Purchased Holly Black and Cassandra Clare's newest book, The Iron Trial, on sale. It's part of their new Middle Grade book series. It's a quick read, but, after two hours of reading, I had to put it down. I only have a hundred or so pages left, so I will probably get around to finishing it, but, at this point, I don't know how much I care anymore.
This book series is Harry Potter and Naruto's love child.
It incorporates the "magical school" element, while throwing in Naruto's squad based narrative. The bad guy wants to conquer death, which leads me to believe he's essentially Voldemort. The magic is all elemental based, which gives me flashbacks for Avatar the Last Airbender. The work feels incredibly derivative, which is not a good thing.
Now, that's to say that I don't have a problem with works drawing from preexisting stories. The Percy Jackson series draws from Harry Potter, but I don't have a problem with that because enough original material is added to make it stand on its own. The Mortal Instruments series, which was Cassandra Clare's first novel series, draws heavily from Harry Potter--especially considering that elements of the series face-lift components from her old Harry Potter fanfiction--but enough is added to make it feel fresh and different. Also, The Mortal Instruments also borrows a lot from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so it all balances out, maybe.
The problem isn't drawing from other sources, but how much originality is added to the mix.
Two of my least favorite YA novels are Fallen by Lauren Kate and Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. These are both the epitome of what I'm getting at: unoriginal writing that leaves you cringing at how derivative the two works are of other books such as Twilight. I'll even give Twilight props for once: at least that series had Alice. At least that series had the cool dad. At least that series had werewolves that actually acted kind of like werewolves. Even the vampires, as terrible as they are, had some interesting powers that, if explored more, might've made the work a lot more fun.
But no, these books are about fallen angels, both of them, where the angelic choir has almost no role in the narrative. Angels are incredible, fascinating characters. There are so many directions a writer can utilize the lore to make a great story. Many writers have. Even Cassandra Clare did something interesting with it in her books. It wasn't necessarily the best story in the universe, but it was cool to read, unlike--
Getting off track.
My dislike aside, what bugs me the most is how so many books decide to just do the same thing another writer did, without changing anything. A lot of fantasy books are just Lord of the Rings with different names. Or Harry Potter. Or even, in a few cases, Twilight. Originality is hard, but let's at least try to diversify our stories. Rather than just repackaging what we already know and love, let's try to take our favorite works, draw from them what we like, and then make something distinct that maybe, in ten years, new writers can draw from to make their stories epic.
Just a thought. Maybe?
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