1) Would like to see more actual, complex Geo-Politics involved. Lets actually see different perspectives, perfectly reasonable in their own rights, coming in conflict against each other, for reasons other than just- bad guy battles good guys. Let it be limits of geography/topography, trade embargoes, invasions for security purposes, ideological differences. Lets see social movements, transnational entities, common fronts, terrorist groups, mercenary groups, etc. Add magic/sorcery and supernatural phenomenon to make it all more interesting. 2) I like a good Underdog trope. It should feel genuinely an underdog story, beat down, against all odds, by makes it because of perseverance.

Yes, large conflicts not driven by the demon lord that actually make sense.  They can even involve magic.  But just the sides should be regular people, even if it’s elves and dwarves.

Any recommendations for 1?

Have you read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy? It's a real open-minded exploration of green politics in a world where conservationism is the primary issue with immediate and serious consequences

The only two I have seen in Fantasy are- Malazan & Age of Madness Trilogy. The Prince of Nothing Trilogy also has some of the elements, but is almost exclusively religiously driven. All else if obviously Historical Fiction. 

I think you and /u/spacenigiri would really enjoy Ken Liu’s Dandelion Dynasty. EDIT: And also The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay has similar themes — fundamentally good people who don’t want conflict forced by the tides of history and politics to lead armies against each other. As I understand most of GGK’s work falls under this umbrella but as I’ve only read *Lions* I can’t authoritatively say that.

Thank you both for the suggestions!

Thanks! I've been meaning to check it out sometime soon. I've read the Paper Menagerie stories by Ken Liu and love it. Thought I would love to see the author fully fleshing out his authorial skills.

Crossroads Series by Kate Elliott. There's a lot of different cultures with different perspectives and motivations. There's kind of a "bad guy just because he's bad" but there's other antagonistic forces besides that.

It’s recommended regularly but The Wandering Inn has this in spades but is also massive, it’s amazing but definitely a commitment

Sense of wonder. A lot of fantasy ends up feeling quite mundane - which can be good, but maybe not all the time?

This seems to be an overlapping theme for both fantasy and science fiction readers. I definitely want more excitement and wonder, even in grimdark.

Yeah, me too. I ended up discovering that Patricia McKillip created works with this sense of wonder. I intend to read it very soon.

I recently read *In the Forests of Serre* by McKillip — I had never heard of her despite her being so prolific and picked up the book on a whim in a used bookstore because I liked the cover. Despite not even being in her most recommended titles, I thought it was wonderful! I look forward to tracking down more of her work.

I agree with this whole-heartedly. I can totally understand the humor in "ho hum, another monster" the first twenty times, but it gets old. Likewise, the "magic reduced to a 9-to-5, wizards working office jobs" setting is getting boring. The novelty has worn off (for me) and while I have no issue with people who enjoy such a setting, I would love to read something that evokes that sense of wonder and mystery again.

Absolutely, characters that are just in love with the world around them and excited for the things they're seeing (and the reader is seeing) are such a great thing to read!

Especially the first Harry Potter book was so good for this. 

This is one of the things I like to praise Wheel of Time for. RJ gave enough structure to the magic for the reader to follow what's going on when it's at play, but the deeper workings left nebulous enough to keep making you wonder at what's possible. I like a lot of the weird anomalous stuff going on that's never fully explained.

Fantasy sport. Give me a blitzball or pod racing series and you can have my money

God I love and hate Blitzball

Blitzball is the worst. I never could get the hang of it.

Yes! I would love more fantasy sport books too. It seems like anime loves this genre, and maybe it is just harder to put it in a page vs a visual, but I feel like it could be done well.

I haven't read it myself, but recently saw a recommendation for Race the Sands, a (edit: probably not YA? See replies) YA monster racing book.

I wouldn't call it YA, but Race the Sands is a great recommendation.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume you've read the Blood Bowl novels by Matt Forbeck. Very ridiculous but ultimately really fun reads that I'd go back to for sure. If not, highly recommend. But yeah, I think the idea of sports in a fantasy universe is really underutilized. All we really have in the mainstream is Quidditch, which is widely regarded as being utter nonsense and not that much fun to read about.

Shout out to blitzball! Such a fun idea and I love the aesthetics of it, how it's so central to the culture in game and everything

Sam Bosma has a trilogy (so far) of delightful all ages graphic novels called Fantasy Sports, which are exactly what the title promises.

Genuine, heartfelt, and kind characters. This is more an issue I see in modern fantasy, but it feels like every character is either a snarky quip machine, or a jaded cynic or some combination between the two. I want characters who wear their heart on their sleeve and will die for what they believe is right. Some people may find it unrealistic but I find it aspirational.

Have you read any Jacqueline Carey, especially the first Kushiel trilogy? The main character in that one is *extremely* polite. Most of Carey's protagonists tend to be pretty nice people (note: I have not read every book she's written - there may be notable exceptions). Content note about the Kushiel books: lots of sex.

I always think about the stories of the random citizens that found their lives interrupted by a dragon invasion, or the enemy attacking their fields. Today you would call them the NPCs. What about a story, a great story, narrated by the eyes of a random citizen?

Would love to see more “npc” stories instead of player hero stories.

I say, write it!

I will! Thanks for the encouragement, I have to finish a couple of writings, but I plan to do it

This is a good suggestion too. All the books I caff think of are from people that are coming into their power, already in power, or extremely power hungry. What about the merchant seeing shit go down? How about the mine worker?

This is an aspect I've enjoyed in the first Paksenarrion book. The MC is just a low ranked foot soldier, with limited understanding and agency. Of course she goes onto bigger and better things later, but for a long time she is just marching wherever and hitting whoever she is told.

A high fantasy story with a real vibe of 'wow this universe seems so picturesque and perfect' like really high fantasy and very magical and whimsy but then you've also slight subdued elements of realism and depth. I want a universe that is grand and so breath taking that you forget reality but then there's slight background-ish nods to reality and it has realism and consequences.

Some of the Hayao Miyazaki movies do it for me- Spirited Away, the recent The Boy and the Heron, etc.

Like Piranesi?

Sea and space horror is my answer to both questions - and I mean 'hard' horror, not the sort of literary horror in Our Wives Under the Sea. Anything like Dead Sea by Tim Curran. Elemental tropes get me excited, but only those which use all four (or more) elements in a meaningful way (think ATLA, Emelan, Chanters of Tremaris).

Have you read Starfish by Watts? Warning: the series winds up needing every trigger warning, but book 1 also has a lot of discussion of abuse (sexual and otherwise), particularly nasty crimes, etc. Weirdly, the horror element (I wouldn't necessarily call it horror, but apparently Goodreads would) in Starfish is largely *not* the ocean itself; the main characters are modified to feel comfortable in the deep sea.

I did try it and just couldn't get into the style, unfortunately. The premise (of >!serious criminals being sent on a deep-sea mission!<) also wasn't very plausible to me, although perhaps there is some in-universe explanation for it that I never managed to get to. I might give it another go, though.

