Longer answer: I think this is because I'm story driven, rather than character driven. My initial love of SF&F came from the ideas, and when I was initially reading the golden age SF (I'm an SF fan first, with most Fantasy having been a poor second place, LotR excepted, during my youth), the presence of cardboard characters wasn't a problem for me.
(This is no longer the case - there are novels that once I'd have thrown across the room in despair at the lack of anything happening, and conversely, novels I once devoured that these days I find unreadable.)
The consequence of this is that I read huge amounts of fiction without ever getting caught up by any individual character, because at the time characters weren't important, and it's now probably too late for any character to hook me.
no subject
Longer answer: I think this is because I'm story driven, rather than character driven. My initial love of SF&F came from the ideas, and when I was initially reading the golden age SF (I'm an SF fan first, with most Fantasy having been a poor second place, LotR excepted, during my youth), the presence of cardboard characters wasn't a problem for me.
(This is no longer the case - there are novels that once I'd have thrown across the room in despair at the lack of anything happening, and conversely, novels I once devoured that these days I find unreadable.)
The consequence of this is that I read huge amounts of fiction without ever getting caught up by any individual character, because at the time characters weren't important, and it's now probably too late for any character to hook me.