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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Maybe the Earthsea books? They're short, and the unique archipelago setting is vividly described but used in service of telling stories. The main protagonist is a wizard who spends most of his time on interesting magic based quests and almost no time fighting regular bad guys. The role of "wizard" is treated as a unique social role and way of life, rather than being a glorified RPG function. The books have a neat mythological vibe and touch on psychoanalytic themes. They also have actual endings instead of sequel baiting, so you can stop whenever you want. (I've only read the original trilogy).
The books were originally marketed as YA, but the only real artifact of this is that the viewpoint characters are young (the original protagonist appears in the whole trilogy and develops into an older mentor figure). There's no relationship drama or other common YA bs. I reread them recently as an adult and I think they hold up for all ages.
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