All types of Fantasy Fiction

In a vast literary genre, High, Low, Epic, Urban, Paranormal and Romance are all types of fantasy fiction. Along with a host of others. It’s not one single genre, it’s many. So why does genre matter?

In a world… where genre mashups and crossovers abound, and publishers chase down the Next Big Thing, new genres like Romantasy pop up in response to changing tastes. Readers know what they like. So writers mess with genre at their peril.

Sanderson tells a story of an author who subverted the fantasy genre half way through a book. Without hints, clues or warnings. Trad-fantasy readers threw it on the bonfire in disappointment, while the alt-fantasy crowd never picked it up in the first place. Good idea; terrible execution.

So what are the common denominators for all types of fantasy fiction?

You won’t believe this…

Firstly, fantasy contains people places or events outside of our everyday experience. Fantasy equals the fantastical, something unthinkable in the real world. And it’s not science. If there’s hard science beyond what we have in the real world, it’s sci-fi: science fiction. If its unbelievable and there’s no science (myth, monsters, magic) then its fantasy. Probably*.

Fantasy includes characters doing unreal, unbelievable things.

Ready, Setting, Go

What else places a story in the fantasy genre? Let’s go with setting.

High fantasy takes place in an imagined world, unconnected to our own.

The Lord of the Rings is High Fantasy; it takes place entirely in Middle Earth. No one there knows anything of Tolkien’s Oxford, World War I, New York or Eddison’s light-bulb. The same goes for George Martin’s Westeros, Conan’s Hyboria and Erikson’s Malazan.

Discworld, for all its satirical references, is High Fantasy. The world is a fantastical construct with no connection to our own. Except for Terry Pratchett’s biting satire on our real world.

Low fantasy takes place either in our world or in worlds connected to ours, containing characters who acknowledge the fantastical elements and know the difference between the two.

Narnia is Low fantasy by dint of the Pevensey children travelling there from WWII England. The children are little fishes out of water. Alice in Wonderland is similarly a portal fantasy featuring an Edwardian child in a surreal setting.

A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur? Low (portal) fantasy. As is The Wizard of Oz. Harry Potter may be a contemporary version of Tom Brown’s Schooldays, but it is also Low (portal) Fantasy.

The Dresden Files is Low Urban Fantasy that takes place in a recognizable version of our world, albeit with witches, warlocks and demons in it. Harry Dresden a Noir Detective, in the know and in his element, fights the good fight while the everyday Joe remains largely ignorant. Ditto the Shadowhunters of the Mortal Instruments series. They hunt demons in our contemporary world alongside warlocks, werewolves, vampires, Fey and all manner of supernatural creatures. In New York, with ligh-bulbs.

Re-boot, Re-imagine, Re-hash

Anything derived from Greek mythology, Norse mythology, the Mahabarat or Arabian Nights remains High Fantasy as it occurs in a version of antiquity that is outside of recorded historical time and place. They may reference versions of places and civilisations we know existed, but not the ones we have in the archaeological record. There are gods, monsters and heroes, engaged in epic battles that can only exist in our imagination.

Lately we’ve had fairy-tale retellings. What about classic fantasy retellings such as Heartless and Cinder, both by Marissa Meyer? Or the multi-level derivative A Court of Hearts and Hunger (Colleen Oakes)?

And for a while we had Greek mythology retellings; The Song of Achilles, Circe, Ariadne, Piranesi. Myths updated and re-imagined for the meme-generation. In various sub-genre configurations. Including Literary Fiction with capital letters.

Crossover fiction

Now we come to the minefield of crossover fiction. It’s a Frankenstein’s monster (the godfather of science fiction, I know) with a long pedigree.

Dracula is Gothic Horror. It is also Urban Fantasy; the story takes place in a recognisable contemporary Victorian era, where Van Helsing fights supernatural vampires.

A Court of Thorns and Roses? High Fantasy, within the Young Adult (YA) Fantasy-Romance or Romantasy sub-genre genre. Fourth Wing? More YA High Fantasy-Adventure-with-Romance.

Beware of cross-over, sub-genre mashup novels. All too often these are trend-chasers that lead to literary dead ends. Remember Twilight and the whole slew of Werewolf-Romance, Vampire-Romance, Fantasy Love-triangle-Romance? What about YA-Dystopian (mostly sci-fi)? The Hunger Games, Maze Runner and the rest?

From there we descend into a labyrinth. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies; Historical-Horror-Romance or Historical-Fantasy Romance? Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter? Alternative-Historical-Horror-Fantasy? That’s a lot of sub-genres chasing a small sub-set of readers using an intriguing premise or hook.

Casting the Net Wide

And if the constant mutation and cross-breeding of genres isn’t enough to confuse everyone, we have to address the target market; Adult, New Adult, Young Adult, or Middle Grade; spicy, sweary or clean.

This is where marketing often triumphs over content, where a novel’s genre collides with Comparable Titles. Where a good on-market, on-message blurb and an eye catching cover image attracts eyeballs regardless of the actual genre on the page.

I mention this because? I have to decide how and to whom I market my series among all types of fantasy fiction. No one says it’s easy…

*In the current podcast episode, Sanderson accuses various fantasy authors of sneaking sci-fi stories to readers under the guise of fantasy.