What are the elements that make a good fantasy novel that most gaming fiction lacks? I admit that the last D&D novel I read all the way through was The Thousand Orcs, at which point I realized I didn't like D&D fiction. I've since gone back and reread the first Dragonlance chronicle, and didn't like it that much either.
And then there was the Magic: the Gathering novel. Uff da.
But I also haven't read many good fantasy novels lately. I admit that Perdido Street Station was inventive, but I didn't really enjoy it. Then again, I was unemployed at the time, and I think it might just been too depressing.
I didn't get into Game of Thrones after giving it 100 pages, but I've been telling myself to give it another try. Otherland was engaging, by it just went on way too long. I like it when a novel has a resolution at the end, y'know?
Most of the ones that I really like are more magical realism, like Kindred and Wild Seed by Octavia Butler. Or it was sci-fi by Neal Stephenson or William Gibson. Or it was Ender's Game. I don't really remember liking a 'classic' fantasy novel in a setting with elves and the like for a long time.