🤝 
I want some good fantasy recommendations, but so much of the genre is unbearable. I've identified two main reasons why, though I'm sure there are also many others.
- YA desperately written for a movie deal and/or teenaged foids
by older foids 
Can't stand this garbage and I doubt I need to explain why.
- Conversely I can't get through a lot of "standard" fantasy written by moids who don't see the difference between a novel and a DnD campaign.
Characters and plot usually take a backseat to pointless wiki lore and unending exposition. I'd say I like worldbuilding but it should be done more naturally than vomiting paragraphs. The plot shouldn't stop because the author needs us to know every detail about the temple or whatever we just passed by. The majority of these settings will also be shameless ripoffs of Tolkien and/or DnD with nothing new to offer.
I need some fantasy recs that avoid these pitfalls. I'm interested in finding any of the following
- Unique main characters. Examples of anything that made a particular protagonist stand out above the genre.
- Same with settings. Any that stood out (ideally right from the get-go, and not just because you'd gotten used to it after eight books)
- Stories that were concise while still being good. I'm not against wordier entries, but I think a lot of fantasy authors have trouble with brevity. I'm wondering if anyone knows of exceptions who still managed to pull off something creative.
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China Miéville's Bas-Lag books? Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Iron Council
World with magic but also late 19th century steampunk type tech (written before steampunk was played out). Innovative fantasy species and polities. The preeminent setting is New Crobuzon, Bas-Lag's hustling and bustling NYC/London/Singapore equivalent.
I think he pretty much set out to avoid the fantasy tropes. Himself he's some kind of old-school full communist. In the first two books this flavors the writing slightly without detracting from the quality, but the third book does go full commie and suffers for it. Still found it worth the read.
EDIT: I forget the best part, these are NOT A TRILOGY, that's right, this science fiction or fantasy author somehow managed to write multiple independent books with their own complete stories.
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What?
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