Seek a second opinion. I hate almost all modern fantasy because it's derivative, or tries too hard not to be derivative, or the authors think that stringing together longish names and a few maps is all they need to be do to be Tolkien. I can count the fantasy series written after 1980 that I really enjoy on one hand, I think. After 2000, it drops to two: Pullman and this Kvothe business. EDIT: uh, the Convenant books, basically they sucked in every possible way. Most people just can't write antiheroes, I kinda wish they'd stop trying. EDIT 2: if you need something to read, fucking read Worm. It's 2 million words long. EDIT 3: I'm really pissed off because of baseball right now just ignore me.
I think fantasy has suffered a little too much for being genrefied. There wasn't Fantasy when Tolkien or Dunsany were doing it, and after Tolkien fantasy was doing what Tolkien did, maybe cribbing from the pulps or from people who cribbed from the pulps too. If you weren't writing a pastiche you weren't part of the genre.
What is fantasy if not a genre? I mean, I read number9dream the other day and it falls into a sort of vague postmodern magical realism category, but it shared all sorts of traits with modern fantasy: perversion of the Bildungsroman, extended dream sequences, sinister villains, more questions asked than answered... It could have gone on shelves as "urban fantasy" and no one would have batted an eye. If you aren't writing Tolkien-lite these days, your book won't get listed as fantasy. It's almost like there's no good fantasy left by definition. There are still plenty of stories being written that pique my imagination in the same way Lewis and Tolkien and Alexander did, you just have to look elsewhere. If I had my druthers, the genre would disappear for a few decades and give some people time to recharge their creative juices. Brandon Sanderson is an incredibly nice guy, and his books generally make for an enjoyable couple of hours, but it's no accident that he writes one every six months. He grew up reading the same genrefied stuff I did, you did, we all did, and it melted into the back of his brain for resynthesis on cue. He represents the pointlessly of the whole industry. Don't diehard fantasy fans ever get tired of reading the same stuff over and over again? I browse r/fantasy once a week or so; they don't.
Don't you have to be a romance novel with monsters to be urban fantasy? I love Sandman, the Invisibles and Hellblazer as much as the next guy of a certain age, but they all came before the scope of urban fantasy narrowed. I wonder if how any of them would fair if the genre has been established when they'd started. That was what I was getting at, which I think is what you're getting at withIt could have gone on shelves as "urban fantasy" and no one would have batted an eye.
It's almost like there's no good fantasy left by definition
Exactly. If I wanted to write a fantasy book, and make it about elves that didn't look like Jackson's Long Tan and handsome fantasies, or tried to make them more of the assholes they generally are, I would get lambasted for having shitty elves.I think fantasy has suffered a little too much for being genrefied.