The Worst Trends in Fantasy! (Salty Petrik and Audience)

Hi everyone! Salty Petrik is here today to react and talk about some of the worst trends in the fantasy genre and publishing based on YOUR (Salty Petrik's Audience) comment on my community tab. Let me know what you think about these. What are some of the worst trends you encountered in the fantasy genre and publishing?

Booktubers Mentioned:

0:00 Intro
1:24 Series/Standalone/Length of a series
8:30 Cover art
14:34 Content
19:27 Fantasy and Gatekeeping
23:57 Book Title
26:52 Special Editions and Kickstarter.
31:22 Brandon Sanderson
32:53 Closing

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[Uppernorwood]

Legends say that in the darkest hour, when all seems lost, Salty Petrik will return to rejoin the battle…

[MathiasSteenJensen]

Salty Petrik deserves a trilogy written about him. Such an engaging and interesting character

[muxx]

I think my least favorite trope is how a book will have every chapter be a different characters perspective but then you'll get to a big cliffhanger for one character and have to read a hundred pages or more of other characters chapters before it gets back to the cliffhanger.

[bridgetanne]

There is one fantasy romance author who had to switch cover art after two books (in a quartet) because the original cover artist wasn’t following deadlines and the ghosted her. I feel like that is the only acceptable reason to change cover art 🤣

I can’t believe ANYONE would claim you’re creating toxic spaces 👀 your channel is so safe and positive … what a bad take from that person ❤

[theswordandthepenchannel]

🤩👍🏼😃 Wow! Thank you so much for the double shout out, Petrik! I was on a 3 hour podcast, and when I logged into my YouTube channel, I suddenly had a bunch of new subscribers, and it is all because of you. Thank you so much! 😊❤😅

[justme]

Now i don’t know if it’s really a trend but lately I’ve been seeing so much spice. Like the book would be a fantasy, yes, but there’s so much spice that the fantasy and the main plot are completely “disappearing” within the spice.

Like i just need an epic adventure story with sword fights etc. I don’t need to see two people sleep with eachother for more than half of the book. (Looking at you Sarah J Maas who wrote spice and then decided to throw in a last minute subplot. Like if you write that much spice, what’s the point of adding an actual plot later?)

[tanja]

Relating to your comment about receiving ‘hate’ from an author or readers, I can only say: when I love a book (looking at you Robin Hobb), I want to tell the world just how wonderful it is so other people can feel the same - it’s like being in love, EVERYONE should experience it.

As for the hate, from fans I would say it’s disappointment and sadness and loyalty. From the author? How dare they! I would say they know their book/story is not up to quality and their arrogance won’t let them admit it. They need to take a good look at themselves! You, Petrik do not! You do a wonderful job and I don’t think any of us realise how much time, money, effort and work it takes you to provide us with your reviews - salty or not!

More power to you Petrik. 💕

[LimeymanZero]

Good example of a Duology, King Killer Chronicles 😢

[kinsernyen]

I grew up with fantasy books cover designs of the 90s. Discworld, Forgotten Realms, MTG, Dragonlance, L5R etc. There was a certain joy to be had when marvelling at one's own book collection. Should minimalist cover designs for SFF books are the new norm, I rather get the eBooks instead of the actual books themselves. Minimalist covers do look good on screens in my opinion.

[lisacole]

Yes, more standalones please! I don't always want to invest the time in a series.

[Paromita_M]

The therapy I didn't know I needed but got and stayed for. 💜
Yes to more standalones! (Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Spinning Silver are some of my favourites)
Oh God the overlong series is soo annoying and a subset of my bigger pet peeve with many fantasy authors: edit your books/listen to your editors please! 🤣
I think trilogy or quartet is my limit.

I don't like novellas and short stories in between series. Except The Slow Regard of Silent Things because I am a hypocrite! 🤭

Mainly an ebook reader so won't say much on the cover art but I agree with all the points.

No to unnecessary romance for me as well.
So agree with the unnecessary gritty for gritty sake books. Haven't liked even one.

I read many classics and general fiction too and honestly fantasy is the most complicated to read.

Toxic fans oof. Gives me a headache when I read their views. I like and respect your approach, please don't change.

Totally unrelated but I need to vent: news of Dunk and Egg show with GRRM as writer and his latest blog post made me lose some hope as a ASOIAF reader! 😭

[dareisayit]

Yes! I love what you said in 2:25. As much as I understand and at times wish there where more standalone books in fantasy it is EXTREMELY difficult to do with certain sub genres. It’s almost always going to be a double edged sword. For example with Priority of the Orange Tree, where you have some fantasy readers dislike tied to the reasons it is only a standalone and stuffing so much info in one book (info dumping, pace, not fleshed out characters etc).

[abigase]

petrik, thank you for being our voice!!! I"m not reading much because I don't have the energy to dedicate to an entire series, I was literally thinking of looking up fantasy santdalones yesterday. I certainy agree with the commenter that said duologies are better than 7 books

[andrareads]

I completely agree with all these points! 😤 especially with those regarding cover art and novellas(I cannot understand how some people buy these short little books that look ugly next to the series and ALSO cost a ton of money!!! I mean...if you have the money...don't you want something beautiful and matching???? >.>...please stop giving money to the publishers...just my opinion here...😥); not to mention, but that comment about contrast between world and action is also great!🤔

[historymax]

Great video! Another thing I hate is people saying books are bad without explaining the reasons why. I usually do my best to include the reasons why I like or dislike a book when I'm telling someone about it. Otherwise it creates opinions based on too little information, which isn't good for either the book or the community in general.

Bone Shard War is still days away... how I'd pay for a time machine.

[jaginaiaelectrizs]

Completely agree with you about the seriousness about sci-fi & fantasy genres, about gatekeeping, and about not appreciating people's differences in personal tastes somehow making them a bad person too or whatever—AND about respecting each other's differences of opinions in general. ^^

[gabrielsyme]

What I don't like with crowdfunding is when you see exclusive short stories and stuff you can't go back and buy or read anywhere else. I recently spent $50 + international shipping on an edition of a book (which I don't even know if I like yet, since it's not published), and I'm still missing out on a short story that will only come with the $100+ tiers. If I turn out to love the book, I'll never be able to go buy or read that story anywhere. Ditto for anyone who finds it in the future.
Collectibles and art books seem fine, but limiting a part of the text like that is crossing a line in my book.

[PatrickRyanBookReviews]

Thanks for discussing my complaint about novellas! I could spend hours ranting about them!

[morleywritesbooks]

Salty Petrik is kind of fun. 10/10 on the sass ^_^
One of the things I'm gonna stop short on is with the cover art. Cause with the minimalist approach, if it's by a trad-publisher, there does become the obvious trend and it gets boring. I felt that way 100% when the trend for white covers and wisps of smoke dominated every genre. However! Some indie authors who create or hire an artist with a minimalist style do look really nice.

However, the quirky world setting and dark story comment is something I would love to see more of as well. Or, at the very least, to start off in a cuter/quirky world and have a slow burn towards something more sinister.

And someday... I'll see "Let There be Fire" on a booktube review, talking about the title and a new trend, and I will squeak with so much joy that it might be heard from across the pacific ^_^

[jeremyfee]

Great video! I agree with a lot of what you said. The different spines just drives me wild. Peace.