The other day, I almost threw a fit when Aidan Moher posted on "A Dribble of Ink" "Are Fantasy Readers Dumber than Science Fiction Readers?". The title of the post comes from Jim Cormier someone made on Aidan's review of Daniel Abraham's "The Dragon's Path". The more I read the post, however, I found myself agreeing with what Jim has said. And this is what I have to say.
So, I ask, where is the intellegence in Fantasy? Where are the Daniel Abrahams and the R. Scott Bakers? Or even Steve Eriksons, Yoon Ha Lees, N.K. Jemisins? Do people really only care for the redundancy of Epic Fantasy? To twist the same thing until something new pops out? Well, it isn't really new, it's just different. It's really not different either. It's redundant.
It seems like the majority of Epic Fantasy publishers only want this kind of Fantasy, this sort of redundancy. However, Fantasy readers are smart, and I know a throng of such readers who want a change in this genre. I don't think we're being noticed. That, or we're not loud enough.
Either way, it's not the readers who are dumb. Fantasy is getting where it needs to be.
