I've recently discovered that one of the things I value most in a story is a fascinating, wildly original setting — the more thoroughly explored and further-removed from reality the better. Preferably, I'd like for a large focus of the story to be on exploring and learning more about the world rather than it just being a background element — I love when the setting of a story can be described as a character unto itself.
I enjoy both sci-fi and fantasy, but settings that use a healthy blend of both get big bonus points. My current gold standards are the narrative podcasts Midst and UNEND, set in the same science-fantasy space western universe with an extremely out-there cosmology, and the game Caves of Qud, set in an incomprehensibly far-future version of Earth where civilization has risen and fallen multiple times, and the technologies of empires past blend right in with psionic powers and fantastical monsters.
by BunchOfRandomSquares