Fantasy Stories That Don’t Romanticise the Past

[Dioltach]

The big counterexample is Discworld, where a significant portion of the books are about making the world (or at least Ankh-Morpork) better through either social or technological progress. There's even one specifically about moving away from the hidebound prejudices of the past (Thud!).

Guards! Guards! has a bit about wanting a king again instead of the Patrician, because of the old glory days. That idea gets pretty short shrift.

As for other fantasy books that don't glorify the past: Shannara (where the past is truly grim), the Gentlemen Bastards (where there's not much history given in the books) and Artemis Fowl (where people have different ideas about what bits of history were good).

 

[Koloth]

The Thieves World anthology.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The genre that really romanticises the past isn’t fantasy at all, it’s historical crime fiction.

I think Walter Moseley would disagree.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think Walter Moseley would disagree.

And exception amongst a huge pile of cosy crime.