Personally, I absolutely despise what passes for fantasy nowadays. Vampires, elves, orcs, wizards, dragons and the like bore the living shit out of me. Give me something I’ve never seen before. Right now I am working on a novella story of creatures that have wheels instead of feet, and how they evolved, how they interact with each other and their world. Creating something that original is challenging, but damn, it’s fun to try.
Someone sent me part of a tale they are working on, and while it does cover some very novel and original story ideas, the whole elves and mages battle scenes only reminded me of Tolkien and no one will ever top that man’s work. I suppose people are always going to try, though.
It wasn’t a bad story, in fact, it was pretty good. I just hate reading about battle scenes with a Tolkien flair. I’d like to see something with an original idea that forces me to expand my mind. I suppose there are just so many ideas available, and there is nothing new under the twin suns of Wypuranus Pleez.