Main change is that my taste has matured. 10+ years ago I was all in into “you are the chosen one” fantasy, good vs evil, protagonists are always perfect, always happy ending etc.

Then around 2013 I decided to to buy Garden of the Moon by Steve Erikson. Malazan Book of the Fallen changed my tasty completely. World is not black or white, usually everything is grey. Every action has its consequences, death is waiting for everyone no matter how important you are for the story and also sometimes death is worse then staying alive. Main character is who you decided to be. You as a reader need to expler and get to conclusions alone, writer is not holding your hand and explaining everything. I can go on and on.

If anyone has read this series they will know how it changed them.

I more or less grew up reading High Fantasy, so I very much wanted stories with dragons and magic users and the like. Then I fell out of it for a long time (missed HP and GoT completely) and came back very recently to find my tastes are much different now. I want interesting characters and emotional impact and ideas to ponder more than wizards, swords, goblins and elves and epic quests.

I also find that my taste in prose is different than it used to be. Or rather my awareness of its role in drawing me in or putting me off has risen.

Speaking of Sanderson. I loved Mistborn the first time I read it. It was one of the first modern fantasy books I’d read at the time mostly being a science fiction aficionado. I was super attracted to something that wasn’t elves, dwarves, and generic wizards.

Fast forward a few dozen more series and a few years later I re-read it, and was thoroughly unimpressed. Tired character tropes, overwrought magic system, unrealistic interrelations, and little substance beneath the glitter. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad series, just not the revelation I felt like it was the first time around.

Malazan on the other hand, I don’t think I’ll ever tire of re-reading. Though, I haven’t really gotten much into the books outside of the main, ten-book series.

I definitely became more critical with time and there are a few books I wouldn’t quite enjoy today. Then again, I tend to seek out some ‘childish’ settings and ideas more now, maybe as an escape to my evermore serious (and sometimes boring) adult life. In general, while I enjoy fewer stories now, I also enjoy them more deeply.

Here’s my personal opinion.

A lot of us get into fantasy and sci-fi when we’re young. In my case, maybe well before I was ten. While there are many good authors, I do feel that many authors ride on the existing world-building and tropes to write their novels. The actual writing quality of many books is suspect.

When I read over the books I enjoyed as a child or young adult, I’m pretty surprised at how poorly some of those are written. I honestly didn’t care too much when I was young and I just inhaled books. As I get older, I’m much more critical of poor writing. I know enough now to criticise pacing, or development, or eloquence.

Finally, of course our personal taste changes over time. Many of us read these books at a super early stage of our development.

I just go for completed series nowadays. It’s just not worth the time ranting and actively waiting for the completion of certain series. I’ve made a conscious decision not to start on Rothfuss’s trilogy until he finishes the final book.

I also find that recently I go for books with more mature themes; not gore- and sex-fests where everyone is morally grey for the sake of it, but stuff like Robin Hobb’s books which explore feminism through a fantasy lens, or stories with characters who confront their flaws rather than being some ideal version of a character archetype.