4 ms·

Also true of Lord of the Rings, or watching Star Wars etc if you didn't read/watch it early on (either when it first came out to the world, or early on in your

Also true of Lord of the Rings, or watching Star Wars etc if you didn't read/watch it early on (either when it first came out to the world, or early on in your life when you were new to the genre). I won't speculate on why this is the case, but some people claim its because the innovations are copied so quickly the original becomes just another copy of itself.

Cthulhu_ 5y ago
Re: Lord of the Rings, while the language itself is a bit outdated and it can be quite tedious in a lot of places, it still set a benchmark that - at least as far as I'm aware - hasn't been met yet in other books in the wider fantasy genre. I've read a few, some of the serialized form, but they often feel awkward and derivative; often full of male power fantasies, coming-of-age hero's journey tropes, worldbuilding that somehow always feels derivative of LotR (which in itself was derivative of others as well I'm sure, but said others have been forgotten or replaced by that of LotR), and they often seem like the goal of the author is volume, write as many books as they can (thinking of Robert Jordan and the like) just to get all their worldbuilding in there.
- pmoriarty 5y ago
  Check out Stephen Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever. It's about a leper from the modern day who finds himself in a fantasy world he doesn't believe in, and rejects the power he has. That's pretty original.
  - sprkwd 5y ago
    Incredibly underrated series. As is his Gap Series.
- omarhaneef 5y ago
  I agree with your critique of many of the derivatives (without naming any in particular), but feel it also applies to the original. And while the original has some bright points, so do many of the derivatives.
themadturk 5y ago
To my youngest son (born in 1994), The Phantom Menace was his favorite Star Wars movie for years. Many of our feelings about "the best" of something depends on how it coincides with our formative years. For me the original Star Wars was highly influential(I saw it on its first run, between junior and senior year in college), but the most formative science fiction movie for me was 2001: A Space Odyssey (seen on first run in a Cinerama theater). (My son has evolved somewhat in his view of Star Wars films. I'm just glad his older brother didn't regard The Barney Movie t00 highly.)

Cthulhu_ 5y ago

Re: Lord of the Rings, while the language itself is a bit outdated and it can be quite tedious in a lot of places, it still set a benchmark that - at least as far as I'm aware - hasn't been met yet in other books in the wider fantasy genre. I've read a few, some of the serialized form, but they often feel awkward and derivative; often full of male power fantasies, coming-of-age hero's journey tropes, worldbuilding that somehow always feels derivative of LotR (which in itself was derivative of others as well I'm sure, but said others have been forgotten or replaced by that of LotR), and they often seem like the goal of the author is volume, write as many books as they can (thinking of Robert Jordan and the like) just to get all their worldbuilding in there.

pmoriarty 5y ago
Check out Stephen Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever. It's about a leper from the modern day who finds himself in a fantasy world he doesn't believe in, and rejects the power he has. That's pretty original.
- sprkwd 5y ago
  Incredibly underrated series. As is his Gap Series.
omarhaneef 5y ago
I agree with your critique of many of the derivatives (without naming any in particular), but feel it also applies to the original. And while the original has some bright points, so do many of the derivatives.

themadturk 5y ago

To my youngest son (born in 1994), The Phantom Menace was his favorite Star Wars movie for years. Many of our feelings about "the best" of something depends on how it coincides with our formative years. For me the original Star Wars was highly influential(I saw it on its first run, between junior and senior year in college), but the most formative science fiction movie for me was 2001: A Space Odyssey (seen on first run in a Cinerama theater). (My son has evolved somewhat in his view of Star Wars films. I'm just glad his older brother didn't regard The Barney Movie t00 highly.)