When you’re browsing a library or an online catalogue of books, when you come to the fantasy section, you may see a lot of different subgenres mentioned. High fantasy, swords and sorcery, cosy fantasy, grimdark, gaslight fantasy… There’s a long list of them and it can be confusing. It confused me the first time I encountered them.
We’ll talk about some of the major subgenres of fantasy, but before we dive in, it’s important to remember that certain books can belong to more than one category. The different subgenres are ways of categorising works of fiction by their general tone, the world, the scope and the technological level. For example, a book can be epic in its scope, a portal fantasy in terms of the world, flintlock fantasy in terms of its technology and grimdark in its tone. This would make it an epic grimdark flintlock portal fantasy. However, it doesn’t stop there. Some fantasy stories are defined by their content and general storyline, such as Arthurian and Celtic fantasy, so you could have an epic Arthurian grimdark flintlock portal fantasy.
I guess some of those terms might have started confusing you already, so let’s get started. I’m going to use examples of fantasy that I’ve actually read rather than some of the clichéd examples; perhaps you can suggest more in the comments.
Scope
Scope refers to the stakes and the general setting where the action of a story takes place.
Epic Fantasy
Epic fantasy is big in its scope and the stakes are high. The protagonist will have to save the whole world, and that really does mean the whole world, or a nation or society at the very least. Expect to see Dark Lords or tyrants, journeys across multiple nations, many different fantasy races. Epic fantasy usually runs to multiple volumes. Examples: Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.
Heroic Fantasy
Heroic fantasy is smaller in scope, as it tends to focus on the exploits of an individual, i.e., the hero. Of course, an epic fantasy will have a main protagonist or two, but in heroic fantasy, the fate of large nations or the world isn’t resting on the protagonist’s shoulders. Instead, the stakes are merely whether the protagonist will get out of a jam or achieve a personal goal. Heroic fantasy lends itself more readily to the short story format than epic fantasy, and another name for this subgenre is Swords and Sorcery. Examples: Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, and short stories, novels and graphic novels featuring Conan the Barbarian, Red Sonja, etc.
World
The world of a story concerns the setting, and mainly looks at whether the setting has any relationship with the world that you and I live in.
High Fantasy
High fantasy takes place entirely in the secondary world (i.e., the made-up world; this term was coined by JRR Tolkien in the essay On Fairy Stories). The actual world we live in (known as the primary world) doesn’t have any relationship to what happens in the story. Examples: Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series.
Low Fantasy/Magical Realism
Low fantasy isn’t a term you hear often today, and the term “magical realism” is more common. In this type of tale, the action takes place in the real world we know (i.e., the primary world) but there’s an undercurrent of magic and the supernatural that we don’t actually see in our everyday lives. All urban fantasy novels and paranormal romances fall into this category, as do supernatural mysteries, but low fantasy goes further, as the setting of the primary world could be in the past (sometimes called alternate history) – or even the future. However, there’s one thing to bear in mind: even if the setting is the real primary world, the fantasy elements must be fantasy and not something supernatural that people actually believe to be part of the real primary world, which is why I wouldn’t class Frank Perretti’s This Present Darkness with its angels and demons in this subgenre; that’s a supernatural thriller. Examples: the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik, Mercedes Lackey’s Elemental Masters series and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels (although that last one is debated, with some considering it to be a portal fantasy).
Portal Fantasy
Portal fantasy involves the main characters hopping from the primary world to the magical secondary world and back again – sometimes several times. This used to be one of the most common subgenres in fantasy fiction, especially for children, although it’s never completely gone away. Examples: The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, The Summoning series by Robin D. Owens and the Dragon Heart Legacy by Nora Roberts.
Tone
Cosy Fantasy
Mainstream fantasy fiction (i.e., not one of these two subgenres) tends to be optimistic overall, but we all know that the main characters will sometimes go through some pretty rough times – and finally win in the end. However, two subgenres have a very distinctive tone of their own.
Cosy fantasy is a more recent addition to the list of fantasy subgenres, mostly in reaction to the spread of grimdark fantasy. In cosy fantasy, the emphasis is on the down to earth, the homely, the relatable, the lovable, the funny and the quirky. However, adventures will happen, although the main characters will never lose their warmth. You may say that it’s feel-good escapism, but there are times when we all need a bit of comfort reading that makes us feel happy. Examples: The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien and The Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones.
Grimdark and Dark Fantasy
The tone of grimdark is bleak. In contrast to many earlier fantasy works, in which there are clear good guys and bad guys, in grimdark, nobody is a clear-cut good guy. Even if they are good guys, this isn’t a guarantee that they’ll win in the end or that there will be a happy ending, as the emphasis seems to be on power, greed and the darker side of human nature (and humanoid nature). Dark fantasy is similar, although the emphasis seems to be on the morbid, the creepy and the cruel. Expect to see vampires, demons and unseelie fae playing a role as main characters. I find this sort of fiction depressing, so I haven’t read much of it at all, so my example is George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, as I have read part of A Game of Thrones.
