So I just finished the Martian. A really fantastic novel. Now if you are the rest of my family, you have already written it off because, A: I suggested it, and B: The title is a reference to Aliens. You see, usually the novels I read are either sword and sorcery, sci-fi, or supernatural related. And since they are incapable of suspending their disbelief for any of that, they tend to throw out my suggestions, as would most people I would guess. But for the Martian, while it is Sci-fi, it really see it as main-stream novel. It is a man vs nature novel just set on mars. No aliens, just a guy that gets stuck on mars. It was very well written, and I think almost anyone would enjoy it.
Anyway to the point of this post. I finished the Martian today, and decided to go back to Fantasy and to finally start the Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. So I am starting that novel and I realize immediately I was not prepared to start a new fantasy novel. Fantasy novels, especially high fantasy, take a certain mindset to tackle. You have to go in knowing that you are entering a world different from yours, with different rules, different names, different magics, different everything. This is very jarring at first because it takes actual mental focus. You have to expand your vocabulary to words you know will never be used in real life. It is a lot to take in, especially in the beginning.
In main stream novels they usually keep a fast pace of writing, the rules are clear because they are in our real world usually, and they are very easy to just pick up and immediately get into. Just as the Martian was for me.
But when I tried to start Mistborn I remembered that starting a fantasy novel can be daunting. As in the first thirty pages already I am introduced to a new race of people called skraa or something and the world has raining ash and bla bla bla...I just wasn't ready. I was still reeling from the ending of the Martian and so my mind was still pre-occupied with that.
So you might be saying, that is why I stay away from fantasy novels. But I don't because for me, once I invest in getting to know the world, it is almost always worth it. And the payoff's seem a lot better for me, but I can see how that is very preferential.
I have a friend who swears he loves fantasy but the only real fantasy book he loves is The Lord of the Rings, which I tell him is just a dreadful book. Anyway I try to get him to read fantasy and he can never get past the first 20 pages. I believe the above post is why. His love of Lord of the Rings is just really him getting nostalgic because he read it in high school. But also, re-reading a fantasy novel eliminates all the mental focus of having to learn all the new rules and things of that fantasy world, so it shifts more to mainstream at that point.
Anyway so yeah, that's my take on fantasy. Since its my take its more than likely wrong.