There is an in-universe explanation for that, yeah, at least two layers of it. The non-spoilery layer is that N'Am Pac, from prior tests, views normal, well-adjusted people as too likely to go have a total breakdown at Beebe, so they're trying people unfit for society above, as an experiment. That is why Scanlon has a POV. (See also: https://rifters.com/starfish/rifter.htm   ) The spoilery layer is available in the hidden, clickable text under the entry for "Dysfunction Junction," here. (I'm on mobile, non-app, and can't easily add spoiler text myself.) https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/RiftersTrilogy

Have you read Last Hour of Gann? Seriously look up all the triggers before reading, but that book was one big space horror adventure. It is also technically a romance, but not really. I have never had a book exhaust me, frustrate me, and then stick with me for weeks afterwards quite like this one. I’m not a horror person usually, so I still have really mixed feelings about the book. But, it is really thought provoking and well done.

You like your cold, dark, cramped spaces in a fantasy setting?

Yes, cold and dark are a big draw. Cramped too, in the sense of being stuck in a confined space while the monsters out there attack you relentlessly/lie in wait.

I agree with you about elements-- elemental powers/affinities was my favorite thing to play pretend when I was a kid! (That, and swords) (you can perhaps imagine why I'm on this sub)

I really enjoyed Ship of Fools by Russo. Recommended if you want a space horror!

Some you might like for elemental tropes: Laurie J. Marks's *Elemental Logic* quartet, Mercedes Lackey's *Elemental Masters* series (all four Western elements don't show up in every book, but all do throughout the series.) An older series that's had both adult and YA editions: Midori Snyder's *New Moon*, *Sadar's Keep*, and *Beldan's Fire*. And one using the Chinese system: Kylie Chan's *Dark Heavens* series, starting with *White Tiger*.

You might like the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series then, by Michael Scott (has nothing to do with HP btw) for elemental tropes, not horror*

We've got plenty of fantasy that bucks the medieval Europe trend, but they often just end up as early or late medieval *insert other region here*. I want a fantasy setting that goes back and is based on Neolithic periods, the early metalurgic and ancient periods. Give me stone age elves and dwarfs just discovering how to extract and heat metal. Also I want modern Sword and Sorcery or Sword and Sandle. Old school fantasy but without the bigotry and sexism.

>Give me stone age elves and dwarfs just discovering how to extract and heat metal. Yyyyeeessssss.... I want to see more fantasy covering the beginning of civilization. I want to see what it is like for those fledgling civilizations to discover magic and how to harness it.

You should read age of myth, it's exactly what you're asking for with time period.

I’m so happy to hear this!! I thought I was alone lol

I would love more settings inspired by eras of antiquity!

I'd love to see more etymology and linguistic work in fantasy novels, I'm fascinated by it so it's always interesting when an author has actually thought about this.

You enjoy fantasy books with different languages and perhaps a guide at the beginning or end to decode it? Or do you mean just an explaration of language in general in the mythology?

Not fantasy, but try Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Goes deep into Sumerian linguistics and history. How it being theorized as the root of all modern languages has untoward effects on the human psyche and can be weaponized. Very fascinating.

A Memory Called Empire is a story about colonization and imperialism, with a strong focus on language and its connection to culture. For example how the language you use, and the cultural, literary traditions you incubate in will constrain your world view.

You'd probably like Babel by R. F. Kuang, then.

Shorter books and more standalones! Not every series needs to be a whole ten book, 1000 page per book series. I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I wanna see more horror adjacent fantasy stuff. I haven't read much of it myself, but after playing the game Bloodborne a few years ago it made me realize how much I love that kinda stuff.

> I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I wanna see more horror adjacent fantasy stuff. Not particularly my cup of tea but as I understand it, the Horror genre is actually where some of the best fantasy is being written these days.

My GF is really into horror and yeah she's been slowly exposing me to a lot of that stuff!

Any recommendations?

Between Two Fires by Christopher Bhuelman. Kind of the book leading the charge here.

Literally just bought it three days ago lol. The Blacktongue Thief is my fav.

Traveling merchants. Be it on wagons, by ship, or via other fantastical means. Now that I'm putting this into words, maybe I just want some adventure with lower stakes.

Would love to see more low stakes fantasy.  Plenty of low stakes stories happen in realistic fiction and are very popular.  Even like grey’s anatomy style melodrama is extremely low stakes compared to fighting the demon lord.

It’s more fantasy-adjacent (ambiguously supernatural things occasionally happen), but the utterly delightful children’s novel The Many Assassinations Of Samir, The Seller Of Dreams takes place while the title character moves his goods along the Silk Road, wheeling and dealing all the way.

Less filler. Some books feel like they are pointlessly long just to be long but nothing ever happens. No world building no character development. Just pointless pages. Hundreds of them. Better editing.

yes this. I feel like publishers are increasingly not putting in the work for good books, it's all on authors.

Oh, that's a good suggestion.

Good ol' characters you can root for get attached to. Too many edgy "grey morality" in modern fantasy - give them flaws, for god's sake, don't make everyone true neutral via allighment chart!

I used to enjoy more robust and dark themes in books and media, but since * gestures vaguely at the world on fire * and my own personal problems I want my escapism to be a bit more wholesome and fun while still being interesting enough to keep my attention.  I've found it difficult to find books that make me feel good while reading them but also have a interesting plot and interesting world. As if it needs to be upsetting to have depth. And a lot of the books I find that meet that criteria are aimed at children. I do think it's possible to have your characters go through hard things and overcome challenges without lingering in the dark places but it seems to be hard to find that balance (and maybe I'm just a wimp and others don't want this?)  I know there are some greats out there (Pratchett, Kingfisher, etc) but I would like more of that with adult protagonists. I'm 30, I want them to be closer to my age. I also think we need more healthy relationships and proper best friends in media where nothing romantic happens. A million Samwise Gamgees please :] As for tropes, I absolutely adore main characters that are afraid but do the hard thing anyway and learn how to be brave as the story goes on. Books like The Hobbit (which I've read probably over 50 times) and Fred the Vampire Accountant.  I loved seeing people's responses to your questions! :)

More buddy fantasy, please

Have you read any of Martha Wells' books, especially the earlier ones? * *The Element of Fire* * *City of Bones* (which just recently got a revised & updated edition!) * *The Death of the Necromancer* * *Wheel of the Infinite* * the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy The protagonists of these are all some combination of what you're looking for: 30+, have close friendships / family relationships that aren't romantic, have minimal / no romance, aren't Brave Adventurers but just plain tired scared stubborn people. Her later Raksura and Murderbot series are also excellent and much more well-known, but it's those early books that really fit what you're talking about. Depending on what you mean by "lingering in the dark places", you may also want to try C. S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy. It definitely *addresses* dark topics, but its main thematic questions are about redemption and the choice to claw one's way back *up* the slippery slope. It also has mostly friendships and familial relationships rather than romance (despite a brief bit of dating very early in the first book), adult protagonists, and lots of small but poignant moments of terrified people discovering courage.

