[Books] Fantasy/Sci-fi fans, what attracts/repulses you in books?

[Deleted]

I've been thinking about starting to write a book. now, I personally like Fantasy and Sci-Fi books the most, and i've got some things that I very much want or hate in these books, but that might not be what everyone enjoys/dislikes.

Personally, I love to read well thought-out explanations for (to us or the protagonist) unknown or exotic mechanics, technological or magical. for example, Terry Goodkind has some very well written explanations for every magical event or even person in his sword of truth series. for example, the way he lets Shota compare trying to outsmart the Blood Beast in Chainfire to trying to outsmart the rain and lets Richard try and counteract that, or how he has Confessors, Mord-Sith, gifted magic users and pristinely ungifted people interact using a strict set of rules is actually encouraging me to read on more than when he describes a decapitation, or a battle. however, the explanations need to have logic to them. When I look at George Lucas, [spoiler]who at one point in the sequel trilogy tries to describe the inner workings of the force using Midichlorians[spoiler], that's just shoddy writing and an attempt to describe something that shouldn't be described.

What I don't like is stuff like Deus Ex Machina and other plotholes, where the main character is put into a situation where they can't possibly seem to escape, and the author then pulls something retarded out of their ass to prevent the main character to be killed off. What i'm talking about is stuff like the ending of Mass Effect 3. when you look at that, The Catalyst is revealed in the last 5 minutes to basically be the controller of the reapers, but without a preceding notion that this is possible. If we even got an indication before that point in some way that Reapers are acting with an ulterior motive, other than "we do it because we can", the entire game would have had a much changed outlook. Don't confuse this with Fridge Brilliance or Fridge Logic, where it might seem at first that the author did an ass pull, but when you think about it, it's actually completely valid in the so far explained book logic. Example: in the first Sword of Truth book, Richard manages to trick Darken Rahl into thinking he's touched by a confessor, while he actually isn't, but the reader thinks otherwise. if you think about it, however, Richard both used his knowledge of Confessor powers and the Wizard's First Rule to trick Darken Rahl. it's this kind of thinking that is actually part of the thing that I like.

so, what do you like to see in Sci-Fi and Fantasy books? what do you not like if it happens?

[Deleted]

There was a thread a while back on this topic, albeit only on fantasy. You should check it out, you can get a pretty good idea of what people like and dislike: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...antasy-Series?