Hi! I am looking to write fantasy, a kind of notoriously overdone genre. I am curious if there are any “hot takes” on it that look at it from a fresh perspective? I have a long plate of titles to read already but I would be happy to learn what titles you have read and would recommend for somebody who wants to see how other people did interesting fantasy novels.
The Second Apocalypse is two series by R Scott Bakker which is “philosophical fantasy” maybe hard to read but was really refreshing for me how it treats the genre.
I tend towards the mythological and symbolic aspect of fantasy moreso than entertainment and novelty. There’s the usual worldbuilding and narrative tropes, like a conflict between magic systems or whatever, but it’s not really this stuff which matters.
The whole story is actually a somewhat thinly veiled philosophical debate between schools of thought on the philosophy of mind and metaphysics at large. Really, it’s a very fancy academic paper on philosophy, if you can interpret it correctly.
I will put it on the list, but I don’t think it will be reading it so fast. your description sounds very “too smart for hoi polloi” and my last interaction with philosophy only made me hate astrology
Maybe I should mention it is still an entertaining and decent work of fantasy in the “hoi polloi” sense too. I just think it’s not remarkable in that way, and it isn’t what the author intended either so the best experience does require some effort on the reader’s part or maybe at least an interest in topics like free will
I will read and judge it eventually, but I want to write broadly accessible stuff, so other things will have priority