(no subject)

Why don't more writers use the legends of Hercules for inspiration? Or how about the Odyssey, or any of the other stories where the main character faces a series of impossible tasks that are merely different from each other rather than each more impossible than the last? There certainly is a place for stories that progress to the point where the main character reaches either metaphorical or literal godhood, but I feel I've run into a few too many of them amongst my recent gleanings from the library. It sucks some of the enjoyment of reading out when you're reading the second book in a series, realize you're in the middle of "yesterday a city, today a country, tomorrow the world!" or equivalent, and from that realization on can predict (in general terms at least) what is going to happen from then on.

It's especially bad in "deforestation" series, ones that are usually named things like "cycle" so that they aren't pinned down to a specific number of volumes and generally have each book at dictionary thickness. Although, the Lensman series wasn't anywhere near this sort of page count and it ended up with antimatter planets accelerated to near lightspeed being used as weapons, so not all of the blame can be laid at the feet of modern tree-killer authors.

I suppose my main problem with it is the prevailing implication on many of such series that the only way to deal with things is to oppose your enemy's strength with either greater or more skillfully applied strength.