Hi, fellow book readers! I’m a writer to-be who is writing a fantasy novel.
So my question is: what would you like to see more and less in a fantasy novel? Storylines that excite you or bore you? Character developments that would be unexpected or something that’s traditional is still hot? More smut or less smut?
Any ideas are welcome ♥️
Ps. Although reading latest fantasy books myself, I wanted to hear from “professionals”: who read it for fun and not analysing every sentence like me 😅 aka actually feeling it end enjoying it.
I always want more detail in the world-building. I want magic systems with rules that make sense, magical creatures with weird biological limitations like regular animals. I want magic that’s more like coding or engineering, isn’t just off or on but doesn’t work properly all the time or has to be debugged. Sanderson’s Mistborn is a good example of a magic system with clear rules. Related to world-building: more interesting settings. Future, past, completely different universe, make stuff up, but there’s just too much that’s thinly veiled ‘medieval europe’ vibes and that gets so boring. I also want less chosen-one magic in fantasy. One of my least favourite tropes is a chosen one who can inexplicably do the most powerful magic or speak a particular language without knowing it (that’s not at all how language works!). I want my protagonists to fail, not epically and tragically but just normal everyday failures and imperfections.
Of course, agreed, thank you!