Guide to the Best Fantasy Books
"BestFantasyBooks.com guide to Fantasy Genres"
Dark Fantasy
). One of the best dark fantasy series is C.S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy
. You may also want to check out Clive Barker
.
Epic Fantasy
, Martin’s A Game of Thrones
, and Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn
. Epic fantasy has been around for decades in the form of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
.
Erotic Fantasy
Heroic Fantasy
High Fantasy
Celtic Fantasy
is a popular Celtic fantasy. Mythago Woods is a urban Celtic fantasy tale that you will want to check out.
Mythic Fantasy
) is an author who includes elements of Myth in his fiction. Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood
fits this as well.
Romantic Fantasy
) is one of the more popular romantic fantasy authors.
Sword and Sorcery Fantasy
and Fritz Lieber'a Lankhmar Book 1: Swords And Deviltry
are classic example of sword and sorcery. This genre is in a state of flux as new modern takes on the classic sword and sorcery are being penned. This modern version includes heavy uses of magic and sword play but with a gritty, dark undertone. A good example is the sword of J.V. Jones' Sword of Shadows
saga, for example.
Part of the definition of High/Epic fantasy usually includes how influencial the protagonists are on the world stage. Without Frodo would Middler Earth have been saved? So with high fantasy...the main characters save the world...In low fantasy, they help throw a drunk out of a tavern and get free beer for the rest of the night. The influence is small and local. I grant you that there is very little low fantasy out there. What I see of it, would have to be labeled Horror Fantasy or Urban Fantasy. These are fairly new sub-genres that have gained in popularity recently.
Happy Reading!
I would suggest several sub-genres for inclusion on you list. The first is Comedic Fantasy (ex. A Malady of Magic et al., the Discworld series, the Xanth series, etc.). The second would be some from of Techno-Fantasy (ex. the Warlock of Gramarye series, The Windrose Chronicles, etc.). The third would be something like Cross-Over Fantasy (i.e. a person from the real world crosses over into a fantasy world, with this being used as more than a simple devise to introduce a fantasy setting, that is, where it continues to have material impact on plot and character). Fourth, I would proffer Animalistic and/or Anthropomorphic Fantasy (ex. the Spellsinger series).
Finally, a Lite or General Fantasy heading may also be useful to round out the listing, for those works that are certainly fantasy, but defy more particular classification. (For instance, to me, something like the Harry Potter series seems like it would fall here. I suppose it might work as Heroic Fantasy as well; however, its persistent focus on general day-to-day life at Hogwarts would seem to make this a somewhat tenuous classification.)
I offer these only as suggestions, of course, but some of them do seem like they have as much distinction and merit as the likes of Celtic Fantasy, Dark Fantasy and other members of their categorical kin.
Good way to generalize the fantasy genres.
