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So many fantasy books today are the same.  The author makes up a fantastical world setting for the story, and then they spend most of the book expounding on their created world, instead of developing the characters. 

Separate point: (And most of the worlds aren't all that interesting, either.  The countries are just ciphers of historical stereotypes or Tolkien rip-offs, and the languages are ciphers of English or isolate words.  The different races haven't got personality beyond a few broadly defined stereotypical qualities. )

 

i very much agree seth. i hadnt read Tolkien till just a few years ago, but i had read many fantasy books. they all seemed to have many similarities but i couldnt put my finger on it. then when i read tolkien it was like a revelation. they just have copied a previous formula made by tolkien. it was amazing how much they just took his ideas and recreated a new world for them. when i finally looked back at all the fantasy stories i read it was amazing to see how many of those stories had an Aragorn in them. i was totally blown away. thats why i have branched out now and started trying to read different genres.

nate

I agree with you both, as well.
Most fantasies are the exact same story, but with minor twists. Perhaps a different race, a powerful spell the protagonist must find and master, or what else have you. Japanese Fantasy RPG's (Role-Playing Game) are typical of this unfortunate phenomenon. They use essentially the same story and change it around a little bit. That's why Final Fantasy was and still is so popular. Each FF was unique from the previous one and other RPG's of other series. Of course, this similarity between Japanese Fantasy RPG's is apparently intentional, but I might be wrong.

I have my own stories in mind, and whether they be fantasy or sci-fi, action or drama, I always try to incorporate uniqueness and ingenuity for my stories.

Wow.  It certainly feels... strange to be posting a message in the MAG forums again.  The past couple months, I haven't even been able to look at a computer screen without getting an awful headache.  But anyway, I wholeheartedly agree with basically everything said here so far.  I don't even read new fantasy stories any more unless a friend pressures me to.  The closest I've gotten to reading fantasy this summer would have to be...  The Once and Future King by T.H. White (a classic, but a little muddled with Mr. White's decidedly agnostic commentary on education, warfare, and religion), That HIdeous Strength by C.S. Lewis (which I imagine I will be mentioning elsewhere pretty soon), and Stardust by Neil Gaiman----I picked up a movie tie-in copy after seeing some previews and stuff, and I was actually impressed.  It takes me back to the classic world of pre-Tolkien fairy tales, that long-forgotten genre of...  Okay.  I perceive that, as always, I am rambling, so, alas, I end this forum post.