What Do You Mean There Are Different Types of Fantasy?

If you are new to the fantasy genre or have only read the occasional book or series within the genre because of Booktok, then it may surprise you that, yes, there are many subgenres within fantasy itself. You may be surprised to learn this even if you are an avid fantasy reader, but just pick up books that look good. Did you know there are a couple different types of magic systems as well? Today, I am going to do a bit of a deep-dive into what defines fantasy, itself, as well as what makes each subgenre unique. Going in, just know that it is not uncommon for subgenres to overlap. A book can be high fantasy and grimdark fantasy as well as another can be low fantasy and cozy fantasy or vice versa. These are essentially description tags the book community uses to further distinguish types of books so readers might have a better sense of what they are picking up. 

Fantasy

What is fantasy? This seems pretty self-explanatory, but let's talk about it just in case someone doesn't know. Fantasy is an all-encompassing term to describe books that contain magical elements. It differs from science fiction as the elements will often defy the rules of our physical world in a way that cannot be attributed to advancing science and technology. The vast majority of the books discussed on my blog and all of the books listed below will fall into this category. For my purposes, I tend to think of this genre as a tree that branches out into many subgenres. Fantasy is the trunk. Hold on to this metaphor--I'll be coming back to it!

High Fantasy

High fantasy describes any book that is not set in real world history. The terms "high fantasy" and "epic fantasy" tend to get used interchangeably, but there are subtle differences. In my tree metaphor, I would consider high fantasy to be a main limb of the tree, as it's broader and more encompassing, whereas epic fantasy is a smaller branch off of that limb. Basically, if a book is set in a fictional world with a fictional history, it's considered high.

Examples: The Hobbit, Warbreaker, and Priory of the Orange Tree

Low Fantasy

Next on the list is low fantasy. No, it does not mean "lesser." Far from it actually! Fantasy books that are set around real-world places or events are considered low fantasy. These are the books that tend to have magic hidden in the real world. I would consider this to be another main limb of my fantasy tree, as there are many other subgenres that are similar, but again, this one is more general and less specific.

Examples: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Outlander, and Twilight

Epic Fantasy

Now that the "foundation" of fantasy is established, let's start digging into the more specific genres starting with EPIC FANTASY. Epic fantasy are books that have a very large, grand scale story revolving around an equally large cast of characters facing an ultimate big bad with the potential for world-ending stakes. The classic good vs. evil, if you will. These books are typically a part of a large series as there is often way too much to put into just one book. More often than not, epic fantasy books tend to be a branch off of the high fantasy limb in my fantasy tree, but that is definitely not always the case. 

Examples: Wheel of Time, Lord of the Rings, and Storrmlight Archive

Urban Fantasy

Likewise, I would consider urban fantasy to be a branch of the low fantasy limb for obvious reasons. It takes place in the real world, more specifically, the modern real world. (Anyone else start singing "Real World" by Matchbox 20? No? Just me? Ok, moving on...)

Examples: Dresden Files, Shadowhunter Chronicles, and American Gods

Historical Fantasy

Like urban fantasy, this is often set in the real world, making it a branch off of low fantasy. Historical fantasy typically is a re-imagining of an actual historical event with magical elements inserted. There is usually a balance between realism and fantasy elements. 

Examples: Outlander, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and What the Wind Knows 

Sword and Sorcery

Honestly, I didn't even know this was a subgenre until I started looking into how many different types of fantasy there was. It's defined as a competent hero that fights their way to victory, often with exciting but violent battles. I feel like this is kind of summed up within the definition of other subgenres, but people like it as it's own thing, so who am I to argue? I could see this being a branch off of either high or low fantasy and even being an offshoot of a more specific subgenre as well. 

Examples: Conan, Game of Thrones, and The Name of the Wind

Dark Fantasy

This type of fantasy doesn't necessarily stem from high or low fantasy. What characterizes dark fantasy is the focus on a creepy atmosphere, rather than violence.

Examples: Coraline, The Graveyard Book, and Fairy Tale

Grimdark Fantasy

Again, grimdark fantasy doesn't require any specific setting as far as real-world or fictional. What makes grimdark grimdark is the overall tone. The setting is usually very grim (hence the term grimdark), the characters consist of anti-heroes, and there is often more violence. 

Examples: Lies of Locke Lamora, The Blade Itself, and The Poppy War

Steampunk Fantasy

Unlike all of the other subgenres, this one doesn't usually have a lot of magic or other fantasy elements in it. Steampunk fantasy is usually an alternative Victorian Era, or sometimes Wild West, setting. There is usually a heavy focus on technology, usually that is steam powered. Based on that, I would consider it a branch off of the low fantasy limb.

