[littlemissattitude]

Interesting question, SDNess. I came late to fantasy, after having been raised on science fiction, so I may have a little bit of a different view of fantasy than people who have been reading it for nearly their whole lives and who have read all of the classics. I guess I should also say that I came to fantasy through the two Thomas Covenant trilogies by Stephen R. Donaldson, and so fantasies that are somewhat dark do not bother me in the least.

I very much like what I have seen called "urban fantasy", that is fantasy that is very much rooted in the real, contemporary world. Tim Powers does this very well. His semi-trilogy, "Last Call", "Expiration Date", and "Earthquake Weather" (I call them a semi-trilogy because they don't really become a trilogy until the last volume ties the first two together) is just great. He also has written an interesting book, "Declare", that takes place during the Cold War. Some of his characters are actually historical personages, and he apparently did a great deal of research and then inserted the fantasy elements of the story so that they do not contradict actual recorded history. I'd love to see more of this.

I also like fantasy that uses mythological systems besides that of medieval Europe. I've read a couple of books (which I can't recall the titles or authors of right now) that base themselves on Mesoamerican mythology, for example, that worked very well. There are all kinds of mythological systems that could easily lend themselves to the fantasy genre. And have, but not to the extent that they could be used. This is not to say that I do not like traditional fantasy in the Medieval mold, but simply that I would like to see more variety than I have.

As far as the idea of good v. evil conflicts being the base of most fantasy, I think that will probably continue to be the case because when you really think about it, it is the base of most literature of all kinds. However, I tend to like stories in which the lines are not so clearly drawn, where the hero is not entirely good and the villain is not completely evil. In my view, this makes things much more interesting.

I don't think fantasy will ever get too far from the "quest" theme, either. However, I think it can be handled in unique ways and that quests need not always be for "magical items". Quests for knowledge of one sort or another are very interesting to me, for example, and can be worked into the fantasy template as easily as quests for things.

Anyway, that's my two cents worth.