DragonOfTheAerie
Vala
I tend to gravitate toward stuff that falls into multiple genres. Fantasy alternate history is one of my favorite things; alternate history with dragons, even better. The book I just finished is, um...a post-apocalyptic urban fantasy with steampunk and maybe even Weird Fiction stuff in it, but the technology level is like early 1900's so it's not QUITE steampunk, and it's not a post-apocalypse of Earth but a post-apocalypse of some other place that used to be ruled by wizard immortals. the NEXT book is a magical realism/horror hybrid with a strong historical base (the setting is kinda a direct copy of 1950's Appalachia, even though it's not actually stated if we're even on this planet.) Some of my planned ideas are even messier.
However, it's hard for me to understand WHY readers would read inside extremely limited categories. Why would a fantasy reader NOT read something because it contains historical or sci-fi elements, for instance? When I run into something that combines genres in an unexpected way, I think, whoa, cool! I know all kinds of people who read and like a wide variety of books crossing all sorts of genres. I have no idea what Caribbean Fantabulist even is, but I sure as heck wouldn't balk at finding out more about it if someone told me they wrote it. In fact, if I'd never heard of a category of book, I'd be twice as likely to want to read it. And I know a lot of my friends are like me...if something seems entirely new and unusual, they're like whoa, that sounds cool.
I swear half the reason I write is that the books I like DON'T EXIST. And there is only one way to make them exist, really, right?
I have really general areas of books I like (fantasy) and then I have a few specific things that are like my kryptonite (alt history...especially with DRAGONS) but my main criteria for whether or not to read a book is, uh...whether it seems like a good book. As for genres and subgenres, the weirder the better. I like reading things that are unlike anything I've ever read. Am I so strange?
I'm almost inclined to think that these tougher-to-categorize, more "niche" books aren't "unpopular" because people who love fantasy generally wouldn't read them, but because they don't get a lot of press. Might their "niche-ness" make it harder to GIVE them press? Idk. All these ideas of how "the market" supposedly works are completely at odds with how it seems things would work from my experience. I myself am "the market" too, you know!
However, it's hard for me to understand WHY readers would read inside extremely limited categories. Why would a fantasy reader NOT read something because it contains historical or sci-fi elements, for instance? When I run into something that combines genres in an unexpected way, I think, whoa, cool! I know all kinds of people who read and like a wide variety of books crossing all sorts of genres. I have no idea what Caribbean Fantabulist even is, but I sure as heck wouldn't balk at finding out more about it if someone told me they wrote it. In fact, if I'd never heard of a category of book, I'd be twice as likely to want to read it. And I know a lot of my friends are like me...if something seems entirely new and unusual, they're like whoa, that sounds cool.
I swear half the reason I write is that the books I like DON'T EXIST. And there is only one way to make them exist, really, right?
I have really general areas of books I like (fantasy) and then I have a few specific things that are like my kryptonite (alt history...especially with DRAGONS) but my main criteria for whether or not to read a book is, uh...whether it seems like a good book. As for genres and subgenres, the weirder the better. I like reading things that are unlike anything I've ever read. Am I so strange?
I'm almost inclined to think that these tougher-to-categorize, more "niche" books aren't "unpopular" because people who love fantasy generally wouldn't read them, but because they don't get a lot of press. Might their "niche-ness" make it harder to GIVE them press? Idk. All these ideas of how "the market" supposedly works are completely at odds with how it seems things would work from my experience. I myself am "the market" too, you know!