Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: The State of the Genre. . .

"The Fifth Ring" showcases the current state of the fantasy genre - and boy, that's a depressing way to look at things. This overstuffed tome is packed with all the usual fluff: magic rings, power-mad sorcerer kings, reluctant young heroes, and all the rest. It's like someone took all these elements and threw them into some Fantasy-o-Matic machine and "The Fifth Ring" plopped out the other side. No, it's not the worst fantasy novel I've ever read (that distinction falls upon Dennis L. McKiernan's "Iron Tower"), but it's generally boring and fails to accost my attentions. How anyone could compare this newbie author to better ones, like Terry Brooks, is beyond me. It is passionless dribble, better left sitting on the shelf. I hate to bash a first-timer, but this is exactly the kind of work this genre does NOT need. Fortunately we have George R. R. Martins and David Gemmels in the field, or all might well be lost.