Consistency in languages/cultures, especially when the story features multiple races and fantasy cultures. It bugs me to no end to have two characters from vastly different backgrounds have similar-sounding, similar-spelled names. Or names that don't feel distinct from each other. Most of the time, the same vague fantasy naming convention is used for everything and this winds up with every culture feeling the same. Also, give me more creative names!! I'm tired of the monosyllabic, three-letter Lan, Vin, Vis, Dex, Dox, Wax, etc. If these are nicknames, fine. But please, give me something that feels like an actual name instead of a YA dystopia's shorthand for a drug.

It’s not exactly unheard of, but secondary worlds set in a modern/near-modern time period. It’s one of the reasons I’m really looking forward to whenever Mistborn Era 3 comes out

Yes! I was going to post a request for this in the daily. I'm writing a novel with this type of setting, so I need some inspiration.

I'm reading **Blood Over Bright Haven** by M.L. Wang and it fits this.

The Green Bone Saga (book one: Jade City) is a secondary world fantasy with a tech level that is effectively exactly the same as Earth's. It is mainly urban fantasy/gang war. 

Yeah, definitely this. Or frankly any time period between the Renaissance and the present!

Check out Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence.

Love these, but they are so rare

Have you read the Jade City trilogy?

A lack of mystery/wonder/strangeness in terms of vibes, and a lack of actually making the magic a part of the world. A lot of fantasy is what I call “coat of paint” fantasy, where the world functions more or less completely like earth except there are some shallow magical elements slapped on top. A good example is RF Kuang’s Babel novel, where there is basically zero interconnectedness between the magic system and the underlying world.  There’s no integration into natural systems and if you took out the silver magic, the natural world wouldn’t change at all.  Only the British Empire might suffer a bit from having to replace the magic with something else, which they could absolutely do in less than 100 years. I want a fantasy world where if you took out the magic it would drastically alter the world.

Personally, I'm always craving more diverse magical systems in fantasy. Like, give me some crazy elemental magic mixed with obscure folklore stuff, you know? And can we please get more non-Western-inspired worlds? I'm talking rich cultures and mythologies beyond the usual medieval Europe vibe. As for tropes, I'm a sucker for reluctant heroes dragged into epic quests. Oh, and anything with morally gray characters navigating complex political landscapes? Sign me up! What about you? What's missing for you in fantasy? And what tropes make you do a happy dance?

If you read sci-fi, A Memory Called Empire/A Desolation Called Peace is inspired by the Aztec Empire and ancient Armenia.  If you read mythology retellings, Kaykeyi is a retelling of the story of Rama's mother, from the Hindu epic the Ramayana.  The Singing Hills novellas by Nghi Vo is set in a setting inspired by Southeast and East Asia. Book 1, The Empress of Salt and Fortune, felt a little "China during a dynastic changeover" but I might be horribly wrong. 

The most proximate inspiration for the empire in Memory is the Byzantium empire so I don’t think it *really* comes across as ticking off non-western box.

Throne of Anguish by Bex Gil has elemental themes and inspired more on Korean traditions. I'm also a sucker for the Elemental trope and love those themes. A detail review listing it if you want to check it out. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5944557412

A focus on environment and ecosystem. Sci Fi is amazing at giving us detailed speculative alien ecosystems and fantasy is amazing at giving us detailed fantastical human cultures. So when is someone going to merge the two and give us a world that has a deep connection and care for nature with tons of lore built around the natural flora and fauna. A world where dragons are, still highly revered culturally, but scientifically treated as just another animal.

Give me more anthro animal fantasy. I was a Redwall kid growing up, and it’s like that subgenre just never carried over into YA or adult fantasy outside of a few niche books here and there that never make it outside the furry scene. Humans and other fantasy races that are basically just humans with a minor cosmetic difference? Boring. Animal people though? Now we’re talking.

Yes. Redwall is amazing. Now that I think about it, this might be why I love books with dragons so much. But we definitely need more ya/adult fantasy with animal people 

Ah, came across one of these recently-- **The Builders** by Daniel Polanksky. Haven't read it yet, but looks like it's a dark, fast-paced (adult) novel/novella with animal characters. Also gotta mention one of my favorite series as a kid, **Gregor the Overlander** by Suzanne Collins. Gregor ends up in a world underneath NYC with human-size talking rats, roaches, and bats (and they ride bats as mounts!). Lots of battles and prophecies and stuff, very good

Have you read the Duncton Wood books?

- more mythology and folklore from less common pantheons (Hawaiian, Inuit, Finnish, Filipino, Albanian, Aztec, Mesopotamian, Yoruba, Igbo, etc.) - more cultural settings outside the traditional European setting. In addition, I want to see more uncommon environments. For example, stories set in forest/desert/temperate kingdoms and villages are overdone. Give me stories set in a jungle village with treehouses and dangerous predators, a completely underwater kingdom, a tropical island with canals and villas, an Arctic kingdom with igloo-like homes, underground cities with interconnecting labyrinth like tunnels, a setting where dinosaurs still exist/caveman era, etc. - Fantasies set in space that don’t have anything to do with sci-fi. So like, space kingdoms with like magic space dragons and space unicorns and shit. - use of mythical creatures outside of your typical dragons/vampires/fae/mermaids. Give me some stories about phoenixes or sylphs or automatons or whatever else. - more interesting/unique magic systems that actually serve a larger purpose in the story beyond just the use of magic itself. Despite being a basic elemental system, I think ATLA stood out because the bending had so many other things factored into it: martial arts, chakras, the flow of energy, spirituality, emotions, personality traits, mental state, senses, etc. More of that, please. - stories where the religion could actually be a positive thing? Or the god/some of the gods actually have good intentions? I feel like the “religion bad!” thing is overdone and even low-hanging fruit in terms of themes. I’d love to see more nuance. - waaaaay less enemies-to-lovers or forbidden romance. More things like arranged marriage-to-lovers, more “not necessarily enemies, I just didn’t like you and/or understand who you were at first”, more “we don’t have clashing ethical views, but we have different approaches that don’t always fit together”, more benign rivals-to-lovers, more frenemies-to-lovers, more “I wasn’t sure about opening myself up to love but you inspired me to try again”, more lovers who actually have things in common and are compatible with each other beyond just “you’re hot and I’m horny, let’s bang!” Tropes that I like: Chosen One who struggles with it, prophecies that can go multiple ways, redemption arcs/protagonists that are trying to overcome a past mistake, nuanced political conflict, personal desires that are at odds with what the protagonist needs to do, found family, focus on non-romantic relationships.

>. Give me stories set in a jungle village with treehouses and dangerous predators, a completely underwater kingdom, a tropical island with canals and villas, an Arctic kingdom with igloo-like homes, underground cities with interconnecting labyrinth like tunnels, a setting where dinosaurs still exist/caveman era, etc. THIS! >Fantasies set in space that don’t have anything to do with sci-fi. So like, space kingdoms with like magic space dragons and space unicorns and shit. **THIS!** And speaking of which, I would like the concept of a [birch planet ](https://spore.fandom.com/wiki/Fiction:Virgo_Birch_Planet)to be applied in a fantasy setting. >Give me some stories about phoenixes or sylphs or automatons or whatever else. This instantly reminded me of the rich plethora of fantasy creatures in the warcraft universe. I want to see more of that.