Examples: Infernal Devices, Boneshaker, and The Falconer

Science Fantasy

Science fantasy blends the elements of science fiction and fantasy. It tends to have heavy elements of technology, but will often have elements that are not explained by advancing technology and science. I would branch this subgenre off of low fantasy, as well.

Examples: Cinder, The Fifth Season, and This Is How You Lose a Time War

Portal Fantasy

Portal fantasy is kind of like a bridge between high and low fantasy. It is defined by characters traveling from the real world to a fantasy world through, you guessed it, a portal!

Examples: Chronicles of Narnia, Peter Pan, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Paranormal Romance

Paranormal romance would be a branch off of low fantasy as they are set in the real world with paranormal characters such as vampires, werewolves, and ghosts. As the name suggests, romance is also a key plot element.

Examples: Twilight, Vampire Academy, and Beautiful Creatures

Fantasy Romance

Fantasy romance is the romance subgenre that branches off of high fantasy. These books take place in entirely fictional worlds and also have a heavy emphasis on romance. 

Examples: A Court of Thorns and Roses, Shadow and Bone, and From Blood and Ash

Medieval Fantasy/Arthurian Fantasy

Books in this subgenre usually are more high fantasy type books, but they can be set in the real world as well. They are inspired by the Medieval time period and often center around myths and legends.

Examples: The Once and Future King, The Mists of Avalon, and The Farseer Trilogy

Cozy Fantasy

Cozy fantasy is just what it sounds like. Cozy. These books are lighthearted, low stakes, and low violence. The are the perfect palate cleanser after completing an epic fantasy. They are also perfect for if you just aren't into the intense high stakes the other subgenres have but still like to read about magic. This is another subgenre that can branch off of either high or low fantasy.

Examples: House in the Cerulean Sea, Legends and Lattes, and The Goblin Emporer

Fantasy Retellings

Another self-naming subgenre, fantasy retellings are fairy tales and myths reimagined. There is a huge trend right now of doing spicy retellings. 

Examples:  The Song of Achilles, Alice, and A Touch of Darkness

Magic Systems

Whew! That was a lot to get through. Honestly, there are many more subgenres than what I covered here, but I tried to hit the main ones that people like to talk about. Now on to magic systems. Thankfully, this section will be much shorter, as there are essentially two types: hard magic systems and soft magic systems. 

Hard Magic Systems

Hard magic systems have set rules and limitations. The magic is consistent and predictable. It's almost as if there is a scientific formula to how the magic works. By writers choosing to use a hard magic system, the characters will often have problem-solve within their set limitations to overcome obstacles. The reader will also get a deep understanding of the magic system. A strength of this magic system, in my opinion, is that characters cannot just magic themselves out of a situation and magic can't be used to move the plot forward (usually). I like the law and order of hard magic systems.

Examples: Allomancy in Mistborn, Surgebinding in Stormlight Archives, and Coporalki, Etherealki, Materialki in Grishaverse

Soft Magic System

Soft magic systems are the opposite. They typically have few rules, if any, and are used more to inspire awe and wonder. With soft magic systems, there is more sense of mystery than with hard magic. It's also easier to adapt to an ever changing story. Although I can definitely see the pros to soft magic, for me the cons tend to be deal breakers: Soft magic systems often lead to magic being used as a plot device. "Oh no! The character is trapped, but he got out because magic!" This leads to convenient endings, which frustrates me. Another drawback to soft magic systems is inconsistencies. Due to being able to adapt to the story, there are often inconsistencies that just get explained away with a wave of the wand. Personally, I like rules.

Examples: Gandalf's magic in The Lord of the Rings, and Naming in The Kingkiller Chronicles

Hybrid Magic System

I know... I know! I said there were only two sections here. But, there are actually three. The last one is a hybrid magic system. This is when the magic system has rules of what magic can and cannot do, but they are easily and frequently bent, if not flat out broken, to fit the needs of the plot. Then, when the rules of magic change, it's usually explained that suddenly it works because "reasons."

Example: the magic in Harry Potter

Conclusion

Although the definitions of everything above is accurate, some of it (primarily with my tree metophor) is my interpretation. Also, it should be noted that classifying many books as one thing or another is subjective, so if you don't agree with where I classified something, that is totally fine. Some of these subgenres are not ones that I would normally read, so I was at the mercy of Google for giving me recommendations for them. This was meant to be a "brief" rundown of different types of fantasy and different types of magic systems to help you make sense of what people like me are talking about. 

Let me know what you think of posts like this. Love it? Hate it? Want me to do more deep dives into elements of fantasy literature? Let me know in the comments below!

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

 Title: Throne of Glass

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Format: Audiobook

Narrator: Elizabeth Evans

Genre: YA Fantasy, NA Fantasy, High Fantasy

 I purchased this book and chose to do an honest and unbiased review.  The author neither requested nor is associated with this review.

