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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Honestly, most fantasy novels are low tier trash, it sucks.
Seaon Russel has some interesting takes on what magic would look like in like 18th and 19th centuries. In "Beneath the Vaulted Hills" and "The Compass of the Soul" Them "Moontide and Magic Rise"
Wheel of Time is good, but its a lore wiki and exposition book. On the other hand it was one of the first for it.
First four books of Terry Goodkind's "Sword Of Truth" Series, after that it just becomes lolbert saves the day against commies. Like literally, he defeats communism by thinking about capitalism really hard in book 7.
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I saw a bunch of Booktubers seething about Goodkind and it got me interested in his books lol I'll have to check one out.
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They hate him because he is a lolbert who likes objectivism. The first four books are solid and not too bad with that, but after it starts getting wonky.
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