I think that in fantasy specifically, there are a lot of bad books that use the same fantasy elements the author liked in Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, or anything Brandon Sanderson and Neil Gaiman have written. Since a lot of fantasy’s appeal is dependent on certain tropes, using common fantasy tropes doesn’t make a work inherently bad, but when an author doesn’t have the skill to make a good story out of them then the final product doesn’t really stand out.
Self-publishing has lowered the barrier of entry, so it is possible to publish with little to no writing experience, but I would say that has increased the number of good and bad fantasy books. There are authors who wouldn’t get traditionally-published for reasons that have nothing to do with their skill or talent, who are able to publish via self-publishing. Of course, there are also writers who are not good at writing who publish this way as well. That said, traditional publishing has given a platform to many terrible books, so I think this is just a quantity thing rather than self-publishing selecting for bad books or traditonal publishing weeding them out.
Also, what “pool” of books are you looking at? Bestsellers, award winners, stuff people are talking about on Reddit, BookTok hits, what your friends are reading, any traditionally-published fantasy, self-published fantasy, or all fantasy as a whole? A big part of the reason I think people have a hard time getting into reading is that book communities on social media tend to act as if a relatively small “pool” of books is all that’s out there and all that’s worth reading. YouTubers will often focus on new releases or things that are already popular rather than a variety of books that are representative of the fantasy genre as a whole, so people who don’t like whatever is popular at the moment or whatever is considered “classic” may decide the genre isn’t for them. Even outside of social media, a lot of what is marketed heavily (bestsellers, celebrity book club picks, whatever the airport bookstores have these days) just isn’t to people’s taste, and people who don’t know a lot about books and don’t have much time to look into what they are interested in are going to assume that’s all that’s out there. If you looked at fantasy in a subgenre you particularly liked, you might find more that you consider “good” because it interests you.
Hi everybody! I have been looking at posts on narcs and narc abuse on here and if has really helped me out a lot. I am currently struggling with my situation and need some advice/support.
I met a narc last year, everything seemed to good to be true. Love bombing, always texting calling and taking me on dates. Everything changed when someone warned me about him out in public in front of him and who he is. This caused a conflict with us and the love bombing seized.
he would tell me that everything is okay and i can come and talk. He would set a time limit on me and kick me out after that.
he would then text me like everything was fine and we hung out again and after that he completely ghosted me for one week. He came back and texted me a week later laughing about the ghosting and acting like nothing had happened.
he continued to text me ( not like in the beginning) make plans with me, then on the day of the plans he would just ghost me. One day he would act interested the next silence.
i contacted him a month later and he acted like nothing happened. He was on a vacation and sent me a picture of another woman ( someone he allegedly met on the trip) to strike a reaction but i never gave him one. After the trip he came to my place and was extremely rude, accusing me of going on dates with a bunch of men. The next day he accused me of being an alcoholic and that he wanted nothing to do with me but said well maybe we can be "friends" then ghosted me
i assumed at this point it was over and i would never hear from him again. He contacted me on the holiday a month later acting like everything was great. We ended up hanging out a month or so later and when we hung out it went well, i thought things were going in the right direction.
after we hung out.. silence. I would try to text him and if he replied it would be very short then he just stopped replying. He ghosted me for almost three months. I thought he was done this time and of course he popped up again like nothing happened. At this point i was getting sick of if so i questioned him as to why he dissapeared and always does this. Of course he had some sob story about a injury and family member dying of cancer. I felt pity for him and he gave me an apology.. so i took him back stupidly.
things seemed to be going smooth for a couple months, of course until his family member died and his injury got better he never contacted me and was distant. Menawhile, i was there for him during the difficult time for him. He lied to me about the funeral and never wanted to chat. I was chasing him and he would always claim nothing was wrong but when i said i thought he used me when he was down he could not handle it and would always tell me he didnt care and to go away. I would get so upset i would try texting him to work it out he would barelt respond and if he did he would not be nice about it.
we did hang out a couple times after that, he would ignore me after. One day i was like hey i think you are seeing someone else, and i was like well ixam seeing someone so no problem if you are he said " buy bye good luck with your new guy stop contacting me" i was devastated and tried to get into contact with him for weeks then i just gave up and accepted it was over. He ended up contacting me a month later acting like everything was fine. He wanted to go out and have drinks i told him i would. He and i both seemed to have a great time. He ends up ignoring me again. I kept texting him trying to figure out what was wrong. He kept saying everything was fine and i said ok can we hang out again? He said maybe i was like why? He just kept saying maybe …
our last conversation we had… i said what is wrong ? He said nothing is wrong everything is fine. I asked him why he keeps saying maybe. He said " maybe but i dont want to see you right now" i said why? He saix " im just not feeling it, if i wanted to date i would" i said why did you contact me less then a week ago wanting to go out? He said i didnt.. even though he did. So i said should i just move on or what? He said whatever you want to do. So i said that he was really confusing me and asked him if he had anything more to say before i move on? My messages were turning green so i panicked he blocked me and reacted irrationally. I said " omg did you block me? My messages are not going through. Even texted him on my work phone asking what was up. And called him twice ( please dont judge me i know it is pathetic i never was this type of girl before him) so he replied and said " Ok I'll block you now" then immedietly blocked me. He has never blocked me before since I have met him he will just ghost. Is this ths final discard aka " grand finale? Did i just push him too far?
this has upset me so much its hard to even function.
Fantasy is a large and popular genre compared to some smaller genres or subgenres like “military science fiction” or “family sagas” so if you are looking at “fantasy” as a genre you are looking at multiple successful subgenres at once. Of course with such a large pool to draw from, it will seem like there are more bad books than in smaller genres because the sheer volume is so large to begin with. If you looked at separate genres of fantasy (high fantasy, low fantasy, urban fantasy, historical fantasy, YA fantasy, MG fantasy, mythology retellings, science fantasy) and looked at the ratio of good:bad books in each subgenre using whatever metric you want, you would probably find that some genres have more high-quality writing, or that you just like the writing styles of some of the genres more than others, which is fine. I’m not sure how you’re defining a “bad book” here, though.
Every genre has its share of bad books. Fantasy is no exception.