 Goodreads Description:

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.

Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for four years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her ... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead ... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

Here's What I Thought: 

Someday I am going to be consistent with my blogging. Since my last post, I not only continued with A Court of Mist and Fury, I have finished the entire ACOTAR series and I highly recommend it! Maybe I should go back and do posts on books I've read and not blogged about... That's a thought for another day. 

Well, I am officially an SJM fan. I tried to write her off as an author with one pretty good series, but one book into the Throne of Glass Series and I can already tell that that is not going to happen. Now, it has been a several weeks since I finished it and I have already finished several other books in the meantime (including others in the series), so after a nice little recap courtesy of the Recaptains so I don't jump ahead and spoil anything, bear with me. I will do my best to review this book with my true feelings at the time, and not hindsight 20/20. 

Note: I am doing the "romantic" reading order, which places Assassin's Blade after Heir of Fire.  

For the first book of a series and Maas's first book overall, it was good, but definitely not great. The premise of the story was good. There is a well-established big bad. There is a mysterious protagonist with a shadowy past. And let's not forget that love triangle! Although I could definitely have done without the love triangle, I'm kind of leaning towards #TeamChaol. Dorian is a prince and as sweet as he is, I feel like the prince always gets the girl. Anyways... This story seems to have it all. 

But...

It's weak. I wanted to absolutely love it, but I just couldn't. As fabulous as Celaena is, she is very one dimensional. She is the best assassin with the best aim, best agility, most expensive taste, and all the beautiful dresses. The love triangle between the best friends is cliche, at best. Seriously? Why do we always need a love triangle. Then, the good guy/bad guy (or girl) fake out was just plain predictable. Finally, from what I remember of the dialogue, it was "eh..." 

Despite all of this, I did enjoy the book. I even said so in the beginning of my review. I never expect the first book in a fairly large series, or any series for that matter, to be over the top spectacular. First books in a series tend to need a lot of world building and character introduction, as well as some sort of a plot, that it can be hard for authors to hit the mark in all of these things at once. Later on, once the world is established and characters have a chance to flesh out and the author finds their rhythm so to speak, that is when the great books come. That's why I rarely judge a series solely on the first book. Plus, I went into the series well aware that her writing starts out fairly immature, but she really grows throughout the series. 

I am (was 😜) excited to start the second book as I definitely see the potential for a great series. Also, how is SJM planning on tying everything together in the now confirmed multiverse?

 

Any Thoughts?

With any super hyped author comes polarizing opinions. I am actually surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did, as I generally don't love books that get blown up on all of the socials. Did you love it or hate it? Why? Drop a comment below and we can discuss.

About The Author:

Sarah J. Maas is the #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author of the Crescent City, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and the Throne of Glass series. Her books have sold more than twelve million copies and are published in thirty-seven languages. A New York native, Sarah lives in Philadelphia with her husband, son, and dog. To find out more, visit sarahjmaas.com or follow @therealsjmaas on Instagram. 

 

What did I just read?

If you follow the fantasy book world, then I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. "Brandon Sanderson Is Your God" by Jason Kehe. That infamous Wired article that was published yesterday. Even though I linked it, I'm begging you not to click it as it is nothing but pot-stirring click bait. If you want to see what the article says without giving them clicks, make sure to check out Daniel Greene's video on YouTube. He does a fabulous job at not only reading the article in its entirety for you, but he inserts his excellent commentary. Brandon, himself, also posted his response to the article on Reddit. 

In true Brandon Sanderson fashion, he handles the article with the upmost respect stating he does not feel it's a hit article and asks that fans remember that Jason is a person and that he "bears him no ill will." As much as I would love to tear into this article and Kehe, I will not out of respect for Brandon. But I do want to throw out a couple of my thoughts regarding this article, especially as I plan on reviewing a lot of Cosmere (his interconnected multiverse) novels this year. 

I respectfully disagree with Brandon over whether or not this is a hit article. Kehe goes to great lengths to not only insult how Brandon dresses, salts his food (as well as Brandon's son), and the decor choices for his house, he complains about how he is boring and "unquotable." He makes off-handed comments about how boring Brandon is in front of his wife. He acts like it's absolutely unheard of that a small company, like Dragonsteel, is composed of primarily family. And how dare he host a writing group that serves pop (yes, I'm from the Midwest. Fight me on that one lol) and apple crisp. Gasp! At one point, he finds out that Brandon does not really feel pain and so he keeps poking at it with a sharp stick, despite Brandon asking him not to print it. Kehe also all but outright insults his fans by saying that nobody addresses Brandon's bad writing when asking people at Dragonsteel 2022 (he is literally at a Brandon Sanderson convention with thousands of Brandon Sanderson fans) and basically poked fun at them for buying memorabilia, cosplaying, and making their own swords. 

