"I have learned to do more with less, so you don't see the big books anymore"
About this Quote
The line lands like a quiet flex: craft over bloat, discipline over display. Terry Brooks is talking about page count, sure, but he’s also talking about authority. In epic fantasy, “the big books” became a kind of genre credential - a physical promise of immersion and a marketing signal that you’re buying a whole world, not just a story. Brooks helped build that expectation in the first place. So when he says you don’t see them anymore, it reads as a veteran’s recalibration, not a retreat.
The intent is practical (he can deliver the same narrative payload with fewer pages), but the subtext is sharper: excess is no longer synonymous with depth. “More with less” signals a shift from luxuriant sprawl to controlled momentum - fewer detours, fewer encyclopedic asides, a greater respect for the reader’s time. It’s also a tacit admission that the old model has changed around him. Attention has splintered, publishing economics have tightened, and even loyal fantasy audiences now live in a culture where bingeable TV seasons and doorstopper audiobooks compete with everything else on a phone.
Brooks frames this as a learned skill, not a concession, which matters. He’s preserving dignity while acknowledging evolution: the genre no longer needs sheer mass to prove seriousness. The best worlds aren’t the ones that take up the most shelf space; they’re the ones that feel inevitable, even when they move fast.
The intent is practical (he can deliver the same narrative payload with fewer pages), but the subtext is sharper: excess is no longer synonymous with depth. “More with less” signals a shift from luxuriant sprawl to controlled momentum - fewer detours, fewer encyclopedic asides, a greater respect for the reader’s time. It’s also a tacit admission that the old model has changed around him. Attention has splintered, publishing economics have tightened, and even loyal fantasy audiences now live in a culture where bingeable TV seasons and doorstopper audiobooks compete with everything else on a phone.
Brooks frames this as a learned skill, not a concession, which matters. He’s preserving dignity while acknowledging evolution: the genre no longer needs sheer mass to prove seriousness. The best worlds aren’t the ones that take up the most shelf space; they’re the ones that feel inevitable, even when they move fast.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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