Except that in my case, I *do* read those not-amazingly-written fantasy books. I read everything. The only books that I legit give up on are the ones where it's just really really bad. I typically finish about 4-5 books a month, if not more. So I don't feel like I'm missing out too much.Originally Posted by Ouch!
There are sooooo many, countless wonderfully written non-fiction/contemporary/YA/science-fiction books out there, but the literary quality of fantasy books (high fantasy to be more precise) seems to fall short. And I don't know why. Of course the story is important and the world building and the characters, but that's tied in with the quality of the writing.
And to clarify something, I think that when the story is good enough and engaging enough, you don't *have* to have the best prose or dialogue. And I can happily read those books and just enjoy the story. But after reading a string of badly written fantasy books, I wanted to see if there were works out there more in line with Tolkien or Ursula Le Guin. Where you have the whole package. A great story, great characters, and also great prose and descriptions and dialogue. Why does that seem to be slim pickings for medieval style fantasies? I mean, there are plenty of historical fiction that are well written.
That one part of Mistborn I picked was part of a larger problem I had with the book. It wasn't the only section I didn't like. Here are a few more issues I had with Mistborn:
The characters felt shallow and unbelievable. The only character who I felt came alive in a natural and unforced way was Sazed. Vin started off great and then increasingly became cringeworthy, blathering on about the shininess of her dresses.
"Relationship" between Vin and Elend was ridiculous. Elend particularly was such a stiff and boring character.
I know that moral ambiguity can be complex and great (Tigana actually did a surprisingly great job with this) but in Mistborn it was just... stupid. It infuriated me how the book was constantly peppered with dialogue and self-doubt about whether or not it's ACTUALLY evil to keep people enslaved. I understand that the author was trying to make his band of heroes more complex by questioning their actions, or maybe he was trying to show how centuries of being oppressed made it difficult for people to truly accept the idea of a rebellion. But for me, it felt shoe horned in. And it made me want to smack the characters in the face.
A lot of the book either felt vague or underdeveloped and some things were so implausible.
I will say that I LOVED the magic system in the book. It was fantastic.
So yeah, it's not like I read Mistborn and thought, "OH HOLY CRAP THE DIALOGUE IS BAAAAARF" and dismissed it altogether. It was the silly writing on top of all the other stuff that makes me give it thumbs down.
I read and enjoyed The Mists of Avalon. I LOVE strong female characters.How do you feel about strong female characters and female perspectives?Marion Zimmer Bradley is pretty solid. The Mists of Avalon is largely told from Morgainne (a.k.a. Morgan LeFay)'s perspective and is a retelling of King Arthur as well as examining the tensions between the paganism of Avalon and the introduction of Christianity to the Isle. Quite a good read with strong characters.
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