Let's Discuss: Authors Trying New Genres

 

Okay, it took me awhile to think of something to talk about. It was busy times for a bit then I had time but no thoughts and then the other day I saw something that sparked a rambling thought...so here we go!

Authors Trying New Genres

So the other day I saw a largely contemporary author announce their debut fantasy and I paused. Nothing wrong with authors switching up their genres, not an issue at all. But it does make me pause. When you see that contemporary author decide to take on something that is not at all contemporary, it always makes me wonder...will I like this? It sounds intriguing for sure...but I am wildly hesitant.

I'm not a contemporary reader, unless you want to call thrillers a vein of contemporary, which yeah I guess they can be, but a scary contemporary at that! Lol. But yeah, contemporary books and I stopped hanging out...gosh I can't even remember how long ago. There was a time when I was reading both just because the paranormal books were few and far between, so I resorted myself to read contemporary novels. Then I began venturing out to "adult" books which was a lot of trial and error because I found too many books that had a heavy romance plot when I picked said book out of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section, I guess this was before we got better at putting books into the right genre. Romance eventually became more accepting of Paranormal themes when we had enough authors writing Paranormal Romance so it got its own section in the Romance area...but by then I was going back and forth with Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy. So yeah, changing times! Lol.

Okay, I got off topic! Earlier this year, I did pick up a largely contemporary author's first paranormal book and it was good. Better than I expected but I wouldn't exactly call myself a fan just yet. It was definitely entertaining though and different. So now here I see another largely contemporary author about to debut a fantasy novel and here I am again wondering...will I like this? I love a good fantasy read but even those can be hit or miss depending on the world-building and explanation of magic systems because the ones I pick up have to have some form of magic in them! Lol.

This one I am eyeing as a possible read, but I'm also like...do I dare preorder it before I can find any reviews? It's a conundrum that's for sure! Plus there's still the "will I like a contemporary author's take on fantasy?" pickle to deal with.

I feel like if the story is right, I am definitely open to giving it a try...but then I look at my never-ending TBR pile and think, is this story really enticing enough for me to add yet another book to this chaos? Needless to say, I still do not know what I will do about this one...in fact, I still need to go back and look up the title to make a note to myself to "keep an eye on this one!"

So I basically just rambled there. My question for you is, how likely are you to try a book in your favorite genre by an author who has largely written in a genre you never--or in some cases, rarely--read?