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Good question. I really like what @daeus said here.

There’s that, there’s a sense of purpose, of  a world that’s wrong and needs to be made right, and there’s a moral divide.

I once read a fantasy novel by a Christian author that just didn’t have that. There was a hero who was fighting against an evil mage, but he was angry, destructive, and wasn’t really a better person than the evil mage. Sure, he wasn’t trying to gain power over the world, but he didn’t really care about most people. And there wasn’t anyone else trying to guide him onto a right path. I didn’t feel God in that story at all.

And then there’s A Cast of Stones by Patrick Carr. The main character is a drunk to start off. He doesn’t care. But he does have a whole bunch of people giving him advice, making him into a good person.

I’ve also noticed in some older books (And even a few newer ones), that though the characters aren’t strongly Christian, and aren’t always praying or thinking about God’s existence, he’s always there, in the background. Nominal belief on God is just woven into the background of society. The Scarlet Pimpernel books are one example.