I posted this quiz on my blog, but Mulluane had a good idea and suggested I post it here as well. So, here is your chance to participate if you don't follow my blog

Out of the following pairs of items, which do you prefer in fantasy novels you read? I know some of these are "tropes" that you would prefer to be totally absent from the story. But as a fun exercise, force yourself to pick the one you find the least upsetting

1) Farmboy turned hero, or lazy prince turned hero (or farmgirl/princess. Sorry about the male bias in the original question!)
2) Dwarves or Elves
3) Wizards or Dragons
4) traditional epic fantasy or the new dark and gritty stuff
5) 300 pages or 500+ pages

To kick off the participation, I'll post my answers, along with a comment or two.

1) This one is tough. I guess i prefer farmboy, as I like rooting for the underdog. I know a prince can be an underdog in some cases, but I'll still go with the farmboy as my choice.

2) Elves. While I like dwarves in my stories, I prefer elves mostly due to the fact that they traditionally live in forests instead of underground or in caves. Dwarves live in gloomy, dark places. So, i like the Elves "setting" better. Plus there are some cool variations on elves in some stories.

3) Wizards all the way. I've never been a big fan of dragons for some reason (even though I love the Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends series).

4) No one following this blog will be surprised here: traditional epic fantasy like Tad Williams, David B. Coe, Weiss & Hickman, Brandon Sanderson, etc. I do like the Abercrombie, Erikson, and Ruckley books quite a bit..but over all, I like the stuff I read to be a little "lighter". After awhile, the dark stuff gets to be too much for me.

5) 500+ page novels. I like the longer books as I feel/hope that it means more depth to the story. I know this definitely isnt always true. Some long books are filled with needless padding, and the shorter works can be better in terms of worldbuilding. But looking at my shelves and what I like, I seem to prefer the longer books.

1) Lazy Prince, because I've seen too many stories about farmboys who become heroes ... also, farmboys' situation usually gets only better (farmboy - the chosen one - fights some monsters -???- profit!!) while lazy princes usually get some unpleasant surprises (prince-exiled-hated-fights some monsters- grudgingly accepted-fights some more monsters-a hero, maybe). I hate how snotty and holier-than-thou they usually are for the first half of the adventure, though, but I still like them better than farmboys.

2) Dwarves, because they usually have Scottish accent and drink beer ale. And they're small, like me! (And badass, unlike me.)

3) Dragons. Admittedly, that's due to FRPs and D&D instead of books. Wizards are pretty damn uneffective in melee combat, they can't wear any armor except for their suits which do them little good, and they subsequently die quickly. They also can carry but little and it takes a LOT of time until they are able to cast powerful spells - which often have to be prepared beforehand. Dragons, on the other hand, have to be assaulted by the whole group in order to be defeated, can breathe fire, can use their claws, can even use spells sometimes, and they almost always possess a huge treasure. I mean, come on! (I do think that in books, wizards are usually far superior to dragons, but since all the wizards I've seen in books lately didn't really come near a dragon, I can't be really sure)

4)Dark and gritty? Where??? I seem to have missed those but I always choose dark&gritty&wicked over light&happy.

5) Hm, depends on what's inside! There can be lots of good stuff on only 300 pages, and lots of boring stuff on 500. And vice versa, of course.

1) Farmboy turned hero, or lazy prince turned hero.

Lazy Prince, because I think it is a much harder transition, though to be more accurate I'd say heartless prince who develops compassion.

2) Dwarves or Elves

Elves all the way!

3) Wizards or Dragons

If it even has a hint of a dragon, I'm grabbing it up.

4) traditional epic fantasy or the new dark and gritty stuff

Traditional secondary world epic fantasy.

5) 300 pages or 500+ pages

500+ and preferably an entire series, one book right after the other....bet you could have never guessed that one!

1) Farmboy turned hero, or lazy prince turned hero (or farmgirl/princess. Sorry about the male bias in the original question!)

Farmboy, I guess, mostly because I've read a number of books with that theme that I have enjoyed despite being way overdone.

2) Dwarves or Elves

Elves, I don't like Dwarves much, and Elves tend to have more interesting culture/politics.

3) Wizards or Dragons

Dragons, especially if they are intelligent.

4) traditional epic fantasy or the new dark and gritty stuff

New dark and gritty stuff, though I am not sure how a farmboy, elves, or dragons would feature in such a story.

5) 300 pages or 500+ pages

300 pages, and perhaps even stand alone.. we don't need 12 books about the farmboy...