I was scrolling through books, looking for something to read and the site kept recommending me fantasy and scifi books because that’s what I read the most of. It’s to the point where I’m actively trying to break out of the genre and read other stuff. The problem is that I could not for the life of me figure out which of the many non-fantasy fiction books would be good or interesting. None of them stood out to me and I didn’t want to invest a lot of time into something like a murder mystery if it was just going to be some generic, mediocre pulp.
And then it hit me, the reason it’s so much easier to pick up a fantasy or scifi book is because they often have a really apparent hook and often whether someone wants to read it comes down to how you explain it.
Take Dune for instance. You could describe Dune as a cautonary tale about charismatic leadership and the dangers of zealotry, etc, etc, blah blah blah. Or you could tell the person that there’s a cool dessert world with giant Sand Worms and psychics that can see the future and witches that know kung-fu and so on. The former could describe a million books, but the latter? Sand worms? Sign me up! That sounds cool as hell!
asoiaf is basically just references to history but with more fantastical elements and whity dialog. There’s more to it than that, but that’s what’s going to get people reading it.
You could look at a million novels that have a silloetted woman on the cover and have no idea what it’s about, but if there’s a dragon on the cover, then you’re immediately intrigued. That is at least something cool to latch onto.
And as readers get deeper into a genre, they become more genre litterate and find it easier to navigate it’s many series.
And so the cycle continues.
by CaptainJackWagons
3 Comments
‘High concept’ is the word for what you’re describing. Low-concept fantasy and sci-fi books are entirely possible, but you’re right, they’re not nearly as common.
I think the other part is just a desire to be taken far away. I read all types of books but tend to love fantasy and sci-fi the most because, to me, I read to escape for a bit. What could be more escapist than being transported to a place that holds little to no similarities to the one you are in?
>You could look at a million novels that have a silloetted woman on the cover and have no idea what it’s about,
…unless you are familiar with the genre and know what to expect from it
If your deciding factor of whether or not to pick up a book comes down to ‘damn there’s a dragon on the cover’ you’re going to have a bad time when you pick up The Priory of The Orange Tree, Red Dragon and The Dragon’s Bride in one fell swoop and expect a similar story there lmao