25+ Fantasy Subgenres | Definitions & Disagreements
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- Опубликовано: 22 июл 2024
- This video was inspired by a combination of these two videos:
@PetrikLeo
• The Golden Age of Epic...
@ToriTalks2 & @Johanna_reads
ruclips.net/user/liveObZGaN3o...
This video is in conversation with similar videos attempting to define fantasy subgenres:
@CapturedInWords
• The Ultimate Guide to ...
@DanielGreeneReviews
• Fantasy Sub-Genres EXP...
@Bookborn
• A guide to fantasy genres
Please join in the conversation in the comments! Let me know which of my takes you agree or disagree with. Also, stay tuned all the way to the end of the video for a very epic cameo from my cat. :)
TIMESTAMPS
Intro (0:00)
Inspiration (0:21)
Genre, Subgenre, Category, & Tropes (1:18)
Fantasy Subgenres (6:25)
High Fantasy (7:05)
Epic Fantasy (8:07)
Cozy Fantasy (9:52)
Historical Fantasy (10:25)
Urban Fantasy (11:22)
Paranormal & PN Romance (11:49)
Grimdark (12:20)
Dark Fantasy (12:52)
Dark Academia (13:11)
Romantasy (13:50)
Heroic Fantasy (14:43)
Sword & Sorcery (15:10)
Low Fantasy (15:36)
Magical Realism (17:43)
Steampunk (18:20)
Flintlock/Gunpowder (19:08)
Gaslamp Fantasy (19:58)
Portal Fantasy (20:29)
Comic/Absurdist (21:01)
Fable/Fairy Tale (21:33)
Sci-Fantasy (22:03)
Christian Fantasy (23:02)
Erotic Fantasy (23:14)
Military Fantasy (23:26)
LitRPG & Progression (24:01)
New Weird (24:41)
Final Thoughts & cat cameo (25:46)
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Honestly as a writer this cubbyholing drives me nutty. I gave up on trying to get an agent the day I read a message from one that said I love your stuff I just don't know how to sell you. I discovered publishing on Amazon a few years later and never looked back. I've been writing a long time but recently learned that most of what I write fits under the umbrella of Urban Fantasy. Frankly I just tell stories.
Yes, exactly! It's pretty irrelevant to authors when they're writing, but if they want to be traditionally published they have to know all these marketing terms. It's pretty silly, in my opinion. Glad you've been publishing anyway! Hope it's been successful for you.
@@OnefortheBooks I also write female super heroes which publishers tend to stare at and pretend dont exist
I agree with you on the trope v genre classification of coming-of-age, etc. A grimdark fantasy can contain court intrigue, but it doesn't work the other way around!
I’m really glad I’ve wandered across the algorithmic landscape and found you. From Japan, north about 1 hour by train from the skin of Tokyo
The Honor Series is a good military science fiction series.
Yes--the shift to indie publishing has really changed the way books are marketed and thus written. We're seeing more cross-genre stories than ever. And sub-genres are constantly shifting. And, people can't even agree on what the most popular ones are... they're pointers more than real categories.
loved this!
I think CyberFantasy (or Cyberpunk Fantasy) could slot is as a separate subgenre, just about. I really enjoyed this video.
For LitRPG Fantasy the He Who Fights with Monsters series would be a prime example.
For Progression Fantasy I think the Arcane Ascension series is a good example.
Isekai (Another/New World) Fantasy is really popular in anime right now. It's similar to Portal Fantasy except the protagonist(s) are either summoned to the fantasy world or are reborn there (with memories of their life on Earth). There is usually no way back to our world.
Ooh that sounds interesting! Thanks for the recommendations.
I just watched Mushoku Tensei which is an Isekai based on a series of light novels which have been translated in English.
Maybe in historical fantasy, the fantastic elements are things that have been forgotten, or unproveable and thought to be imaginary by the present time, but history since the time in which the story is set has moved along indistinguishable from real life. A good example of an alternate history fantasy would be Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker Series. That would has alot of similarities too, but is way too different from, the real world of the early 19th century to reasonably expect history to move on to something similar to today.
I think you right low magic and low fantasy shouldn’t be the same thing.
Also, good job. Trust yourself. I think you could cut down the start of this video, you are our expert! Where that expertise came from isn’t as important as the great information you have to share.
LotR is set on Earth, a fictional past version, but Earth nonetheless - that rules it out of High Fantasy by your definition :D I'd define it by the magic being used - Potter & Pratchett are High Fantasy - silly magic nonsense. LotR is Epic Fantasy - a world spanning quest
This was really good, thank you for putting together such a useful overview.
LitRPG is certainly a strange, new thing (I think it couldn't be born until Dungeons and Dragons changed the gaming world). My favorite LitRPG is probably Darkworlds London by Tony Walker (he published a great reading of it himself here on youtube: ruclips.net/video/XUEKuGVVTQs/видео.html ) I would argue that this is a good example of a mostly-fantasy LitRPG. It does have a few sci-fi aspects (the players use some sci-fi VR headgear to join the game), but the game itself is set in fin de siècle London (the late 1800's or early 1900's) and borrows and extends upon the alchemy, occult magic, and otherworldly mythos of Lovecraft.
