As a young lad I dipped my toes into the epic doorstopper fantasy genre.
You know the one: Stories with a sweeping scope, dealing with the fate of nations, delivered in thick tomes comprising of 1000+ pages.
And… honestly they were kind of mid. Tad Williams *Memory, Sorrow and Thorn* was the straw that broke my back: so much of that book was just boring, and clearly – like most of the doorstopper fantasy genre – a Lord of the Rings pastiche.
Compared to other books I was reading at the time – Terry Pratchett specifically – these books felt bloated.
Since then, I have a personal rule of thumb: if you can’t tell your story in less than ~350 pages, its probably not worth telling.
So: is it time for me to re-evaluate this stance? Is there some scintillating moving work of literary genius I’ve missed out on? Or have I saved myself a world of tedium and disappointment? Discuss!
by OisforOwesome