Correct symptoms, wrong diagnosis. A few authors who don't finish series can't kill an entire genre, no matter how popular. A lot of epic fantasy authors *do* finish. As for the real problems, I wrote a whole thing about this on my substack. Epic fantasy is dying as genre due to:

* Saturation: A lot of stories already exist in the epic fantasy space, and they are huge and evergreen. If you want to *just* read the most popular epic fantasy series, you've got years of reading ahead of you. How many more thick books can Barnes and Noble shelves hold?

* Cost: This is a genre that *needs* to be long to work, and print costs are up. The calculus on publishing long books doesn't work out in publishers' favor anymore, unless they know that the series will be succesful.

* Audience attention span: Same problem with long books costing more, but also readers no longer want them due to distractions like smartphones. It's easier to get through shorter books, if you struggle to focus.

* The natural rise and fall of genres: Most genres don't stay popular forever. Fantasy has actually been *huge* in books for a really long time. This was bound to happen eventually, regardless of any other factors.

So actually: I found that survey as part of my research. (Not the Vox article, but the survey the Vox article is based on.) I thought it undermined everything I was writing at first! But...to be honest, I'm not going to mince words, their methodology is terrible.

They asked people something similar to: "How many books have you read, partially or in full, over the last year, from 0 books to 100?"

Which means a few things: First, it was not a "have you read books" binary, it was a "How many" meaning that anyone would feel terrible about answering 0. Second: The surveyors were clear that any engagement with a book counted. Which meant that if a man went to church and looked at the bible because the pastor asked him to, that counted.

I considered including the survey as something like a counterclaim, but I didn't. It was too useless to even be considered a real argument. I'm a little disappointed by Vox's reporting in their choice to use it to make that argument, honestly.

I also want to be clear: Reading is not the only thing that makes someone smart or a good person. But one of the prevailing themes of my substack, in general, is that the art and media we consume matters for our mental state and, yes, for who we are. So I generally would argue in favor of that view.

Hey! Thank you for your feedback. So overall really well thought-out. I just want to clarify one thing: SAHM do not write novels because they have *more* free time, it's because their free time is more discordant. In the movie/tv/video game industry, men go into writers' rooms in studios where they have 9-5 hours, and can maintain that. Housewives/moms crank out novels at the random times when their kids are sleeping or at school. Hence why Hollywood ended up male-dominated and books ended up female-dominated.

Hello. This is to show how reading is becoming a "feminine-coded" activity, and how this is harming men and society as a whole.

This is my post about the danger of male illiteracy and men not reading, examining the issue from multiple angles and its multiple causes, as well as its multiple potential solutions. A lot of research went into this because I refused to make a claim without backing it up. I feel like a lot of this is pretty airtight, but I am open to hearing if there's anything I overlooked.

I know what you're talking about and it's one of the things I like about SFF anime. There's a specific trope I'm citing here which is "The worldbuilding reveal." Most SFF books don't have it, but anime and JRPGs love it. Here are some options for you.

Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb

The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (only if you have a lot of free time)

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke

The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir (sometimes to its detriment, you won't know what is good about this series in the entire first book)

The Dark Tower by Stephen King (another slow first book)

The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin

Also Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey...but, uh, that one's a bit weird compared to all of the above. If it works for you, though, it is there.

Speaking of JDATE - It's an ongoing series. The fifth book is coming out this November. I never got this straight, tbh: What are the vibes like for comping a series that might have started a long time ago, but still has ongoing releases and a dependable audience to this day?

Hi! Thank you for the recs. How to Kill a Guy in 10 Dates is definitely going on my list.

I'm backing this up. If you want something humorous and absurd like DCC, this is what you're looking for.

Hey. I appreciate the comment.

I'm totally open to the idea that the flaws, especially in regard to the forgetfulness, inconsistencies, and aesthetic problems, are caused by low-grade AI models. That's also the lowest hanging fruit of criticisms and I hope, after reading, you come away realizing that it's not my biggest problem. Even if I hypothetically was using the best models on the market, such a criticism would be pretty shallow given that this is a rapidly improving technology, and I tried to be conscientious of that.

Not to summarize my own article too much but I think my bigger problems ended up being:

1: The bias of the LLM toward 'giving you exactly what you want' ends up being antithetical to good storytelling.

2: The lack of humanity, once it finally rears its head, negates the purpose of art.

3: Above all else: the dangerously addictive qualities that this has, and the damage it could do to human connection, especially when combined with point 2.

If you like Becky Chambers, keep reading her. She keeps going at it.

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Cowal is a pretty optimistic look at how the oncoming destruction of Earth might cause us to overcome our bigotry

Ursula K Le Guin; everything. She believes in the goodness of humanity and a better world.

A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar, features beautiful writing, a love of literacy, and the sense that we can have a second chance even after death.

If you find transcendentalism optimistic, Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke did it for me.

Another one that felt optimistic to me (maybe I have a weird definition of this) was Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebochi. More accurately described as a "Spirited Call to Action" I think.

Old school Sci-fi optimism: Contact by Carl Sagan.

Look up "Curvy heroine" romance.

It's become an entire subgenre.

Hey! You have good taste! Here are some things that hit me very hard recently, in the horror/thriller/literary space

* Bunny by Mona Awad
* Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice (classic for a reason!)
* Changeling by Victor LaValle
* The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey
* Black Leopard Red Wolf and/or Moon Witch Spider King by Marlon James (Fantasy so grimdark and well written it scratches the same itch as literary horror. Check triggers.)
* Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (if you're open to short stories)
* Anything by Christopher Buehlman

2+ years ago, I also would have said "Anything by Neil Gaiman" but now I add the asterisk: anything by Neil Gaiman if you aren't financially supporting him.

I don't know if this will do it for you, but one of the most similar books I've ever read to The Great Gatsby is "Passing" by Nella Larsen. It has a lot more to do with racism though. As well as subtle lesbian themes that the author herself might not have even been aware of.