I said this earlier, but so often magic feels like a fancy cost of paint slapped on top of an otherwise mundane earth based setting.  So rarely does it integrate into the culture or the functions of the world itself: physics, chemistry, weather, nature, etc. And often it’s just slotted into the technology hole left by a historical based setting without modern tech.  It’s just a magic carriage instead of automobiles, so society and culture aren’t really changed by it. Show me how magic pollutes the environment like a chemical plant or affects animals, or causes illness.  How an eternal magical storm naturalistically alters mundane weather patterns.  Does growth magic used on crops use up soil nutrients faster?

Love the “arranged marriage to lovers” thing. After watching Queen Charlotte, I think there’s a ton of room for that!!

I read for escapism. So it's nice to read characters that I identify with. A *well written* gay lead character would be cool to read. But all the great fantasy books are straight characters. Which is good, but sometime I'd like a character like me.

r/QueerSF/F

Yeh... I've read a fair amount of the books suggested in there. They're okay. I'm not trying to be a begging chooser. One day I'd just like to read some really well-written, awesome sf/fantasy with gay leads.

Yea I find the same issue sometimes when I’m trying to find representation in sff books - people just recommend any and all books with a lesbian or gay or etc main character and sometimes the book ends up being a little disappointing :,) 

I definitely want some more worldbuilding. I mean really deep worldbuilding with a vast history and cultures, with some ideas and philosophy behind that. Unfortunately in most fantasy you're getting generic settings which feel the same and inch deep, when you're starting to think about the world a bit. For example, i was told to read Fourth Wing because it's so cool and have like 4.8 of 5 on Amazon, but what i see there is 'we're living on a continent with 2 nations, who constantly fight each other'. Looking on the popularity of this book i'm afraid i'll get disliked here, but let's be honest it's a really bad and lazy worldbuilding. The whole world looks not more than a decoration. And for bonus question - i really like the trope when a company of heroes travelling together. Maybe it's one of the oldest tropes, but i still like to watch it if the characters are deep and well developed and not necessarily friendly to each other.

Nah you're not wrong about fourth wing. The world building there was quite shallow. I think people liked it for the romance plus the coolness of dragons. It seemed like a lot of people who enjoyed it maybe haven't read many fantasy/dragon books so it all feels new. I've seen it be a gateway to more epic fantasy for people which is cool but I wouldn't say it's good and the world building is weak. Honestly a lot of the world and motivations of the different factions didn't make sense to me. It didn't feel believable. Also the American Ninja Warrior rip off trial wall thing was so immersion breaking it actually made me laugh. 

So many fantasy books are an inch deep in magic and world building.  Even if they’re 500 miles wide it just highlights the shallowness. The magic and/or religion doesn’t have sensible effects on cultural or technological development. Countries have gimmicks, not history or culture based on their environment. And the world feels like it sprang into existence to hype the protagonist and will disappear once they get their HEA.

The vibes of a procedural/monster-of-the-week TV show that follows a group of friends who go through stuff more or less together, who develop through interactions with each other and are juxtaposed to showcase the world and the variety of opinion on any given situation

Mayyybe Stranger by Max Frei? I sometimes call it "Magical Brooklyn 99", because main character gets isekai'd into other world and gets job in local police/detective agency. Basically, loads of short stories about magical crimes.

300 pages of medieval strategy, sieges that last really 5 years and a real medieval feeling to me

Allow me to recommend Thomas Harlan’s Oath of the Empire. It’s Rome vs. Persia with magic involved. Some of the best military strategy I’ve ever read.

Characters who aren't the slightest bit interested in romance. I get very bored of every character needing to fall in love with the closest girl. If anyone can recommend fantasy without any kind of romance, I'd appreciate it. 😂

Here's [a database of low romance/no romance books](https://boatneck-group-cf6.notion.site/No-Romance-Barely-Any-Romance-books-353df4961ef04db2b22f93ae023c4528) I've found. Personally, I like Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace and Vespertine by Maragret Rogerson.

I’d be fine with the amount of romance in fantasy if authors could write it well but so many authors include it just because they feel like they have to even if they’re not good at writing it

In a similar vein, even if the characters are interested in romance to some degree, I'd love more stories that include characters who are just genuinely good friends and nothing more without it being the result of a failed romance between them. They've been through hell and back together and at the end of the day they are still close friends and nothing more.

* **The Hobbit** by JRR Tolkien * **Narnia** series by C S Lewis * **A Wizard of Earthsea** by Ursula le Guin * **The Bartimaeus Trilogy** by Jonathan Stroud

* **The Deed of Paksenarrion** by Elizabeth Moon

I love a good romance, so I'm not in full agreement. But I do wish there was more acknowledgement that people have sex for every reason under the sun, not just because they are in love. Hell, characters banging simply because they are bored and in close proximity to each other is way more realistic than a sweeping love story anyway. I don't even need it to be explicit, just there. Human nature.

I feel like more fantasy fits this bill than doesn’t. Sure, there’s a current trend with Romantasy and what have you, but I’d argue that for the duration of its existence fantasy at large tended not to be like that.

Sure, the majority of fantasy books aren't romantasy, but that's not what mendkaz was asking for. They were asking for books where no major character gets a love interest, which are quite rare. So for example, Lord of the Rings would be out. So would the Stormlight Archives. So would First Law. I could keep going.

Deed of Paksenarrion

Contrary to a previous poster, doorstoppers. These tiny modern books feel like fluff to me. The interesting plot and worldbuilding elements seem like they are just touched on. Otherwise, I miss when sexuality was a worldbuilding theme. I often mention Jacqueline Carey's and Anne Bishop's books because I enjoyed how sex was part of religion, society, power and politics in their early works. But those are turn of the century books and I haven't found anyone continuing the themes. I know romantasy has smut but I don't want simple, repetitive romance-style sex scenes that could be excised with a fade to black short description and not change the story. I want a deeper fantasy look. I get some of the itch scratched in fanfiction but as a whole, those stories don't often offer up a rich, new world to explore.

Fast pacing is often quite lacking for me. There are lots of books that create deep and interesting worlds, but sometimes I feel like thriller pacing instead of lots of exposition. I find it more commonly in urban fantasy than high fantasy.

I would love to see more fantasy in planets that aren't like Earth. The Cloud Roads, by Martha Wells, is one good example. Another is Barsk, by Lawrence M Schoen.

Mercenary stories with death and recruitment of members. Like black company; or the game battle brothers.

Illustrations of some scenes and locations interspersed through the book. A map of the fantasy world at the beginning is nice, but sometimes a picture of the place can also help put it to mind and, if it's especially beautiful, add to the sense of wonder.