Speaking of thinking Brandon is a bad writer, he keeps saying it, but then claims to have read 17 ("Or maybe it's 20. Exactitude is pointless here.") of his books? Okay... Love or hate Brandon Sanderson as you will. His writing does have its share of critics, and most of those criticisms are justified, as many fans would agree, me included. His prose is simplistic, but to make his writing more accessible, that can also be a strength, especially, in the fantasy genre. He does not really write romance well--his books have no spice (shocker, I know). His worldbuilding is so exact makes it difficult to envision the story further than what's on the page. His endings are too formulaic. And many more. All stances I can respect and, at times, agree with.

But what really gets me is how he keeps pointing out and circling back to how Brandon is Mormon. By the end, he even implies that Brandon is living out his fantasy religion on Earth as God in life. Say what you will about Mormonism and the Church of Latter-Day Saints. I know I have thoughts and there is a lot that I definitely don't agree with. However, I do not agree with personally attacking someone based on their faith. And this guy was weirdly fixated on it. Until Brandon does or says something himself that is harmful, it's not fair to hate on him based on where he goes to church. People don't put all Catholics or all Muslims into blanket categories based on their faith despite not agreeing with all doctrines/ideals, therefore, he shouldn't be either. 

To be honest, even after reading it twice, I could not even tell you what the actual thesis or intent of the article was intended to be. It is so scattered and disorganized that it blows me away that it was even published due to this fact alone, let alone due to the flat out bullying that goes on throughout it. One minute he is making fun of Brandon salting his food, then he's saying he is a bad writer, then he is talking about crying in Brandon's basement (oh yeah... that was weird). Overall, the tone of this article is just plain mean. He comes off as someone looking for dirt and when he couldn't find any, he decides to just attack Brandon as a person. He took very personal topics for Brandon and made a mockery of them. 

If this article was supposed to be a critique of Brandon's writing, it failed. If this article was trying to do anything, it failed. Because this article really didn't discuss anything at all. It was all just a really weird rant about a bunch of random stuff that took FIVE MONTHS to write. The guy just came off as jealous and bitter. I know I said that I would respect Brandon's wishes to not rip too much into the article. But I am just not that big of a person and I had thoughts. Trust me when I say that this is the toned-down version of what I wanted to write. 

Did you see the article? What did you think about it? How about Brandon's response? Let me know down below!

Where in the world have I been?

 Hey there! It's been a while! 

I know... I am terrible at keeping up with a blog. Well, good news! I have several books read and ready to talk about! Despite not blogging, I have actually been reading a lot. So why haven't I been blogging?

There are a couple of reasons: 

1) I've been making some career changes. Yes, I am still a nurse. But, after dealing with COVID for an eternity, I needed a change from bedside nursing in psych. So, I attempted to see what life was like in assisted living. Let me tell you! When people say it takes a special person to work in mental health, what they forget to mention is those people get incredibly bored in other environments. So here I am! Back in mental health (not bedside though) and I couldn't be happier. 

2) I got a puppy! Molly the mini aussie was a terror and kept me on my toes. Between her eating part of the cover of A Court of Mist and Fury and my favorite Jack Skellington bookmark and the playing the never-ending games of fetch, I had little time for anything else.

                      

3) Apparently, my horse, Barbie, was also incredibly bored during the pandemic lockdown and she decided to have an affair with the neighborhood stud, because she had a baby! On one hand, I wanted to be mad at her for being so irresponsible, but on the other hand, she has much better taste in men than me and her baby was gorgeous! As her only marking is a star, I felt it appropriate to name her Vega.      

                      

As you can see, I have had my hands full! I do, however, have a plan! Well, maybe not a full plan. More like a pla-.

What is this plan?

My plan (or pla-) is pretty straightforward. READ. THE. BOOKS. I. HAVE. I swear, buying books and reading books are two completely different hobbies. My bookshelves are out of control. I bought this HUGE bookcase back in 2021 and I didn't think there was any way I could possibly fill it. Oops... In my defense, I was left in the bookstore unsupervised, and I have no impulse control. 

So, this means I'm going to put myself on a book buying ban. Except if I really need the book. NO. No more buying books. I need to read the ones I have. Since I am going to read the books I have, here's some authors to expect: Sarah J. Mass, Brandon Sanderson, James Islington, Leigh Bardugo, Robert Jordan, Victoria Aveyard, Libba Bray, Brent Weeks, Steven Erikson, Joe Abercrombie, and many, many more. 

Due to this huge backlog of books on my TBR, I will not be accepting requests at this time, but I will let you know the second that changes!