I'm sure I'm not the only one that has a sort of preference in stories. What you like in a story, what in a story that kind of messes it up for you. So I'm wondering if you guys have any preferences in stories. Here's some of mine, to start: Likes Cool main character - I like a cool main character that is capable and strong. He can have weaknesses but I don't want someone utterly pathetic. I read a lot of japanese manga and quite often, the main character is an idiot who got lucky or a pervert with skills. If there was ever anything I don't want the main character to be, that'd be a pervert. If he looks at a chest here and there, sure, that's only natural. But if he spends half the story trying to look up skirts... I always find myself constantly thinking (and this has to do with harem/girl mangas) what do the girls really really see in this character. I know people have imperfections but one that he spends half a story doing is more than just an imperfection, it's just down right a horrible quality. An example of a cool main character would be Gutts from Berserk. He's cool, capable and powerful. I only fell out of the story due to the monster parts of the story... Dislikes Main female protagonist being raped - When I read a story... a rape scene just makes it hard for me to continue reading. I don't mind if she was raped before the story starts... it's something that was over, and they can reference it and that's fine with me. It's her "flaw" and that can be a big influence on her story. However, being raped in story, I can rarely get over it and it always kind of ruins the story, in part, if not all. Anyone else want to share something they like/dislike in stories ?

Wow.

You need to read some different material dude.

I like characters that are weak but have 1 attribute that makes them strong, this attribute tends to be the one thing that allows them to progress to the final "strong awesome dude man" at the end of the story.

For instance a character could be really charismatic but everything else about them is bad (physically weak, dumb, annoying etc). But because he is charismatic he is able to slyly meet a girl who just happens to disappear and now needs to embark on a quest to find out why she disappeared. Doing so, means he'll buff up his other traits to become "strong awesome dude man".

Without the initial attribute, the story would have never happened.

These books are good, read em:

Night Angel Trilogy
Second Sons
Finnikin of the rock

I read mangas of almost all kinds, and fantasy novels and possibly some fiction that isn't fantasy, can't think of any right now though. Also historical fiction.

What do you mean when you said I need to expand? Because aside from the mentioned, there aren't a lot of other subjects I enjoy.

I take it back.

Your examples just seemed very in tune with the manga style. Rape, perverts etc.

Well, there are some whole genres I don't like: dystopia, noir, horror, tragedy, anything gritty or extremely violent I don't really care for epic war stories or political backstabbery. So a lot of the more specific examples I could list, like starting a story with a gruesome murder, fall under just not liking that type of story. I also don't like stories about main characters who are supposed to be noble goody-two-shoes, or main characters who are supposed to be stoic amoral super warriors, or main characters who are highly religious, or main characters driven by revenge, or main characters who are found stunningly attractive by absolutely everyone.

What do I like is an easier question. I like non-modern settings, preferably with either magic or "sufficiently advanced technology indistinguishable from". I like original species and cultures, or an interesting twist on a classic species. I like romance, sex, stories where the main character is solving puzzles, comedy, stories where the main character is a competitor in some type of game, stories investigating a mystery, stories about disguises, eavesdropping, blackmail, and social maneuvering, philosophy and psychodrama. I like school stories, marooning/survival stories, tournament arc stories, stories about arranged marriages, stories about someone being held prisoner, stories about the main character who suddenly ends up in a mysterious place and explores it, and stories with happy endings.

Then you probably won't like the Condor heroes series... it has tons of that... spread throughout the series.

I was hoping for a slight description why you like or didn't like though. Though you named like 100 things, so I guess it'd be a ridiculously long post if you had.

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Original post by pothb I was hoping for a slight description why you like or didn't like though. Though you named like 100 things, so I guess it'd be a ridiculously long post if you had.

Lol yes, yes it would be ridiculously long. I've written whole essaies on why and how one particular subgenre or trope appeals to its audience.

But the reason for most of my preferences is just personal taste, how much can I really explain that anyway? Most of it comes down to: I don't like feeling depressed, disgusted, angry, or afraid, instead I want to feel amused and vicariously feel clever, attracted, heart-warmed, and satisfied that problems get fixed and people get happy endings.

