instant to-read; the fantasy edition

I feel like some of this will have overlapped with things I have written in either the ‘instant to-read; the paranormal edition‘ or the ‘handle with care; the paranormal edition‘ blog posts, but I did say I feel like genres overlap a lot, right?

Fantasy is probably my favourite genre of all time. Close behind is science-fiction, but even then I prefer less science and more fiction. The story must always be very strong for me to enjoy any book. Some of my automatic reads are things pointed out by some of my favourite bloggers so I usually do get a gist of these things from them before adding them to my TBR.

• Do you know what makes me very excited about fantasy books? Good worldbuilding. A world that sucks you straight in and you can understand without too much exposition. A world that unfolds in front of you as you read. Someone tells me the world’s system is a part of the story and that it’s understandable without being simple, and it’s complex without being told at you instead of shown subtly? Um, yes, please, thank you.
• Connecting to worldbuilding? A good magic system if the story involves magic. You want something simple? DO IT WELL. You want something complex? Or something that has been done before? Do it well, keep it understandable and don’t overdo the exposition, and I will probably fall in love immediately*.
• DRAGONS. I’m not going to lie, books with dragons are an instant ‘oh wow, I want’ for me. Do I get to read them all? No, but I’m hoping now that I have an Overdrive account connected to the Singapore library, I can catch up on all the dragon books I’ve missed over the past few years. I really, really love dragons.

*I still really really love the magic system in the Spellcaster series by Claudia Gray.

A short list, but these are VERY IMPORTANT to me when picking up new fantasy books. I love books that are diverse and different, especially, but I thought I’d be more general about my list. A book series that I read this year that involves the first two points in a very good way? The Oremere Chronicles by Helen Scheuerer*. SO GOOD.

*Giveaway happening here.

What are some of your favourite things about fantasy books?