Why is good writing so lacking in the fantasy/sci-fi genre? Every fantasy book I've picked up in the past decade has had god awful prose, with the exception of a select few. I enjoy the strong writing found in literature, but it seems the strongest writing is found outside of mystery/thriller and fantasy/sci-fi.
Why is there no overlap?
>>8091044
You got it wrong. There is good fantasy, it just identifies as something unfantasylike. Same with sci-fi. Cтpyгaцкиe got so upset at the state of science fiction they renamed the genre they were writing in.
>>8091065
What do you mean by it "identifies as something unfantasylike"?
>>8091044
You probably don't know what fantasy is outside of J. R. R. Tolkien rip-off, H. P. Lovecraft or G. R. R. Martin. Give a try to Jean Ray or Guy de Maupassant short stories, Gustav Meyrink, Giovanni Boccacio, Erckmann-Chatrian, Jules Verne, Robert W. Chambers, Jack London, many tales less-known written by Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol, Ann Radcliffe, Rudyard Kipling and Robert Stevenson, Tommaso Landolfi or Franz Kafka. I'm sure you won't feel this is genuine fantasy literature yet that's how it was before J. R. R. Tolkien introduced the world building. Alas, it led to decades of poor copies.
>>8091044
David Lindsay: "A Voyage to Arcturus"
E. R. Eddison: "The Worm Ouroboros"
Lord Dunsany: "The King of Elfland's Daughter"
Hope Mirrlees: "Lud-In-The-Mist"
Poul Anderson: "The Broken Sword"
T. H. White: "The Once and Future King"
Mervyn Peake: "Gormenghast"
John Crowley: "Little, Big"
Gene Wolfe: "Book of the New Sun"
Tim Powers: "The Anubis Gates"
Jack Vance: "Lyonesse"
Robert Holdstock: "Mythago Wood"
>>8091102
Like magical realism or folklore.
>>8091103
Thanks very much for the list, definitely a fan of Jack London, Gogol, and some light fantasy (Orlando) and absurd classics. Never read Game of Thrones, I heard there were too many descriptions of feasts so I assumed it was shit.
I think you're right about Tolkien. So much that has come after drew too heavily on it. I'm just now seeing a break out of the standard tropes in new fantasy releases.
The real problem is that Tolkien-clone "fantasy" novels are not particularly fantastical, but are rather just mediocre adventure novels. Similarly, most mystery novels aren't particularly mysterious, and most sci-fi is not particularly scientific (though there are plenty that are). Thriller novels are frequently thrilling, but only in a very cheap way. Basically, these genre designations are pretty stupid in general.
>>8091154
We can add many authors. The genre demotion to children tales and teen escapism is pretty recent and used to be much more considered in the past. Nowadays most people think it isn't “real” without a dragon, elves or a tacky Warcraft-like cover.
>>8091160
You would like Herman Meville's “The Apple Tree Table”, Mary Wilkins-Freeman, Edward Benson, Robert Bloch, Perceval Landon, probably Arthur Canon Doyle's “The Silver Hatchet”, although slightly outdated. Elizabeth Walter's “The Tibetan Box” and James Blish are also related. Considering J. R. R. Tolkien, indeed, his innovation cost us too much. World building has brought little to literature, characters' interaction or plot development and instead converted swathes of followers to an encyclopaedical conception of the genre, which led to an excessive attention given to artificial languages, geography, zoology, genealogy and so on, that don't exist to support the story any more but stand alone. It gave as a whole many sterile years.
>>8091044
You'll find alot of shit writing in every genre, unless you're picky anon.
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No but seriously. A lot of people who try to write fantasy nowadays, especially copying Tolkien, focus more on worldbuilding and snowflake concepts instead of depth
What do you mean by "good writing"?
Would you consider Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep "good writing"?
Would you consider DADOES a "good novel"?
