In the space of a few decades, fantasy has transformed from a vaguely disreputable genre to a multibillion-dollar behemoth that touches everything from film to television to miniature wargaming. Gone are the days of misanthropes digging through stacks of tattered paperbacks in the back of used bookstores. Modern fantasy novels rate glossy covers, Hollywood adaptations, and chin-scratching considerations in prestige media. 

What happened? One reason for fantasy’s surprising popularity is that the genre celebrates virtues — martial skill, physical courage, honor, chivalry, and so forth — that we are instinctively drawn to but rarely encounter in our everyday lives. This presents writers with both an opportunity and a dilemma. Readers want adventure and heroism, but they also have modern ideas about how society should look, ideas often at odds with traditional fantasy storytelling. Meanwhile, the trappings of the genre have become cloyingly familiar to a generation raised on dwarves, dragons, and magical quests.