Technology
Most fantasy fiction takes place in an archaic world. Most commonly, this setting is patterned on Medieval or at least Renaissance Europe, with castles and knights and swords. Some fantasy settings look even further back in time and draw inspiration from Ancient Greece, Rome or Egypt. Others look at the early days of other civilisations, such as the Middle East, Asia, etc. The rule seems to be that no gunpowder is allowed except for fireworks – or at least the idea of using gunpowder in a weapon is a novel one that is discovered during the course of the action. However, one of the joys of fantasy is that you can draw inspiration from and romanticise any period of history you fancy, which leads to a few other subgenres.
Flintlock Fantasy
Flintlock fantasy allows gunpowder and, indeed, guns. The technology is what you would find in the Renaissance through to the Napoleonic wars – in other words, you can have guns and cannons, but no steam engines. This is why they are sometimes also called gunpowder fantasy. This subgenre is perfect for those who enjoy Regency romances and want to use that general ethos and style, but in a fantasy world. Examples: the Temaraire series by Naomi Novik (see under Low Fantasy) and some of David Gemmell’s novels of the Rigante (Ravenheart and Stormrider).
Gaslight Fantasy
Gaslight fantasy draws its inspiration from the Victorian and Edwardian era, and it has a lot in common with steampunk, as brass, glass, clockwork, airships and steam are likely to make an appearance. The line between gaslight fantasy or gaslamp fantasy and steampunk is a very fine one, although steampunk doesn’t involve magic, as it’s more the sci-fi equivalent. Gaslight fantasy, being a subgenre of fantasy, has magic and magical creatures. Examples: The Clockwork Dagger (and sequels) and the Blood of Earth trilogy by Beth Cato.
Urban Fantasy
Urban fantasy doesn’t draw inspiration from the past but looks to the modern world, with its electricity, cars and cellphones, then adds fantasy elements. It’s nearly always a portal fantasy or low fantasy in terms of the worlds – if there are any high fantasy works that classify as urban fantasy, let me know, as I haven’t come across any… yet. Add in a romance plot, and you have a paranormal romance. There’s usually some explanation as to why us muggles can’t or don’t notice the magic or the magic creatures. Examples include Bedlam’s Bard by Mercedes Lackey and Ellen Guon, and Kiss of Fire by Deborah Cooke.
Content
Many fantasy stories have their own plots and their own subject matter, dictated only by the whim of the author. However, some concentrate on a particular subject matter which gives the reader some idea as to how the plot will go.
Arthurian and Celtic
Arthurian and Celtic tales are based on the classic Medieval tales of King Arthur, Sir Gawain and all the rest of the court of Camelot. Some retellings keep it Medieval; others are more Celtic in tone. Because of the close association between Arthurian subject matter and other Celtic myths, legends and folk tales – you could argue that the original tales of Arthur are Celtic legends – other Celtic matter can be included. Expect Grail quests, Merlin, and Green Knights from the Arthurian canon, and maybe some of the stories of Lleu Llaw Gyffes, the Children of Llyr, Cuchulainn, Taliesin, Bronwen… and more. Examples include Stephen Lawhead’s Pendragon Cycle and Sarah Zettel’s In Camelot’s Shadow.
Fairy Tale Retelling
Fairy tale retellings are growing in popularity – I think I’ve read at least three different Beauty and the Beast retellings over the past 12 months! These tales start with a traditional folk tale, usually drawing on the European tradition (Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, Hans Christian Andersen, etc.). Some tales stick more closely than others to the original tale, and some blend more than one tale (e.g., Sarah J Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses combines Beauty and the Beast with Tam Lin.). Many of them are examples of romantic fantasy, given the tendency of the old tales to tend with “And so they got married and lived happily ever after.” Examples include Mercedes Lackey’s Elemental Masters series and Melanie Cellier’s Four Kingdoms novels.
Fantasy Romance/Romantic Fantasy/Romantasy
Romantic Fantasy is a growing subgenre that blends elements of fantasy (magic, elves, unicorns, etc.) with romance (the story of how a loving relationship grew between two people, ending with a happily every after – and descriptions of intimacy from a few kisses to much, much more depending on the heat or spice level). Exactly what counts as a fantasy romance and what counts as romantic fantasy depends on which of the two ingredients is the most important – and that’s the source of endless debate. Fairy tale retellings fit naturally into this subgenre, but romantasy goes beyond that. Technically, you could class paranormal romances as a type of fantasy romance, but in the publishing world (and in my library), anything set in the modern world is considered to be more of a romance novel; if it’s high fantasy and has more than just a few shapeshifters to bring the magic, it’s a romantic fantasy. The line is blurry – in my local library, I’ve seen two books from the same series shelved as different genres – so let’s just call them all romantasy and leave it at that. Examples include the Embraced by Magic/The Embraced series by Kerrelyn Sparks and Mercedes Lackey’s novels of the Five Hundred Kingdoms.
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