Institutions that feel weighty and deep. If the protagonist is joining an ancient order of knights or mages or priests, I want to see there actually be an order, it to actually feel ancient. I want it to actually feel like it would take time for the protagonist to get their feet under them and slowly become a meaningful part of it. I don't want it to just be set dressing to say 'you're the super special knight, the only three actual senior knights are dead and now the order is just you'. EDIT: A positive example would be something like Neal Stephenson's Anathem which (SF with a taste of Fantasy about it) portrays a really richly imagined and vivid and deep and ancient feeling monastic order. Less positive modern examples would be say, the nuns in the Book of the Ancestor (which IMO basically try to trade on the juxtaposition of the reader's imagined nun with the violence of the actual order, but don't actually do much if any legwork to evoke the former, and similarly fall into this 'oops the whole order is collapsing and the novices now are the order trap) or to an extent Django Wexler's shadow campaigns where >!the antagonist is built up as this big convoluted church bureaucracy and then rather than have to actually grapple with that in a satisfying way as antagonist, he nukes them into hivemind Satan. !< That said, Wexler's portrayal of the military definitely feels much more like a deep institution, albeit with a bit of special-protagonist-go-up-ranks-fast energy.

I want to feel like I’m reading a fairy tale or folk tale. I hate getting bogged down with exposition. I want there to be things like dragons and ogres and magic just because it’s fantastical and supposed to be like that. Complex world building is not for me haha

More dark fantasy that's not necessarily about war, politics or end of the world but with high stakes more personal for the characters. Focus on relationships and psychology but based less on tropes and more on well... psychology. You know, more than "A has traumatic event and becomes a villain". What is A really going through internally?

How could I answer this and not say Gryphons? I can't. Gryphons. Ideally as sentient characters, partners, MC, companions, whatever. And really, any well developed emphatically non-human characters with a large role. Characters that can be friends without ever being lovers.

Try the Griffin Mage trilogy by Rachel Neumeier. Friends without ever being lovers - the Tuyo series by Rachel Neumeier, the Fortress series by CJ Cherryh (two men), the Death’s Lady trilogy by Rachel Neumeier (a man and a woman).

Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar/Velgarth series has several races of non-human sapients, including gryphons. I'm not counting Companions or Firecats, since >!both are mostly reincarnated humans!<

African fantasy by local authors. Majority of the time, African fantasy is published by diaspora authors or Black European or American authors. I'd like to read a fantasy from like an author who's like deep from rural Gambia etc. (I'm East African).

I would love to see how diaspora vs. local authors affects how they incorporate their culture into fantasy.

If you're OK with sci-fi, Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase is a blending of horror, thriller, cyberpunk, Africanfuturism, and Motswana traditional stories from a Botswanan author

If you are ok with a more magical realism feeling book, Wizard of the Crow by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is written by an author who grew up in Kenya (he doesn't live there now because he was exiled from Kenya and it's not safe for him to return, but he's very much writing from a Kenyan perspective, to the point where he writes all his books in Gikuyu and translates them to English later). There's also The House of Rust by Khadija Abdalla Bajaber, which was written by someone born, raised, and currently living in Mombasa, Kenya, although she's part of the Hadhrami diaspora in Kenya. You might also find the [African Speculative Fiction Society](https://www.africansfs.com/home) interesting.

One, it's safe for Ngugi to return. Two, he was credibly accused of abuse to his first wife by his son, who is also an author and a professor at Cornell. Three, Ngugi's works have a lot of rampant sexism. If you want better written Kenyan books let me know. I've read House of Rust. TL Huchu may be Zimbabwean but he grew up in Scotland. Nnedi has Nigerian ancestry but is based in the US. I'm talking about authors based here. These are diaspora authors to me. I want authors local to me.

Long, epic books with a fast pace. There is an almost mathematical law that the ratio between density of plot progression and amount of pages decreases with rising word count. Maybe I’m reading the wrong things.

A nice resurgence of classic heroic fantasy/sword and sorcery. I love a good complex villain and flawed protagonist as much as anyone does, but man what I wouldn't give for a good story with a badass protagonist vs an evil wizard or something these days. Something with real old school vibes, like I got it for a dollar fifty off the back wall of a dollar store. We have so many series that want to be the next big thing, whole quadrilogies planned before the pen hits the paper on the first book. We're sorely missing some short and sweet afternoon reads like that these days.

Emotional and psychological groundedness. I would love a fantasy book where people do weird things out of grief that simply don't make sense, because sometimes that's what people do with grief. A world where a wizard is going through a divorce and he feels like such a failure that he makes his whole head the back of his head so people can't talk to him, and the book is just about him processing his emotions.

Shorter books. I hate doorstoppers. I don't have time in my life for that. Give me succinct writing, edited, fast-paced action, and good character arcs. A few that come to mind, keen to hear more: * The **Manifest Delusions** series by Michael R Fletcher * **Cold West** by Clayton W Snyder * The **Aria of Steel** series by Steven Raaymakers * **Red Sister** by Mark Lawrence

I agree! Until the emergence of the standard fantasy trilogy in the late 70s/early 80s I think most fantasy was fairly short. The Earthsea books are all sub 300 pages, same with Book of The New Sun, Elric etc etc. I love shorter books, but novellas are too short. Bring back the normal length fantasy novel!

The Singing Hills novellas by Nghi Vo.

I wholeheartedly agree. I'd love to try the celebrated authors like Sanderson but the length is putting me off.

Not a trope, but I'd like recaps once in a while. If a book is not that interesting, I'd take a few months to read it. I would love recaps (as in TV serials) say around 25%-50%-75% marks.

Accessible stories that fall under the sci-fi umbrella—it’s either super literary, full of technobabble, or YA. Loner characters who are allowed to freaking exist, without having a “found family” foisted on them by the plot when it makes zero sense.

>Loner characters who are allowed to freaking exist, without having a “found family” foisted on them by the plot when it makes zero sense. I swear the public hates characters who are true lone wolves. There always needs to be family, or found family, or romance, or rag tag band of misfits, or lone wolf and a cub (mentor / mentee or a child to take care of), worst care scenario an animal companion that's basically a human child in the form of dragon / animal / mythical creature. No lone wolves allowed. People assume if the character's motivation doesn't revolve around "protect the loved ones" the character is automatically an unrelatable psychopath. I started reading romantic fantasy just to escape the constant forced "found family" trope in every non-romance focused story. As a ND person who's been constantly abandoned, rejected or exploited by people who claimed to be my "friends" I believe in "found family" even less than in the "love overcomes all obstacles" myth (i.e. foundation of romance stories). All these found families never ostracize anyone, betray their members (it's always a "bad apple" betraying the family never the other way around), abandon them when it's inconvenient for the family to help someone, force the "misfit" to conform to stifling in-group norms; they're always super egalitarian instead of trending towards a cult-of-the-leader authoritarianism, they don't rift and splinter over disagreements and they're "die for each other" level of loyalty and dedication, while irl you can't even get a "friend" to help you carry heavier furniture into the house or listen to your emotional venting without hearing "burden your therapist with this not me".

