Fat fantasy with maps

[sholio]

When I was accumulating reading material for my anticipated downtime this winter, I came across the Riftwar series (Raymond Feist) in a box of books from my teenagehood in the attic. I've now reread the first one and part of the next, and I just gotta say that while some of my childhood book loves have transferred over well to adulthood, I seem to have had a way higher tolerance for blatantly Tolkein-inspired Fat Fantasy when I was a teenager than I do now. A lot of this is grindingly dull for me now.

I also wonder if this would be marketed as YA now, with the first book's focus on the teenage protagonists' coming of age and first loves.

However, I'm enjoying it enough to keep going, and I still remember my favorite character in these books: Arutha, the brooding prince with the crooked smile. And he's still my favorite, so clearly that much about my tastes hasn't changed in the 30+ years since I last reread these! In fact, while I remember nothing else about the books, I still remember what part of which book in which Terrible Things Happen To Arutha because evidently I reread those parts a lot.

Comments

[dorinda]

I seem to have had a way higher tolerance for blatantly Tolkein-inspired Fat Fantasy when I was a teenager than I do now

I was just thinking about that the other day--I definitely had that higher tolerance. I remember how excited I was about the first three Sword of Shannara books when they were new. And I can faintly remember why, which was this enormous hunger for More Tolkien, which I wasn't gonna get. (And I hadn't discovered fanfic yet.)

Eventually, the blatantly-derivative-fat-fantasy genre stopped coming within a mile of scratching that itch, and my yearnings redirected themselves.

[yhlee]

I read over a DOZEN of the Shannara books as a teen! They were fun at the time. I actively sought out Extruded Tolkien Product. In fact, I preferred Shannara to Lord of the Rings - heresy, I know, but in middle school I couldn't figure out Tolkien at all, and Shannara was more accessible. XD And then at some point in college I was abruptly Done with the genre.

[sholio]

I remember reading Shannara and also a BUNCH of books along those lines, but don't remember any of the details whatsoever now! I must have liked the Riftwar books more than most, since I kept them.

But yeah, back then I'd read any book along those lines that I could get my hands on. Now I'm a whole lot pickier.