Other generalizations: I'm a xenophile, meaning I basically prefer anything exotic to anything normal. I believe the real world sucks, it has enough tragedy and horror and grittiness for anyone, so to me fiction exists to 'repair' that problem by showing me a more positive side of things. I'm a woman with some fairly standard female preferences towards social stories and against stories where characters get killed or tortured. I'm utterly sick of hero monomyths because they're fundamentally masculine stories, so I was neutral towards them to start with cause they just don't speak to my interests, but now I've seen so goddamn many of them because games and fantasy are just stuffed with them, and even the literary community gives them a disproportionately large amount of attention.

I'd be happy to comment more on some particular like or dislike if you say which ones. Or I could comment specifically on anime. I love anime. [smile] I've seen Berserk and several harem animes, not to mention a ton of school animes and some other assorted fantasy and science fiction ones.

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Original post by sunandshadow Lol yes, yes it would be ridiculously long. I've written whole essaies on why and how one particular subgenre or trope appeals to its audience. I'd be happy to comment more on some particular like or dislike if you say which ones. Or I could comment specifically on anime. I love anime. [smile] I've seen Berserk and several harem animes, not to mention a ton of school animes and some other assorted fantasy and science fiction ones.

Actually, why not. Got any anime you like and why?

And yea, it's what I sort of wanted to know. Like why you like something because I want to get into other people's head on why they might like a particular subject/event/character type.

Well, let's see. Akazukin Chacha and Damekko Dobutsu are some of my favorites, but those are little kid shows, so probably not relevant to your interests.

Uninhabited Planet Survive, Crest of the Stars, Vandread, They Were Eleven, and Stellvia of the Universe would probably be my top picks for science fiction. Ai No Kusabi is also pretty good science fiction but that one's yaoi so I'm not randomly recommending it for study. Honorable mention SF would include A.D. Police, Gunparade March, and Starship Operators. Science fiction animes tend to have the best worldbuilding but tend to fail to be cheerful/funny and have happy endings. The ones I've deliberately excluded like Infinite Revius and Sukyo no Strain I mainly did so because they failed to be pleasant in any way.

For fantasy: Naruto, Bleach, Maze, Fushigi Yuuigi, Soul Eater, Mahou Senshi Louie (aka Rune Soldier)... there are lots of pretty good fantasy series, though the plot focus is not usually what I would consider ideal. Everything has some kind of flaw. The two most common flaws of fantasy animes are shallow/inconsistent worldbuilding, or lack of a good overall plot structure. Honorable mention fantasy would include Fruits Basket, Sorcerer Hunters...

In the 'other' category I'd put Berserk (I consider it a historical, and I thought it was really good up until the point where Griffith gets tortured and then becomes a monster and the story suddenly morphs into horror. I felt like I needed to wash out my brain after that last 4 episodes (or however many it was). Fushigi Yuugi does a similar thing - it's great until episode 33 when the first major character dies, after which they drop like flies. Also in the other category, I have a very high opinion of I My Me Strawberry Eggs despite the fact that it has no fantasy or science fiction elements at all. But then, I often like crossdressing stories. Another interesting oddball is Death Note. While it's technically Fantasy, it's mainly about detectives and a serial killer. Not a subject that would usually interest me too much, I somewhat like mysteries and psychodrama but don't care for murders. But I really liked the two main characters, and how they were nemeses yet stuck working side by side. The original season of Pokemon is another thing I liked, I'm just not sure how to categorize it. Finally, Lovely Complex is just a contemporary school romance but it's one of the most well-written I've seen.


Oops ran out of time, gotta get dinner out of the oven. >.>

Edit: Western animation is worth a mention too. I loved the animated Batman (mainly the villains, because batman himself is a really boring character). I recently had a great time watching Invader Zim (would be interesting to compare this to Death Note, because the relationship between the two main characters is about the same). I loved the animated Winnie the Pooh, especially the more surreal episodes. I love the Coyote and the Roadrunner, the Pink Panther, Pinky and the Brain, and many other classic western cartoons.

[Edited by - sunandshadow on May 18, 2010 6:10:23 PM]

I like good writing. Doesn't matter what the subject matter is. I'll read a story about a man who goes out to catch a fish and comes home empty handed if the writing's on the ball. Hemmingway - The Old Man And The Sea. Read it if you have the time, it's a masterpiece of concise writing. Not a single word wasted.