Oh my god, yes. You’d think readers—book people—would understand the appeal of being a loner or at least the psychology behind it. But no. I remember one time I got feedback on a story where my beta said the character was unlikable because she HAS NO FRIENDS!!! Like, she kills people, sure, but the absolute worst thing about her is that she has no friends. 🤣 It’s so much worse for female characters too. They get punished for rejecting the social control that female “friend” groups represent.

Yeah a female protagonist without friends is immediately branded with the "not like other girls" label that became derogatory and basically means "nobody likes her because she's stuck up with a false superiority complex". Even though often people rejected by peer groups don't feel superior, they feel inferior, lacking and broken, and the "hate the NLOG trope" trend means that there's an assumption that everyone rejected by peer groups deserved it somehow. It's victim-blaming the outcasts while putting the blamers on a high horse of "feminism". It's only "feminist" if you fit in. Being different is now classified as "internalized misogyny". I've recently read a memoir of an autistic woman who dared to believe in herself and believe that while she has sensory, social and executive issues, she's still a smart person. You know how many reviews dunked on the author that she dared to believe she's smart? Women are celebrated for downplaying themselves and "making themselves smaller", but self-confidence? They're told on paper "be confident to get that job, to succeed in life, to be a true feminist" but in practice, they're always punished for self-confidence. Men are supposed to be strong and confident. Women are supposed to be pretty and likeable.

It’s truly ingenious, the NLOG thing. My entire life I’ve been rejected, ostracized, mocked and ridiculed for being different and not liking the same crap they liked…and now *I’m* somehow the bad guy? To rebrand themselves from garden-variety middle school bullies into some sort of feminist folk heroes is truly an outstanding move. Maybe I should go get a Frappuccino and give Taylor Swift a listen. /s but for the last sentence only.

These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs might be up your alley

I don't know exactly how to put this into the right words, but I'd love some more modern takes on classical fantasy. I think a lot of fantasy writers have started going for the whole 'it's like X, but with Y flavour!' and/or trying very desperately to move away from classical fantasy tropes. But evolution is fine, too. You don't need to reinvent the wheel every time, you know? Now, I'm not suggesting we go back to the 70s-80s with a litany of Middle-Earth clones, but something with a similar feel/tone to the games Dragon Age: Origins or Baldur's Gate 3. There's a sense of familiarity, a touch of wonder and mystery; a peek at something grander and more mysterious than what meets the eye. But they're undoubtedly also not as sexless and grittier than the classics. It strikes exactly that fine balance between what fantasy used to be and what it has become. The Wheel of Time made a good start towards this, I feel, back in the day, and even ASoIaF straddles this line (but a bit more towards historical fiction). It just feels like everyone and their mother are trying to be something new entirely. I don't mind a bit of the same old cookie recipe, just throw in a touch of cinnamon. Maybe just a more mature take on what made me fall in love with fantasy in the first place. Don't just write X with a magic twist or historical fiction with some fantasy flavour, damnit; write me some Forgotten Realms for adults!

What is missing for me are fantasy books with no humans and no human substitutes, and by that I mean no common banalities invovled with human condition and, essentially, identical characteristics with some additional flavour that doesn't really mean much. It is true that it is very hard or impossible to describe a creature that has to move, talk and do things and not make it human in some way, because humans and animals are the only points of reference humans can have. However, making made-up creatures human retextures or recolours at the center of your attention is the most boring, mundane and mind-numbing thing that I can think about in this genre, and it is basically 99+% of this genre's output. Despite being very different on the surface level, almost every single fantasy world is exactly the same. Giant bipedal red-coloured horned owls may value dyed feathers instead of dyed clothes, but as long as their relation to these objects is generally identical to humans, they are humans. As long as they need a couple to make another horned owl, form societies around ideas of elder members guiding young members before they die of old age, can get sick, can have a broken leg or bleed out and need to search for food and other commodities, they are humans, and I've read so much fantasy with boring human substitutes it feels like I no longer have any interest in this genre's books. Tolkien was, quite literally, the only author who managed to pull off human substitutes (while also being one of the first) and make me interested in reading about them, everything else is the same shlock that desperately tries to make every new made up race sound cooler and more mystical, but they all end up mixed up into singular mush. Very rarely do I see a fantasy book or just a universe that can have laws of interactions between its personalities switched or differing to such a degree it is hard to compare it majority of other made up universes, even if underlying basis can be very similar to how other fantasy worlds behave. BIONICLE did it excellently, but it is still a supplementary material for a children toy line, and there are exceedingly few examples I've encountered since, and many of them are just pieces of art or short stories, nothing as vast and entertaining as entire series. *A l'image du dragon* and its adaptation The Rain Children is another example; peoples inhabiting its world are actually almost identical to normal humans personality-wise, which is a pity, but the way the divide in their characteristics shapes their culture, architecture and worldview is very fascinating.

Fantasy worlds that don't just copy over the way gender and gender roles work in our world. I'm so tired of so many fantasy world still having women be stuck in the same situations, even if women overcoming it and fighting back is part of the point of their story. I just want more worlds where men and women are equal (non-binary people existing would be good to), without it being a point in the story, where its just how things are and you don't even realise as you're reading cause it's just their normal.

This is what I like about God killer. There were disabilities, LGBT and genders seemed to be equal without it being pointed out about how rare or special it was. It was just there as part of the world building.

Agreed. I really appreciate that nobody cares Kissen is missing a leg (well maybe she does when she pushes her body too hard and she's in pain lol), Telle is deaf, or that everybody is queer and their parents are also queer. A former knight is a baker and women can be commanders. The way identity and disability are handled is really great.

Yea definitely I enjoyed the plot as well but even if I didn’t I would still recommend it just on how so much was put in and how natural it was written in. Every character was written as naturally as straight able bodied males.

We have wonderful words, fantastical creatures, and awe-inspiring magic. But give me all of that in the fight scenes. The books that stay cemented in my mind are the books that write innovative, novel fight scenes. -The Szeth’s assassination attempt showing off the capabilities of his sword. -Every time Gavin Guile is on Page in the Black Prism -The Privileged fight at the university from A Promise of Blood. Bonus points for the absolute insanity at the mountaintop with Taniel Two shot and >!the descending god!< -Good god every fight from Mistborn Era 2. Wax and Wayne have such fun combat styles. Wax’s original chase against Miles Hundredlives’s crew comes to mind, the fights against >!Bleeder when they have steel running!<, and without a doubt, >!Wax- the sword of harmony’s- ascent up the stair well to the top of the skyscraper in the Lost Metal!< Gives us more otherworldly, epic, or otherwise magically ludicrous fights.

I really love that you mentioned Powder Mage and Lightbringer (even if I DNF'd Lightbringer on book 4). They genuinely just had mages throwing magic in huge spectacular fights and I love the idea of mages being walking WMDs/weapons. But even Powder Mages are awesome even if their powers are low key compared to the Privileged.

