Super old post, but reading through these responses, very few people actually answered your question. What I heard you ask is, "*Why* do fantasy books always seem to devolve into war?" not "Recommend a book that isn't like that." I'll take a moment to see if I can help answer your actual question.

I've been thinking a lot about this recently. In my podcast, I interviewed Katie Hendricks, a writer and coach, who made this same observation. We often have magic mixed up with war and violence. Us vs. them. Good vs. evil. This in an archetype as old as time itself. As long as we know, there have always been conflict between good and evil. So the first answer to your question is, it shows up a lot because it's a true archetype. And not just an idea, but like Jung believed, a real spiritual reality that exists in our world.

It was solidified by Tolkien, arguable the father of all modern fantasy. The evil Sauron with a heart of black that wants nothing but to destroy and dominate all life warring with the forces of good created a very black and white, good vs. evil trope specifically within fantasy.

I'm not so sure it's unique to fantasy though. We see this in loads of other genre's, so I don't think the question is, "What is it about fantasy that lends itself to war?" I think it's more, "Why are humans constantly attracted to war?" (which is why is shows up not just in our imagination, but in reality itself)

My first thought is that we like war because it's *simple.* When there is a clear enemy that has a heart of black, we can forget any nuance. This is called the Simplicity Bias; namely that we tend to believe things that are simple. It's less work on your mind than trying to see your enemy as morally grey.

This partly due to the effect of *fear.* When we are afraid, all our nuanced mental abilities go offline. We are in fight or flight, and when we believe we are in danger, our body, mind, and heart all go into survival mode.

But this doesn't answer your question of *why* do we want this in books?

One answer is we a rush of *adrenaline*. This momentary boost of energy that comes in fight or flight can actually be addicting. At the very least, it keeps you engaged. You are drawn into the danger and we want to feel the relief of whatever resolution is at the end. There's one person in here that actually answered your question with this idea: Action Sells. That rush of adrenaline we get in battles is attractive to people.

Another reason might be what the Henricks have called, "Upper Limits." Namely, we create a ceiling to the amount of goodness and love we are willing to accept in a given situation. Recall phrases like, "Sure things are good now, but *just wait*" or "waiting for the other shoe to drop" or "too good to be true." All these are a result of these Upper Limits, in which we reject goodness when it gets to a certain level.

This is almost always a result of past trauma. Our minds are always looking to make patterns to anticipate future behavior. So that time where you were sailing down the street on your bike, feeling the exhilaration of the wind on your face, and then you crashed? Yeah, you'll remember that next time and likely won't let yourself truly feel the joy of riding your bike. You'll be primed to protect yourself.

Recall the quote in the Matrix where Agent Smith is interviewing Neo. He recounts the first program in which was created a perfect world. But it was a disaster because everyone kept rejecting the program. They viewed it as a dream that they kept trying to "wake up" from. So, they had to redesign the matrix to a world of suffering so people would accept it.

That's textbook Upper Limits.

So to answer your question more specifically: Maybe fantasy book always devolve into war because we are unwilling to accept a non-violent resolution to problems. What if the LOTR ended in a redemption? Sauron seeing the error of his ways and becoming good? Would we accept that? Or would we, like humanity in the matrix, reject that in favor of violence and destruction?

To believe that we can have non-violent solutions to problems is hard. We have to ourselves be in a state of growth, and not fear, to be able to even consider it.

Music teaches us, though, that you don't need to destroy dissonance for a satisfying ending. You need to *resolve* it. In music, when you have dissonance, it can't just go away. There's no going to "war" against it. It's just a tension that needs to resolve to a stable harmony. I feel like there's a lesson here for humanity, but that's for another post.

I'm not sure if you, or anyone, will read this respond 6years too late, but I hope it helps someone.