What are you reading in 2024?

[dragoner]

Finished Wandering Earth, it was good, Liu in a lot of ways is a science oriented speculative fiction writer vs being solely entrenched in genre fiction.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Finished Wandering Earth, it was good, Liu in a lot of ways is a science oriented speculative fiction writer vs being solely entrenched in genre fiction.

That's one of the things I like about reading stuff (including game material) from folks outside the US and UK. Too much of American genre fiction, IMO, is simply remixes of remixes of remixes, without a lot of new stuff in there. And that can be good -- Watchmen, for instance, is purely a response to other comics -- but more often, you run into diminishing returns pretty quickly.

 

[dragoner]

That's one of the things I like about reading stuff (including game material) from folks outside the US and UK. Too much of American genre fiction, IMO, is simply remixes of remixes of remixes, without a lot of new stuff in there. And that can be good -- Watchmen, for instance, is purely a response to other comics -- but more often, you run into diminishing returns pretty quickly.

This is true, partly because publishers want formulaic stuff, and multiple books in a series.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This is true, partly because publishers want formulaic stuff, and multiple books in a series.

Oh, the genre publishers are definitely a big part of the problem. At any point, they could say "you know, we've seen enough LotR/GoT pastiches this quarter -- got anything new?" But they rarely do.

 

[dragoner]

Oh, the genre publishers are definitely a big part of the problem. At any point, they could say "you know, we've seen enough LotR/GoT pastiches this quarter -- got anything new?" But they rarely do.

They are locked into a business model until it doesn't work, then they will change, or a new publishing house comes along.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

They are locked into a business model until it doesn't work, then they will change, or a new publishing house comes along.

It's pretty short-sighted. Game of Thrones, which has helped indirectly pay for all of their mortgages for decades now, was a pretty big break from the fantasy staples of the 1980s (Tolkien by way of Dragonlance) and the 1990s (everyone's World of Darkness campaigns, in novel form).

Taking chances pays off. But it's a lot easier to hope that someone else is taking chances and you can just copy them when it works.

 

[dragoner]

It's pretty short-sighted. Game of Thrones, which has helped indirectly pay for all of their mortgages for decades now, was a pretty big break from the fantasy staples of the 1980s (Tolkien by way of Dragonlance) and the 1990s (everyone's World of Darkness campaigns, in novel form).

Taking chances pays off. But it's a lot easier to hope that someone else is taking chances and you can just copy them when it works.

I think it is also a real shame that the distribution networks help influence these situations, such as nth book in a series will wind up reviewed in the times, or be found at the airport news stand when an independent book will not. Films do this too, it makes marketing easier, which with the flood of advertising where people just tune it out, it helps reaching their audience.

 

[nyvinter]

On a completely unrelated note, Calibre is a free ebook conversion program that has lots of neat tools, add ons, and customization options. I use it almost daily to fix formatting problems with ebooks, convert to epub, etc.

For Kobo devices, I really recommend getting the KoboTouchExtended Calibre plugin. It converts epub to a version (kepub) optimized for Kobo devices when you transfer the files. It's a lot of difference in speed for font size changes and a slight speed increse for page turning.

But yeah. Kobo uses normal epub format which isn't even close to being as locked down as Kindle's. And Kobo's site have a download epub for each book you own, so you can use almost any ebook reader. I think. Kindle's might need some work, don't know because I've never owned one of those.

 

[Thomas Shey]

It's pretty short-sighted. Game of Thrones, which has helped indirectly pay for all of their mortgages for decades now, was a pretty big break from the fantasy staples of the 1980s (Tolkien by way of Dragonlance) and the 1990s (everyone's World of Darkness campaigns, in novel form).

Taking chances pays off. But it's a lot easier to hope that someone else is taking chances and you can just copy them when it works.

Taking chances can pay off. It isn't a given and if you're getting by doing the same old thing, it may not be an attractive risk.

I'll note that regarding GoT was written by an author with a long known track record.

 

[overgeeked]

Taking chances pays off. But it's a lot easier to hope that someone else is taking chances and you can just copy them when it works.

Note how those two bits contradict each other.

Sometimes...sometimes taking chances pays off. And if...if it works new trends are born. Everyone wants to start a trend, not everyone is willing to take the necessary risks.

A lot of times readers just want more of the same. And if we're being honest, it's the endless stream of imitators and trend followers that pay the publishers' bills between the sometimes decades-long gaps between fresh-new trends and hot-new voices.