Oh i agree with you, as a kid i just thought authors were an unimaginative bunch and thats why MY space travel series (written and illustrated by me, age 5) had a blue sun and a planet that was a triangular prism in shape!

And i did like Sherri S Tepper's The True Game books with their 5 limbed native animals (although the relationship between Peter and the necromancer made me feel odd as a 10ish year old when i first read them, and then on subsequent rereadings as i got older i realised it was peadophilic).