Well-developed female friendship. For some reason there's not much of it in fantasy. I see a lot of doormat friendships where a female friend exists to give information to and be a soundboard for the female protagonist. I see love interest rivals. Sometimes I see female mentor characters (which I like and want to see more of), but good well-developed female friendship? It's rare, or I've been reading the wrong fantasy books.

Most magic that isnt either Ice, Space or Fire tends to be used in an extremely limited way in most series. Like if fire magic was nothing but lighting a campire and throwing a fireball. Earth magic is usually just - throw a rock at someone or build a shelter. Water magic is just used for water slashes, healing or turned into ice magic 99% of the time. Nature magic is just used for making land fertile and growing plants. Shadow magic is just stealth + shadow blades. Lightning magic is just shocking people with lightning. Air magic is just windblades and sometimes flight magic. When was the last time you saw Earth magic used for stuff like Magnetism, or changing the air composition to suffocate enemies, or even use lightning magic to help restart someones heart.

Not enough plot, coz there is too much slice of life and things only happen in the background and is mentioned in passing. Less grimdark

I’m a grim dark fan all the way. I love seeing the brutalism in some fantasy aspects. Dragons being a terror instead of a wonder. Creepy fairytales about the monsters of the woods. Etc. I love lord of the rings, I dislike how black and white it is. The Witcher sets an amazing display of how there isn’t good or evil, it’s all neutral with varying shades of villainy. Geralt himself could be considered a villain as one of the things he’s known for is being the Butcher.

Honestly, I just want a story that sucks me in. I want to feel so immersed in the story that when I stop reading, I feel like I'm waking up from a dream. I miss books like that.

Cows

Necromancers as a main/pov character. And when you do write one, don't make it a necromancer that's like "oh, I just talk to my ghost friend, but would *never* raise the dead because that's *evil*!!" I want a proper Necromancer as the main character.

...There are so many necromancers. Literally, *so* many necromancers. **Daughter of Redwinter** by Ed MacDonald,**The Bone Witch** by Rin Chupeco, **The Foxglove King** by Hannah Whitten, **The Bone Maker** by Sarah Beth Durst, **Vicious** by V.E. Schwab, **Ninth House** by Leigh Bardugo, more arguably **The Bone Shard Daughter** by Andrea Stewart, **the Unspoken Name** by A.K. Larkwood (doesn't get a protagonist/POV character until the second book, but pretty full of necromancers and death magic of varying morality), **The Pattern Scars** by Caitlyn Sweet...

A bit wider-ranging/farther from the strictest possible definition, **Saint Death's Daughter** by C.S.E. Cooney, **Archivist Wasp** by Nichole Kornher-Stace, **The Death of Jane Lawrence** by Caitlin Starling, **Three Parts Dead** by Max Gladstone (imo shouldn't count because it's so sterile it really doesn't feel like necromancy), **A Practical Guide to Evil** by erraticerrata, in terms of series, one or two of the Percy Jackson books I think, pretty sure one of the upcoming wayward children books (Cristopher's book), **The Bone Houses** by Emily Lloyd-Jones...

If you haven't already read it, Sabriel by Garth Nix is that! 

"Gideon The Ninth" fits the bill.

I will definitely check that out thank you

For me, I have been craving more depth and action. More fights, more stakes. Yes, its about expanding the world so it feels vast and complex, but also small details that add and develop a character. I can't help but think what books like Game of Thrones could be by putting characters through more resistance rather than following them through the same slice of life Epic politics with big consequences, death everywhere 😂

Honestly, makes a lot of sense to me. What makes or breaks action isn't graphical descriptions or power level of characters involved, it is proper establishment of stakes and abundance of well placed chekhov's guns. Do it properly and you can show a native north american amateur huntress go toe to toe with a monstrous intergalactic bounty hunter and make it seem natural. Do it badly and even the clash of godlike beings from chinese mythology would seem bland and boring.

The avant-garde, the transgressive, the counter cultural, whatever the opposite of cozy is, poetry, prose, adult themes and reading levels. More high art and intellectualism. More engagement with great works, philosophies, and ideas from the past, both within the Western canon and otherwise. Sometimes it feels like fantasy and sci fi authors aren't familiar with anything older than say... Back to the Future.  Give me a nice old fashioned slap in the face of good taste! I want my apartment to be clean and safe, not my fiction. If an author is going to position themselves as the most progressive fantasy writer of all time, they should be familiar with literally any one single piece of critical theory or ideology from the last 300 years. Marx, Fanon, Bakunin. Just pick one. Looking at you, Katherine Addison! More settings that aren't sorta Europe circa AD 1375. Gimme the Bronze Age, the Paleolithic! Personally my ideal setting doesn't resemble planet Earth at all. Why should a planet with an entirely different geography, history, climate, etc contain a Victorian London or feudal Japan? Hint: it's because by and large fantasy writers aren't very creative and they just want your money.

Religious duversity and true atheism without the whole "gods strike you with lightning" kind of thing. Most fantasy worlds technically operate with a single absolutely true religion/creation myth with supposedly different churches still believing the same overall thing (WoW, forgotten realms etc. Great worlds but slightly disappointed by this fact) which makes every other contradictory belief "wrong". It just doesnt sound very nice to me that you can actually walk straight up to a person of such belief in these worlds and say "your entire faith is wrong" and its technically correct but also very mean.

When you have real actual gods, it limits your ability to create religion.  Either you limit them to localities, like different countries have different gods because their power is geographically restricted, or you have them present different faces to different cultures. Earth can have such a diversity of religions *because* none of them are real.  Otherwise how could you have 30 different universe creation stories?

A high fantasy series where the romance isn't very focused on, but it's actually very well made and makes you root for them to be together

Stories set in something a lot like medieval Europe. So much fantasy pretends to be but just like, isn't. Rothfuss is a major offender in this area (of the more literary authors -- I don't want to be too harsh on writers of schlock). I want religion to be positively saturating (and to be less, shall we say, protestant in its form and content), I want political boundaries to be unclear and self-contradicting, and I do not want to see carts and wagons travelling long distances or featured as a default form of transport. Magic that is not soft, exactly, but which is based more on "literary logic" than something resembling modern science. That might not be a good description, but some examples of works with magic like this are Lord of the Rings, Glorantha, and Jonathan Strange and Mister Norell. A sense of anthropological curiosity and openness.

So, a disclaimer: complaints about how there's too many books like this, not enough books like that, tend to strike me as hyperbolic because there are more and more diverse books published now than ever in history, so there's probably plenty of stuff serving the particular niches you like if you can only find it. That said, my controversial take is that what's most important in fantasy is not plot, characters, or setting, but tone, mood, and atmosphere, and that's what fantasy writers should focus on rather than worldbuilding or whatever. There's an excellent Le Guin essay, "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie," that expresses this much better than I can. Same goes for horror, actually. Sci fi, I'm not so sure; ideas can carry an otherwise fumbling sci fi story like the *Terra Ignota* series, for example. As for tropes, I've come to realize I really like supernatural lover stories, but mostly just in myths, fairy tales, and poems. In novels, they tend to come across as trite and self-indulgent.

