Adult fantasy books

[LuciferRising]

There is a thread running about recommendations for adult fantasy.

I'm attempting to write one and have around 140k or words that I am now editing. So I have my story and it is in need of a trim and a huge amount of editing.

What I'd like to know is what other people like from adult fantasy. Or do not like. My MC is a woman around 40. She has flaws and she remains very much human. There are a few scenes I will cut. I don't like the overly gratuitous sex scenes in YA fantasy and the few ones I do have will likely go - or I'll make them more subtle (than they already are). I also need to make it less tropey somehow.

What do you like or do not like?

What forums would you recommend for posting work op?

Writingforums.com and .org. I prefer the former.

Well developed, consistent magic system
Good world building
No random convenient powers
Consistent characters with good development arc
I tend to really dislike female protagonists. They usually fall into one stereotype or another.
And, on a personal level, I love a good broody Fae warrior 😊
Although, I think my favourite damaged male is probably Fitz.

Fitz ruined real live men for me!

So it seems I need to be super careful with my FMC.

What I don’t like:
An inordinate amount of travelling through a very samey landscape, where we seem to take every step alongside the travellers. They walked through the rocky landscape, stopped and made lunch, walked all afternoon through a slightly less rocky landscape, made camp, the next day the landscape was very rocky on one side but not quite so rocky on the other etc etc
Characters that have traits which are mentioned every single time they appear , and I am looking at you Robert Jordan and your perma-sniffing and braid tugging women.

What I like:
Intriguing worlds / civilisations that I can imagine myself in with quirky and imaginative details and hints of a deeper history/ mythology underneath
Realistic relationships, troubled characters, romance and friendships

Me, too. No one quite matches up to Fitz. Except maybe Lan Mandragoran.

watch out, Lan is mine

I'll fight you for him. One Power battle at dawn. He's been mine since 1990!

battle it is. be ready

Well I believe I need to do some work on world-building based on these comments. I have two realms to build. One like our own with mortals, and one similar to an Eden.

POV is limited third person told from the perspective of the women from the mortal realm - but I may adapt some of the chapters to a male POV. I have a few but may see if there are a few more I can convert. It could make it more balanced. I'll play around.

Is it the Wheel of Time? I haven't read that.

I rather liked Rhysand in ACOTAR but didn't like the relationship development to the Mary Sue.

😆

And actually, now I think about it - even where the main character is a female - I prefer the male character.

I like fleshed out worlds too, I like to know what people are eating and wearing. I hate when the book makes up too many words for everyday things though, eg a “cart” should just be a “cart” doesn’t need to be a “dingleblat”. Bread can just be bread etc. Only things that are new to the world need special names, otherwise I’m constantly trying to keep up with a new language for basic things.

good luck with your book!

Anyone who doesn’t like female characters should read Robin Hobb

Yes, WoT. My other preferred character in WoT is Matt. He always makes me smile.
SJM's female protagonists are always awful. She is much better at writing interesting and complex side characters.
Rhys is ok. I much prefer Cass and Azrael. Lucien is an interesting character. Nesta is far and away the best female in ACOTAR. But my favourite SJM characters are Elide and Lorcan from Throne of Glass.
At this point, I need to say that I only read SJM because my daughter loves her books and we can talk about them. Otherwise, I would avoid them like the plague.

I prefer female characters - it’s not like male perspectives are underrepresented in our culture, is it?

But only if the female character isn’t written to appeal to a male gaze (stunningly beautiful but no one notices, blah blah blah).

Not fantasy, but Ken Follett mentions his female characters’ hair and breasts all the damned time. Weirdo.

World-building is everything. If the world doesn’t hold up, the story can’t have any heft. I don’t think it has to all make it to the page but the author should have a clear idea of the geography, aesthetic, laws/beliefs as appropriate, government, flora and fauna of their world. Plus, wherever possible, maps. I love maps.

No stupid names, especially not with hyphens, don’t have many characters with names starting with the same letter and similar length. It’s confusing.

Good luck, OP! Hope it goes well

I like interesting characters, lots of character development and a lot of focus on relationship development (as in friendships. Not necessarily romantic ones). I love books where side characters get developed a lot or have interesting arcs or evolve from side character into main characters.

I hate authors who keep going on about how good looking or hot their protagonists are. It's so annoying and off putting. A simple, neutral description suffices. I also hate characters that are uber charismatic in other ways, eg women who make everyone's head turn whenever they go. Basically one dimensional characters but I guess everyone hates them.

i like good world building but not endlessly Long descriptions. I do often like though when the story spends a lot of time on just the day to day life of the characters, which may not be the main plot as long as that is interesting. Eg like the scenes where the kids in harry potter just navigate being normal school kids in hogwarts (before they then go off to fight evil).

I don't like explicit violence, gore or sex but that's just personal preference. However, many adult fantasy books are just vehicles to describe sex scenes and maybe that is just a different genre.

I like your description. Just based on that I'd read it.

What book is Fitz from?

Robin Hobb - Assassin's Aprentice trilogy and the others that follow. You have 16 books set within the world and I love Al 9 that I have read so far. Best author for writing characters.

*all