People Like What They Like

[alanajoli]

So, the 2014 Hugo finalists came out. And the usual furor ensued about which authors are pushing which agendas--which is always an interesting conversation. Over at Tor.com, Liz Bourke posted "Sleeps with Monsters: How about Those Hugos?," and I found the comments section to be an interesting cross-section of SFF fans. I found one of Liz's

Comments

Why I like epics

[kattw]

Much of the same - I love 3 book, 5 book series (Wheel of Time might have gone just a BIT too long though) since, if you find one you like, you've got more of the almost same to read afterwards.

And yeah, you also strike a bit on what I HEAR when people complain about various aspects of publishing, and needing more diversity. They so very often claim that things need to 'change', and fail to acknowledge that the current state is due to feeding a lot of people what they want - and that changing would thus deprive those folks of the media THEY want to consume. There's nothing wrong with expanding and adding. I find most suggestions of reducing or defacto altering to be ill-considered at best.

Re: Why I like epics

[alanajoli]

I am always happy to find a series I like, too. I'm still reading strong-female-protagonist driven urban fantasy series, which are in one of the genres I frequently see called "over" in other forums. To each his or her own, y'know?

I also agree about expanding and adding. I'm for expanding diversity in futuristic societies particularly (because I have trouble suspending my disbelief that eight hundred years in the future, humanity is still dominantly run by old white dudes). But I also love me some traditional sword and sorcery, with farm boys with great destinies and what not; I think you can like stuff all around the genre and not be wrong to do so. :)