I debated whether to post this in Brandon's forum, or the writing group forum, or here, and ultimately decided I wanted the discussion to go in a broad direction.
I recently finished reading WoK and was struck by two seemingly opposite thoughts: 1) the world seems completely unlike anything I've seen in a fantasy book ever, and entirely unlike earth, and 2) the culture still seems vaguely medieval European, like pretty much every fantasy book I've ever read.
What I've wondered for years, actually, is whether there's a market for a fantasy novel where the characters' culture is totally unlike European culture. Like, what if a novel based its culture on the ancient Mayans? Or the Chinese? I mean, the possibilities aren't endless or anything, since I think a fantasy set in a hunter-gatherer society would have less potential for being epic, but there are advanced societies to choose from outside Europe. I guess Egypt has been explored too somewhat, so maybe I'm overgeneralizing.
Or maybe it's been done and either I just have missed those particular novels or they haven't done well because nobody wants to read a fantasy novel about people who are vaguely Chinese. This question is of specific importance to me because I'm seriously considering doing a major revision of my current fantasy novel to set it in a non-European culture. I'm wondering how much of a mistake (or great idea) it would theoretically be.