might actually enjoy a poor knockoff of an UF series, because I liked what was being knocked off.
Whenever I dislike something because it's just not my thing (like horror, or super techy sci-fi), I try not to hold it against the creator. Doesn't mean that it's flawed.
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