It's a magical world

I cannot speak for starlady, but I intensely hated A Fire Upon the Deep, not because it was abysmal writing or borderline pedophiliac like Xanth but because I thought the characterization was flat and implausible, the basic premise ridiculous, and the underlying ethics gross. I pretty much hated it, but in a different way.

I don't think "strikethroughs" are all in the same category, necessarily--I know my list had a combination of authors I knew I hated and subgenres that just didn't interest me (I struck through all the epic Tolkien-mold fantasy, but that doesn't mean I think it must be terrible).