: What do Readers Expect from a Fantasy Novel Here and there I've been hearing about what readers 'expect' from certain genres. Romance readers expect the hero and heroine to wind up together.

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According to the (note: controversial) theorist Bruno Bettleheim, fairy tales have an important psychological function because they directly access archetypal images with deep cultural resonance. In other words, they play out the central conflicts of the universal human life in an allegorical manner.

There is a big difference between modern fantasy novels and fairy tales, but the latter is the raw material for the former. A good fantasy novel has the magic and mystery of a dream, as combined with the structure and development of modern storytelling. The influential Jungian theorist Joseph Campbell identified elements of classic myths as underlying nearly every successful plotline, in all genres, but in fantasy this connection to the origins of storytelling are closer and less veiled.

There's no single list of elements that defines fantasy as a whole, although there are more formulaic sub-genres, such as "sword and sorcery," which tend to follow a set pattern. Rather, the important quality of a fantasy story is the liberation of the imagination through abandoning the requirement of sticking true to the parameters of reality as we know it.

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Oooh, i liked this question.

Basically, for fantasy novels, i believe that readers expects epic battles between huge armies, they expect a deep lore, fantastic new creatures, fantastic new places. I guess that is the best definition i can give for what people expect in a fantasy novel. They expect Fantastic things.

But let's get a bit broad here, now that i answered the main question. What do readers expect from All genres?

Basically, what everyone expects from a book, or anything for that matter, is it being good. It needs interesting characters, and an engaging plot. If you have that, i't doesn't really matter what is the defining characteristic for that specific genre.

In fact, it is quite common to see books trying out twists in common genres (Teenagers solving crimes, instead of cops, it is actually even more common than regular detective novels nowadays, but it started as a twist) , mixing together genres you don't normally see together (Like a romance in medieval times, or horror books with more erotic themes) or even switching genres in the middle of the book (Like teenager books that just keep getting darker and darker until you wonder if it's a suspense book).

TL;DR

The main focus of fantasy books is to make everything feel new and fantastic, big castles, cool spaceships, giant ruins, horrendous monsters, etc.

But don't try to hard to stick with only what your genre offers you, and do your best to make it all feel fresh. After all, what makes a good book is the story, not the genre.

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