There's stuff I'm bored with even before reading it. Urban fantasy, vampires, zombies, grimdark. Beyond that? I guess I'm bored with court intrigue. And village intrigue, for that matter. Most of it just drags.
But really, just give me good writing, which can make anything interesting. Give me a passionate writer (note: earnestness is not the same thing).
I hear what folks are saying about the Fantasy of Yesteryear (this old coot is amused to find the 80s and 90s referred to as "back then" but is tolerant of young 'uns). I do think passion was part of the equation. The whole field was still new enough that one could get away with "Dwarves! In taverns!" and the reader would be right there for the ride.
But I also respectfully suggest that folks may be recalling the literature of their youth. There's nothing that will ever match the music from one's teens and early 20s. You'll never be that rocker again, and you'll never be that reader again. The first horror stories, the first mysteries, the first fantasy novels, these are going to resonate in ways that cannot be duplicated.
I submit as additional evidence the tone of people--I mainly see them in Facebook groups--who read what I regard as mandane, dull, even outright bad fantasy novels, and just rave about them. Greatest thing they've ever read. I'll bet you five dollars to a doughnut that their average age will be younger than the average age of people on this thread. Appalling as it is for me to say, these are the fantasy novels of their youth. These forgettable works will be the ones they remember, and against which they'll measure all their future tropes and boredoms.
And hey,
@Eclipse. I don't have mines in
Into the Second World, but I do have caverns. Really, really deep ones. I suggest you stay away. ;-)