It's not so much that you have a bit less world building to work with but in my experience its how the fantastical either integrates itself or hides itself from modern humanity. For example, I very much like the Dresden Files (Jim Butcher) for how it has the fantastical not quite perfectly blend into normalcy if you just know how to look, and has its own politics just beneath the surface of our own. Unlike Harry Potter which never used anything of the normal world and made modern wizards utterly ignorant of any changes since the 1700s. One of those is clever. The other, years later after some writing experience of my own, now seems rather lazy.
youngcoyote14 t1_ivrbzni wrote
Reply to Do you prefer fantasy books that are situated in the real world? by CyberWolfWrites
It's not so much that you have a bit less world building to work with but in my experience its how the fantastical either integrates itself or hides itself from modern humanity. For example, I very much like the Dresden Files (Jim Butcher) for how it has the fantastical not quite perfectly blend into normalcy if you just know how to look, and has its own politics just beneath the surface of our own. Unlike Harry Potter which never used anything of the normal world and made modern wizards utterly ignorant of any changes since the 1700s. One of those is clever. The other, years later after some writing experience of my own, now seems rather lazy.