Worst. Tropes. Ever

[Chriss Cornish]

Ah, tropes. Those wonderful 3x5s in the plot building house of cards.

Over the years some have becomes standards of Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Young Adult books.

Some to the point that they're OVERUSED and have started to make us readers rant, scream, throw things, and foam at the mouth when the subject comes up.

Here are my big TOP TWO least favorite tropes in the fantasy genre, both of which drove me to blog ranting:

* Save The Magic Kingdom
* Destiny

What are the fiction tropes, speculative or otherwise, that set your teeth gnashing?

[Essord]

I hadn't noticed "save the magic kingdom" (I guess I've been lucky), but a good partner to "destiny" is "prophecy". Hard to avoid, but if I read one of those two words on a book cover I lose some interest already. Not really a part of the plot, but also an important element is anything focusing on elves, dwarves, dragons, faeries, werewolves and vampires. Celtic and Arthurian based plots also have a hard time attracting my interest. At the moment I am sort of staggered by the huge amount of urban fantasy that has flooded the market the past years. It all looks and sounds the same. Apparently they sell well enough, but I'm a bit worried about finding original fantasy ideas.

Either way, if a book manages to present such cliché components in an interesting way I am still inclined to give it a try, but those books with the themes/components mentioned above will have a hard time getting a really positive review from me. I look at those far more critical.

[Chriss Cornish]

Yeah. *heavy sigh* That's pretty much the trouble with fantasy, really. The second someone succeeds with one idea there's a glut of carbon copy. One of the reasons a LOT of people don't like fantasy; it's so hard to find something that's not a mirror of the thing to it's left.

Urban Fantasy is an EXCELLENT example of that. So many people don't even know what the genre really is. I heard an author, who's work of paranormal romance gets shelved as urban fantasy, happily describe the genre she supposedly writes to a crime novelist by saying, "you just take a mystery and put something supernatural in it."

*weeps quietly in the corner*

With fantasy, it's totally caveat emptor ("let the buyer beware").

If you're looking for urban fantasy of a unique type go to the works of the author considered by many to be the father of the urban myth/urban fantasy genre, Charles de Lint. There is almost nothing else like his work out there, even with the prevalence of the plot-xerox-phenomenon. Many of his works are short story collections, which is an easy way to get a sampler of story types. He has a cast of characters that he often pulls from for his works; the Crow Girls are awesome.

Two de Lint Works I Recommend

Medicine Road
A dog and a jackalope have been turned into humans by the Coyote Woman, a Native American spirit. They have a 100 years to find love. These two intersect in the modern day with a pair of mischievous twins who are bluegrass musicians.

Tapping The Dream Tree
An anthology of some of Charles de Lint's urban myth/urban fantasy short stories.

[Essord]

I've seen his name around, but I haven't picked up any work by him. I'm not a particular short stories reader, but I will keep him in mind.

Your comment about Urban Fantasy is pretty much true. When I read a description of those books it is usually about some private investigator, mystery or crime that has to be solved, or at least some threat that could destroy the world. That last thing is also a typical plot element that sometimes tires me, depending on how much it determines the story.

I never get why publishers (or other media producers) think that if one original thing is a success, more of the same will be just as great. What is worse is that it can cause the original work not being noticed by new readers.I guess it does work for plenty of readers, but for someone like me it requires far more effort to find the real gems. These days I start looking for older works (pre-1980/90) when I'm not able to find anything suitable among the books of the past decade (there is so much published I don't notice a lot of available books).

[Chriss Cornish]

I think the root of the issue is Capitalism; you want to sell something so you pick an item you've seen people buy. The all-look-same offshoot occurs not just in publishing but in television and movies. We bought strawberries and kiwis so they'll start selling a bunch of things flavored with strawberry and kiwi. If you follow me.

A shame.

I find myself going back to the older works as well for the same reasons.