What would you like to see more in Fantasy novels?

Sorry, this probably sounds more like a rant so if you don't want to read through it I summarized it in the list

• Legitimate different races, not humans with special features
• Unique cultures
• Non-human MC's
• Different speech styles
• Older MC's handling things with experience and not some grand new power they just discovered and magically know how to use
• In-world swears/curses
• More worldbuilding

I would like to see more races that don't feel like they're humans with some added features tacked on. Some versions of elves I feel like they are just long-lived, good-looking, pointy-eared humans. Boring. I want to see people take more of thier own spin on things. (And maybe I'm just not reading the right books but it could also just be me being picky *shrug*)

I would love to see some more unique cultures as well. If it's a different race then why would they have the same culture as humans? Wouldn't it be at least a little bit different? Also, it's just more interesting that way.

Also, non-human MC's are really interesting. I understand why it makes more sense to write from a human's PoV since they are more relatable and they are so much easier to write but I love non-human MC's. I would like some more of them. A lot more of them.

And this goes for almost any story but I would love to see some older MC's where they take out the competition because they have experience and know what they are doing instead of younger characters just magically getting powers and walking into it by accident. (Bit of a pet peeve there)

Also speech, I want the characters to talk differently. Using modern slang and swear words in a fantasy setting? I have some problems with that depending on the kind of fantasy, which is part of the reason I love Sanderson's work. He has cursing and swears individual to the world. It makes the world seem so much more authentic.

And then worldbuilding. I want to see the world developed because I want to feel like I'm in a different world and not just earth with a fantasy screen over it.

 

I, too, am really sick of "humans but X." I remembered the (Netflix) Godzilla anime movies the other day and made myself mad because there were several alien species in it...and they all looked like regular humans. Mass Effect was really cool in that there were so many different species that had different anatomies and ways of communicating, like how the Elcor have to state the emotions they're feeling for the sake of others who might be listening. Speculative biology, as a whole, is really damn cool and the number of people who go all-out with it is really, really small, give me more!

I'd like to see more magic systems that actually take into account gender variance. How would it work for a trans person? Someone who's intersex? A eunuch, a menopausal woman, someone with a hormonal disorder? In a lot of real-world cultures, people outside of the gender binary were held in reverence (the cassowary bird, for example, has what seems to be both male and female genitalia, so they were considered especially powerful beings, outside of the whole being a dinosaur part) so someone who has access to "both" kinds of magic or a different type of magic entirely would hold a unique position in such a world.

Also using magic for transitioning outside of glamour or body swaps or something obvious. Otzi had both tattoos and stretched ear lobes ("gauges," as they're {incorrectly} called sometimes) so modifying our bodies has been a thing we've always done. Trans people were getting full SRS before the invention of antibiotics...so someone is going to figure out how to use magic to permanently change their body. And of course, cis people would do the same thing, for the same reasons they already do (cosmetic, reconstructive, augmentation etc), so everyone looking exactly the same as they did in Medieval Europe in a world full of magic feels really dull and uninspired.

 

More characters with facial hair, more queer and transgender characters, more old wizards in classic vein (pointy hat, beard, robe, moon and star patterns), more vivid descriptions of characters.
All the things the three of you said sounds good too.

 

Song Of Ice And Fire has a character who is a eunuch, but he doesn't use magic to my knowledge.

 

What I would like to see is less epic fantasy. I want to see more stories that are smaller in scale. Saving a single town from nonsense that doesn't go beyond the gates of that town is fun. And if it is a series, it doesn't lose sight of itself by unnecessarily scaling up to the point the adventures affect entire kingdoms. Mostly, I just want a lot of fun and meaningful character interaction.

I would also like to see more non-human main characters or fantasy stories with no human present. I'm a sucker for non-human characters and I love it when I can find a series with no humans. I always appreciated.

If I could have a non-human small scale fantasy story, that would be awesome.

 

I personally love epic fantasy, the more epic the better, but small-scale fantasy stories can be fun too. I'm actually writing a story like that right now. It's also set in a world with no humans.