What do You Look for In a Good Fantasy?

What makes a good fantasy story to you? I am about to start writing one and want to know what to include. Magic? Sorcery? Princess? What? Thanks :)

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I really like reading about new creatures, or ones that are rarely used. Also, a complex world. I like to read about how the world works in the story, whether people use magic or have special abilities and how they handle situations. I do love magic/sorcery because it opens a lot of doors and can be unpredictable. :)

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I'm not gonna be objective and I'm not gonna guide you towards the path of a best-seller. I'm telling you the things I check when reading a book and which determines if it's good or bad for me. In the end, all what matters is that you enjoyed writing it:

The first thing I check when reading not only fantasy, but any kind of novel, is the "flow". I don't like books whose author rushed on writing, always "trying to get fast into the action" without realizing that he's/she's telling the action right now; neiter the ones with a way-too-dense narrative. We're reading, not running a marathon nor cutting a way through the jungle.

I don't like bad-used-clichés. You can always use The Chosen One resource but if it becomes too cheesy I'll probably drop it. You see: you can be traditional, like "vampires burn in the sun" and "silver is werewolve's weakness", or you can innovate, but don't get too 'cheesy' (Do you wonder why a lot of people didn't like Twilight? The author was trying way too hard. The other ones only cared about the love story).

And last but not least: I like it to be "realistic". "A realistic fantasy? Are you stupid?" No, I'm not. You have to make the audience feel like it is real, to try to bring back to life that inner child appealing to their adult. If you come at me with un-realistic characters, contradicting and/or unexplainable stuff, a good guy that ALWAYS (ALWAYS, ALWAYS, always...) wins and a bad background I will drop the book, and probably burn it with fire also. Basically, the world you're setting up your story has to be realistic; it doesn't have to be complicated as The Lord Of The Rings, but it has to hold on by itself and explain itself --in other words, to have a good basis. The characters also: maybe they're fictional characters but, for me, there's nothing more appealing than a well-done, realistic character (well, Goku is an exception... but anyways I always prefered Gohan).

Sorry for my long answer, by the way. And good luck.

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- a sense of wonder

- consistency in worldbuilding

- engaging characters

For fantasy I think the worldbuilding is the most important factor -- the other two points kind of tie into that. I don't think you have to figure out every single little detail of how the world works, nor do I think it has to be the most original setting ever, but it does need to be consistent, and the characters need to make sense within that setting.

Tolkien is of course the classic example of someone who created a "secondary world" with its own history/cultures/languages etc. But (for example) Diana Wynne Jones wrote some novels set in relatively mundane settings or real world + magic, yet still had a very strong sense of what was possible within those limits she set. Even urban fantasy must have strong worldbuilding -- my favorite example is probably the Kate Daniels series.

Everything else is less important. I've read good fantasy with a lot of magic and good fantasy in which magic didn't even exist. I know some people read for interesting magic systems/cool powers, but personally speaking, that's not where my interests lie. Every reader will have different tastes though!

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