{"id":399798,"date":"2025-10-31T14:44:52","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T14:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/article.php?article_id=2174603"},"modified":"2025-10-31T14:44:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T14:44:52","slug":"off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Off-topic: Getting off the familiar fantasy merry-go-round, and loving it"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Whenever I have a conversation with someone about fantasy fiction, we always seem to end up recommending the same things. Things like The Name of the Wind by Rothfuss (the Kingkiller Chronicles), The Lies of Locke Lamora by Lynch (Gentleman Bastard series), or the Earthsea books &#8211; I revisited these recently and books one and two are still absolute bangers &#8211; by le Guin. Tolkien is always implied, maybe Philip Pullman and George R.R. Martin too, and Sapkowski&#8217;s popular now too. <\/p>\n<p>And this &#8211; this merry-go-round of the same recommendations &#8211; it started to bother me. It&#8217;s not because the books are rubbish; obviously they&#8217;re not. But they&#8217;re known. Fantasy is saturated by them. And their voices, excluding le Guin, are all quite similar. I realised I&#8217;d become a bit trapped by their influence, and I realised I wanted something new.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/articles\/2021-11-02-off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/articles\/2021-11-02-off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whenever I have a conversation with someone about fantasy fiction, we always seem to end up recommending the same things. Things like The Name of the Wind by Rothfuss (the Kingkiller Chronicles), The Lies of Locke Lamora by Lynch (Gentleman Bastard series), or the Earthsea books &#8211; I revisited these recently and books one and two are still absolute bangers &#8211; by le Guin. Tolkien is always implied, maybe Philip Pullman and George R.R. Martin too, and Sapkowski&#8217;s popular now too. And this &#8211; this merry-go-round of the same recommendations &#8211; it started to bother me. It&#8217;s not because the books are rubbish; obviously they&#8217;re not. But they&#8217;re known. Fantasy is saturated by them. And their voices, excluding le Guin, are all quite similar. I&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":399799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-399798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eurogamer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Off-topic: Getting off the familiar fantasy merry-go-round, and loving it | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Whenever I have a conversation with someone about fantasy fiction, we always seem to end up recommending the same things. Things like The Name of the Wind\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Off-topic: Getting off the familiar fantasy merry-go-round, and loving it | Arcader News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Whenever I have a conversation with someone about fantasy fiction, we always seem to end up recommending the same things. Things like The Name of the Wind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-31T14:44:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"269\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"headline\":\"Off-topic: Getting off the familiar fantasy merry-go-round, and loving it\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-31T14:44:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":160,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Eurogamer\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\\\/\",\"name\":\"Off-topic: Getting off the familiar fantasy merry-go-round, and loving it | Arcader News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-31T14:44:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"description\":\"Whenever I have a conversation with someone about fantasy fiction, we always seem to end up recommending the same things. Things like The Name of the Wind\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it.jpg\",\"width\":480,\"height\":269,\"caption\":\"Off-topic: Getting off the familiar fantasy merry-go-round, and loving it\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Off-topic: Getting off the familiar fantasy merry-go-round, and loving it\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"description\":\"Free Arcade News from the Best Online Sources\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\",\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Arcade News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cricketgames.tv\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/author\\\/arcade-news\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Off-topic: Getting off the familiar fantasy merry-go-round, and loving it | Arcader News","description":"Whenever I have a conversation with someone about fantasy fiction, we always seem to end up recommending the same things. Things like The Name of the Wind","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Off-topic: Getting off the familiar fantasy merry-go-round, and loving it | Arcader News","og_description":"Whenever I have a conversation with someone about fantasy fiction, we always seem to end up recommending the same things. Things like The Name of the Wind","og_url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\/","og_site_name":"Arcade News","article_published_time":"2025-10-31T14:44:52+00:00","og_image":[{"width":480,"height":269,"url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Arcade News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Arcade News","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\/"},"author":{"name":"Arcade News","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839"},"headline":"Off-topic: Getting off the familiar fantasy merry-go-round, and loving it","datePublished":"2025-10-31T14:44:52+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\/"},"wordCount":160,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it.jpg","articleSection":["Eurogamer"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\/","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\/","name":"Off-topic: Getting off the familiar fantasy merry-go-round, and loving it | Arcader News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it.jpg","datePublished":"2025-10-31T14:44:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839"},"description":"Whenever I have a conversation with someone about fantasy fiction, we always seem to end up recommending the same things. Things like The Name of the Wind","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it.jpg","width":480,"height":269,"caption":"Off-topic: Getting off the familiar fantasy merry-go-round, and loving it"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/off-topic-getting-off-the-familiar-fantasy-merry-go-round-and-loving-it\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Off-topic: Getting off the familiar fantasy merry-go-round, and loving it"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/","name":"Arcade News","description":"Free Arcade News from the Best Online Sources","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839","name":"Arcade News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Arcade News"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/cricketgames.tv"],"url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/author\/arcade-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1376386,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399798\/revisions\/1376386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}