Intricate And Convoluted Worlds In Fantasy Books

I have a thing for fantasy books that have really, really interesting worlds. Books that just have boring settings that feel like alternate versions of earth just aren't exciting anymore. I know the setting isn't as important as the characters, plot, or other story elements, but I really like to read about crazy worlds that have had a lot of thought put into their design.

An example would be the way the world is set up in the Death Gate Cycle series. Or what I've heard about Weaveworld (still haven't gotten to read it). Basically anything that comes with a unique setting.

Throw your best at me!

 

How is the world set up in Death Gate Cycle series? I am not familiar with it.

 

The Night land !!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Land

 

for me, setting IS everything. and by that i mean the less culturally familiar the better.
strangeness is the very essence of beauty. too many people impose a dark side on it.
i won't pretend there isn't or can't be one there. that's not my point.
but it IS in reality a smaller part of the strange then it is of the familiar.

the forces of harm and destruction, do not find their greatest welcome out beyond the unknown,
but take root in the fertile soil of such things and perspectives, as are so familiar as to be take for granted

when 'sonas have unfamiliar motivations that do not require them to be senseless or illogical to move a cleche'd plot along.
that is what brought me to science fiction, and the best of fantasy shares in that also.

 

this book is set on Earth..a strange man meets a scholar and gives him a story to translate.. written on human skin..

the story unfolds somewhere on a pilgrimage road in Northern India hundreds of years ago.. a race of enormous shape-shifters in human form join the travelers and - when craving food and/or lusting for sexual release - prey upon travelers.. rather gruesome at times yet erotic as well..

I found myself struggling to remember that the story is fiction.. The story kind've exhausted me with its intensity.. The author created a world that I wanted no part of, yet I felt as if the story was grabbing me, pulling me in... yet I knew I wanted it to take me..

I wanted to put the book away so I could rest and recover... but I couldn't.. I needed to see more..

Maybe it's just me, but the book never let up.. I actually saw this storyline as if it were real..

 

If you want to read an Intricate And Convoluted World In a very popular Fantasy Book, may I suggest the bible?

Worse are those who review/interpret that book do so for their own selfish reasons. Some even claim it's non-fiction. So caveat emptor.

The Odyssey is a classic Greek tale involving an epic adventure with exotic islands, vengeful gods, horney men and of course the hero Ulysses.

 

what are they pollinating?

 

The ecosystem apparently.
I wonder if the word "ecosystem" still appears in any US government documents.

The whole concept of an ecosystem has been ignored these days. That's because if you knew what they're doing to dear Gaia, and spread the word, they'd have to eliminate you.