Notable grimdark authors include George R. It spawned as a reaction to Tolkien-esque fantasy, which often comes off as too bright, too tidy, and too unrealistic. Whereas traditional fantasy tends to be heroic, uplifting, and optimistic, grimdark fantasy is brutal, morbid, and cynical. Grimdark is either high fantasy or low fantasy that takes things in a violent direction, often focusing on themes and scenes that are amoral, dystopian, hopeless, and despairing. #Reality fantasy and the space in between movie seriesRelated: The 9 Best Fantasy Book Series That Are Longer Than a Trilogy What Is. It'd be impossible to weave a tale as complex and vast as A Song of Ice and Fire in just one book! They all involve world-scale stakes with lots of characters, and they just happen to take place in fictional worlds.ĭue to the scope of storytelling, epic fantasy tends to publish in trilogies or longer. Most "traditional" fantasy falls under epic fantasy, including The Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time, Dragonlance, and The Belgariad. Whereas high fantasy describes a story that takes place in a fictional world that isn't part of actual human history, epic fantasy describes the scope of the story, the size of the cast, and the themes explored. Epic Fantasy?Įpic fantasy is often conflated with high fantasy since both genres often overlap, but there are subtle nuances. Dark fantasy that's taken to non-violent extremes creeps into the weird fiction subgenre. When dark fantasy heads toward violent extremes, it can cross into grimdark subgenre (more on that below). There's also Neil Gaiman's The Sandman and Stephen King's The Dark Tower series for examples that are more modern. It's more of an aesthetic and existential horror than the visceral thrills of mainstream horror.įor dark fantasy, think anything by H. Regardless of whether the story is epic in scale or intimate and personal, dark fantasy explores themes that are morbid in nature and intended for mature audiences. Dark Fantasy?ĭark fantasy is a bit of a broad, even vague, term that describes either high fantasy or low fantasy that's blended with elements that are gloomy, murky, dreadful, or horrifying. Related: 8 Modern Fantasy Authors You Might Have Missed (And Why They’re Great) What Is. Let's take a look at the most common ones down below. Within high fantasy and low fantasy, there are dozens of other genres, subgenres, and niches waiting to be discovered. But that's not true! Low fantasy can have lots of magic, as long as it's in the real world. The confusion comes when readers-especially those new to fantasy-assume that "high" and "low" describe the amount of fantasy in a work (i.e. Middle-Earth or Narnia), whereas low fantasy describes a story where magical elements exist in the real world (e.g. Strictly speaking, high fantasy describes a narrative that mainly takes place in a fictional setting outside actual human history (e.g. As you can imagine, these terms are vague enough to cause all kinds of misunderstandings and confusion. "High fantasy" and "low fantasy" are the broadest terms to describe a work of fantasy fiction. Keep that in mind as you dive deeper into fantasy over the next few years. While definitions for fantasy genres and subgenres are generally well-defined, they will continue to shift. Here are some of the most common types of fantasy genres and subgenres that you need to know about if you want to understand the current fantasy book landscape. With dozens of fantasy subgenres, no one would blame you for feeling lost in the mix. "Fantasy" encompasses thousands of different books, some which may not share much in common with others. Related: The 6 Best Fantasy Books for Adultsīut in many ways, fantasy as a genre has grown TOO big. It wasn't until the titanic rise of young adult fantasy series (like Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, and Grisha) and the resurgence in adult fantasy series (like A Song of Ice and Fire, The First Law, and Mistborn) that fantasy as a genre took the world by storm. It's actually been big for a while, but always floating just beneath the surface.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |