My own worst offender is "perfectly ordinary (and boring) dude(tte) somehow enters/gets sent to fantasy world where they end up having uncanny importance, royal blood, and maybe a truckload of magical powers too".
It was fun one or twice in Alice in Wonderland or The Neverending story, beyond that it just got old lightning fast. I don't need such obvious "It could have been you" crutches to feel closer to a character. I don't need to identify with a character to enjoy a book.They *yawn* did it, and it was just one of several problems *yawn* :
• S. Donaldson : Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Mordant's Need
• Guy Gavriel Kay : I'm lucky I didn't read the Fionavar tapestry first, because that's probably the last thing I'd have ever read from him, missing on the perfectly fine Tigana and Mosaic of Sarantium. But the Tapestry... random american student in Fantasyland + Lord of the Rings ripoff... bleh.
• The fairly recent Dark Lord / Falconfar by Ed Greenwood. I admire what he's done as a worldscaper of the Forgotten Realms D&D setting but the fantasy writer projected in fantasy land... no, please, no.
• Had trouble with David Edding's Belgariad too. While the characters are supposedly native to their own world, they feel like they could have just as well be some displaced average everyday western world family, 'cept with magics. They got it somewhat right :
• Orson Scott Card : Enchantment. While this one *is* about a modern-days character waking up in fairy-tales land, the protagonist isn't a cookie-cutter id crutch, and the whole thing is researched and witty enough to save itself.
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