Top Ten Tuesday

I've decided to start joining in with a fun meme called Top Ten Tuesday, hosted at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week a new Top Ten topic is set, with each blogger giving their own answers.

This week's topic is:

Settings I'd Like to See More Of (Or At All)

1) The far far future. I've read a lot of near future, dystopia, post-apocalyptic, even fairly distant future space operas and sci-fi. But really far far futures seem to be quite rare to me. Like Jack Vance's Dying Earth series, or space civilisations so far in the future that anything is possible.

2) Epic fantasy settings that aren't heavily based on our world. I love things like A Song of Ice and Fire, but fantasy is a big genre, and there's room for all kinds of stories. And it's fantasy. Anything goes! You don't have to show a patriarchal, sexist, racist, homophobic society with real historical weapons and clothes and castles if you don't want to. So much epic fantasy is The Past + Magic, and that's great! But I'd also like to see something really different.

3) Cities in the UK that aren't London. I might just be reading the wrong genres for this, but it seems to me that so many stories set in the UK are inevitably in London.

4) Countries that aren't the UK or USA. I know this is really my own fault as a reader. I should seek out more diverse settings and cultures. It would be nice to see these making it into the mainstream even more though, particularly in fantasy and science fiction.

5) Ancient Greece. Okay, there are a fair few of these, but I still want to read more of them! And it does feel like Rome gets a lot of the attention.

6) Autumn. My favourite season, and I'd love to read some stories where autumn is heavily part of the setting - the leaves, the colours, the holidays...

7) Mythical/fairytale settings. I love them. These are becoming more popular now. More please!

8) The Seychelles/Mauritius. I've never even seen a book in a bookshop that's set in this part of the world. I have family-in-law from the Seychelles, so I really should try to find some stories from there/set there.

9) Settings that combine science fiction and fantasy. Steampunk does this a little, but I'm talking typical sci-fi elements and typical fantasy elements. Aliens and magic? Laser-guns and dragons? Wizards in space? Magic as a sustainable fuel? Or something completely different and surprising.

10) Virtual worlds. I think I've read one. Possibly two. These seem to exist more as films than as books... or perhaps I just haven't found them. I mean things like Tron, or The Matrix, or The Thirteenth Floor. Or stories set in video games? I'd love recommendations if anyone knows of any. I've read Gamerunner and that's all I can think of right now.

That was fun! And quite illuminating... I'm sure most of these are actually out there; I just need to push my boundaries a little more while choosing books.

What about you - any settings you love/hate/are completely sick of? Ones you'd love to see more of? Link me your top ten in the comments :-)