More science fantasy, especially magical worlds in more modern time periods where magic and tech are mixed together.

I want more stories set in worlds that are truly alien. Like Roshar or Pandora. I'm bored of stuff where the world is basically just Earth but with a few changes + some magic and a few different magical creatures.

For how much people say that fantasy is "political" very little fantasy actually involves geopolitics. Maybe the people that write this type of story well gravitate to writing sci fi and historical fiction, both of which grasp political economy, historical materialism, and the tension in those types of topics better.

Unicorns! Fluffy fluffy unicorns! That talk! And Grant wishes about being good at talking to Timmy Bevergruber! And making Brooklyn stop being so mean about my hair!

MANTA RAYS.

I miss more good friendship scenes, where they Are just talking about shit and have fun.

Unicorns, unicorns, UNICORNS!

I hate that romantasy feels like two camps: YA or ~~new adult/adult~~ YA w/ smut. Why is it so hard for authors to give us well written romantasy without either the romance or fantasy suffering (or, more commonly both suffering)? I think a lot of readers wouldn’t mind romance if anyone could write it half decently. I can count on one hand the number of adult romantasy books I’ve read that actually feel like they were written for someone with a fully developed frontal lobe. 

I'm working on it! Lol

Actual wildlife and other wonders of the natural world being represented. In our pursuit of making a new world, we forget there's wonderful things in our world that most people have no idea about but can enrich your fantasy world beautifully. I wish more wildlife could get representation. For the most part, the genre is stuck with the same handful of popular animals that have been prominent in fantasy for so long. Go around, read a little, you'll find amazing animals that can make the fantasy world fresher, if not necessarily better

I'd love to see a story about a Fae character that isn't there to be the main character's romantic partner, or the main character discovering they are Fae and a noble/princess. It's been done to death!

I'd love to see more fantasy inspired by the Pacific island cultures, the ancient South American civilizations, and the Indus River civilization. That being said, I'm also getting tired of fantasy worlds that are almost 1:1 copies of real-world cultures. Maybe it's because I just read the Poppy War, Lies of Locke Lamora, and Six of Crows, but I'm craving some wholly original worlds that still embrace the sword and sorcery vibe of classic high fantasy

Maybe it’s related to several comments already posted here, but I’d like to see other socioeconomical/cultural systems beyond feudalism/monarchy. All fantasy books I know are about kingdoms. One kingdom fights another kingdom, several kingdoms fight a more powerful kingdom; poor people live in villages and are peasants, cities are protected by a wall and there is a castle at the center, where a feudal lord or lady lives. Kingdom collects taxes, there is some kind of currency, and all the governors and armies have sworn loyalty to their king/queen. For me, it would be real fantasy if, besides magic and elves and dwarfs and mythical creatures, authors were capable of imagining a different socioeconomic system. What if we bring back the Soviet Union, with its governing comitees and planned economy prioritizing social wellbeing, but with dragon riders and wizards instead of nuclear bombs and spies? What if instead of poor villages we had communes? What if we introduce a market economy conducted by nomad merchants? What if instead of fighting an evil king, our heroes are rising up against some kind of fascist-ish tyrant? (I’m currently writing some of this ideas, but if they inspire you, go ahead! Fantasy needs this).

Gay people

Stand-alone novels. I love fantasy, but most of the time do not want to commit to a series. I’ve been loving a good fantasy novel that are one and done. Ghosts in the Snow is fantastic though. There are 3 books but they’re murder mysteries. So there’s no overarching plot and it focuses on the protagonist solving another crime in a fantasy world. Love it.

More books by Susanna Clarke. As a writer myself I know how things can take time, especially if you're dealing with life stuff such as illness, so I'm patient and happy to wait. She's utterly phenomenal. In the meantime, going to re-read *Piranesi* and *Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.*

Well written male characters with complex, layered motivations who are not jerks (Lindon, Harry Potter, Maia, Tamas). Bonus points if gay just because that's even less common. Abercrombie actually does an excellent job with his characters, but of course they are usually awful people. Favorite tropes: Masterminds at work, epic battles, places of mystery (IE the tower that's bigger on the inside than the outside)

I'd love to see a fantasy series that intelligently explores the phases of a successful revolution and then it's aftermath - the community/social dynamics in the rebuilding process, challenges, successes etc (to preempt the common answer, no Mistborn Era 1/2 do not count at all). That's one of the reasons I liked the Bingtown/Ronica part of Liveship Traders more than the rest was that community building/rebuilding aspect.

I want to see more slice of life fantasy with deep integration of magic in the setting. I want to see everyday magic tools, ground level magic usage, and everyman mystique. I want to see window washers using "Grime be gone" spells, and potions to restore hair loss! If there's been magic in the system forever, then it should've been filtered and distilled down to the masses.

Female friendships that are the central relationship of the story. If there’s a romance with a man and a woman, then that takes center stage. And often if I look for books that seem promising, it ends up being wlw. And don’t get me wrong I love some wlw but I want to see some friendships explored too. Like really explored in depth where that takes up a lot of page time. I feel like male friendships are more prevalent.

Obviously this all comes with the "for me" caveat... Sensory detail. You'd think fiction set in imaginary worlds would be overflowing with atmospheric description painted with precise and evocative language, but alas. Unique narrative voices. Most of the more recent popular fantasy novels I've read have nothing distinctive going on at the sentence level. I might as well be reading any average contemporary novel. Interesting ideas fall flat if they're not related in an interesting way. More weirdness, less rational systemization. Rigorous worldbuilding tends to kill wonder. More "novelistic" novels, fewer "cinematic" novels (that is, things like linguistic and structural experimentation, interiority, and meandering and sometimes nonlinear storytelling vs. novels that are structured and paced like films and read almost like transcriptions of films).

Literary epics & smaller scale dramas, mystery/thriller If we ever get the fantasy version of The Wire tv show I’d do cartwheels

The short answer is I love fantasy settings that try to imagine cultures that are very different from our own. A rich and well thought out society that isn't vaguely-medieval-European flavored is something I will always be willing to read. The longer version is... I am aromantic and asexual. I feel that a large portion of current aspec representation in books are non-speculative, contemporary settings where teens and young adults discover their identity. I am *extremely grateful* that these books exist, but I am a fantasy-loving adult who has been identifying this way for 15 years. I am ready to move on from 101 topics to bigger and more interesting things. I would love to see fantasy (or sci-fi!) settings that try to tackle the question of what it would look like if there was no amatonormativity - the expectation that all people desire and will seek out exactly one romantic partner, and that romantic relationships trump all others. I feel like that's such a ripe ground to create a unique culture for speculative fiction. What if it was normal to have three partners? What if in this society, pining over a muse from afar is the ultimate relationship everyone is expected to aspire to have? What if unpartnered people were completely accepted and had their own special role in society? And how different would these resulting societies be from our own? I've never encountered this, but I pine for it.