One other thing I'd like to mention is that, when possible, knowing some of the earliest examples of a genre can help to understand it. For instance, William Morris created some intriguing early high fantasy set in invented worlds and based on his appreciation of medieval romance (which ties in fairly well with Arthurian myths), and Lord Dunsany extrapolated on this hugely, creating whole pantheons and dream-realms. The history of New Weird is helpful too -- Shelley, Poe, Dunsany (though mostly fantasy, some of his darker tales are definitely weird), Kafka, ...all the way up through the original contributors to the "Weird Tales" magazine, especially H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and Robert E. Howard (though, you're right, Howard leaned more toward Sword & Sorcery) and informing later speculative fiction such as Jorge Louis Borges and Harlan Ellison. New Weird works like VanderMeer's "Annihilation" fit right in among these (at the risk of mentioning Lovecraft again: "The one test of the really weird is simply this [...] awed listening, as if for the beating of black wings or the scratching of outside shapes and entities on the known universe’s utmost rim.")
_Fantastique_ is also worth mentioning, although it is not very common anymore, at least in the anglophone world. George MacDonald's books might fit into that genre.
I've never heard of that! When I googled it I just kept getting a definition for a french word. What is the Fantastique subgenre?
@@OnefortheBooks According to Wikipedia, it 'is characterized by the intrusion of supernatural elements into the realistic framework of a story, accompanied by uncertainty about their existence.'
'It evokes phenomena which are not only left unexplained but which are inexplicable from the reader's point of view.'
'Instead, characters in a work of fantastique are, just like the readers, unwilling to accept the supernatural events that occur. This refusal may be mixed with doubt, disbelief, fear, or some combination of those reactions. The fantastique is often linked to a particular ambiance, a sort of tension in the face of the impossible.'
(I would put here a link to that article, but RUclips usually blocks my comments if there are links.)
The discussion of epic fantasy here would leave out works like Beowulf, The Song of Roland, The Poem of El Cid, The Iliad, and The Odyssey. Those are all primary epics. They include fantastic elements and use elevated, poetic language. Some of them deal with magic, monsters, and gods and goddesses. They all take place here on Earth and might contain elements such as historic people and events but have been heavily mythologized. The Odyssey deals with a series of events that took place over years as does El Cid but Beowulf, Roland, and The Iliad cover relatively short periods. Heck, The Song of Roland only deals with a single battle.
Secondary epics such as The Aeneid and The Faire Queen contain many fantasy elements but they also occurred here on Earth. These works weren’t even composed orally. They were composed in writing and the authors knew that their works were heavily fictionalized. Why should these works be left out of epic fantasy?
I get that this is just one content creator’s views and is intended to spark discussion but I think she missed the mark on this one.
Question about historical fantasy/alternate history fantasy. When I hear "history" I think of a retelling of a historical figure like Lincoln or Albert Einstein. Could a historical/alternate history be considered such if you told a fictional story in a prehistoric setting like the Ice Age with cavemen and such? I think of the movie Quest for Fire as an example.
Yeah totally! I think that counts
Personally I have found the lines between Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Horror to be pretty blurry anymore since there is so much cross-over 😮 I don't think it's a bad thing but sometimes the 50 hashtags that seem to go along with any marketing or review of the title seems excessive 😏
Isn't "Epic" a description of the scope of the book rather than the scope of the plot? Or maybe the level of details that make it into the book? As opposed to the Novel which is reduced to the necessary bits.
On everything else I agree.
How would you categorize books that blur the line between real and not? Such as "American Gods" by Neil Gaimen or "The Buried Giant" by Kazuo Ishiguro. Do they even count as fantasy?
Yeah, American Gods could fit into a few subgenres depending on your focus --it's set in modern day America but the characters are mythological & the magical elements are subtle & the story is often pretty dark..idk...it's just Gaiman to me tbh :D Maybe he is his own subgenre? 😮
639th!
😁 Welcome!!
I don't think I have much affinity for David Mamet as a person, but one thing that stuck with me from his book was the assertion that genre is a marketing tool, not a literary one. Which struck me as immediately self evident. Especially since the things that distinguish a Western from other genres is fairly concrete, material things, while other genres are separated by far more abstract, less material things. Few genres are so clearly defined by hats. I must say I would have expected "military fantasy" to be a more "modern" wartime setting. Also is steampunk real? Nobody ever talks about their favorite steampunk books.
There's something very charming about when you breakdown and laugh, seems to happen quite a lot too, lol
Coming of age feels like a valid genre, if it's the focus of the story. Since again categorization is mostly about "who are we selling this book to?" In that way I can see why publishers used to be so wary of mixed genres. Even now a "coming of age dark academic military fantasy" seems like it's shooting for a very narrow target.
I just read a great steampunk last year called The Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark. But yeah, I don't think it's super prevalent.
Thanks 😊