Fantasy Sub-Genres EXPLAINED!
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- Опубліковано 9 вер 2019
- I go through and define as many sub-genres of fantasy as possible! There are so many. Fantasy is one crazy landscape of ideas man.
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I believe that magic realism is a mostly Latin American subgenre where magic is mostly seen as normal and some normal things are seen as magical. In the most famous Magical Realism book (100 years of solitude) the book begins with the main characters father showing the main character Ice. There is also a moment where it rains flowers and it is seen as normal.
Exactly. Usually it is described as a realistic settinf with fantastical elements. As a South American when he mentioned magical realism and described it how he did it low key triggered me lol.
Reading through Wikipedia it seems that there are many different types and sub-types of magical realism.
None of which Mistborn qualifies for mind.
Exactly, magical realism is Sanderson's antithesis. It is where the fanciful aspect is shown as the everyday and the ordinary as wonderful. Where to see ice for the first time is magical, but walking through the air, returning from the dead, is everyday things, without "rules".
I think that maybe it is both a sub-genre of fantasy (Magic realism Fantasy) and a different genre (just Magical realism). Either way, I always thought of it as more of a style of the author, though it has been a while since I had a class about it (Im also latinoamerican )
@@franciscopoblete5854 Not really, Daniel confused magic realism with hard fantasy. Hard fantasy creates its "magic systems" and world with a great focus on logic and clear rules. Magical realism is just that, the Latin American fantasy current of using fantasy as an allegory to abstract emotions, feelings or concepts without any type of rule or limitation .
And no, it's not just a style, but it's subgenre. (If a character is in love, he will walk through the air or vomit live or dead butterflies ... This without any reason or explanation beyond the allegory to the image of the "butterflies in the stomach")
1:52 Alternative history
2:18 Arthurian Fantasy
3:00 Assassin Fantasy
3:30 Christian Fantasy
4:06: Comic/Absurdist Fantasy
5:05 Coming of Age Fantasy
6:01 Court Intrigue Fantasy
7:02 Dark Fantasy
7:42 Dragon Fantasy
8:02 Epic/High Fantasy
10:16 Erotic Fantasy
10:40 Fable/Fairy Tale Fantasy
11:13 Gaslamp Fantasy
12:10 Grimdark Fantasy
13:18 Gunpower/Flintlock Fantasy
14:10 Heroic Fantasy
14:27 Low Fantasy
14:49 Magic Realism Fantasy
14:57 Medieval Fantasy
15:03 Military Fantasy
15:08 Paranormal Fantasy
15:17 Quest Fantasy
15:39 Portal Fantasy
15:48 Romantic Fantasy
15:54 Science Fantasy
16:05 Series Fantasy
16:11 Steam Punk Fantasy
16:32 Superhero Fantasy
16:43 Swashbuckling Fantasy
17:22 Urban/Modern Fantasy
17:56 Vampire Fantasy
18:14 YA Fantasy
Ty
@@badassbillyb 14:10
You’re a real hero. xD
thx bro
I didn’t even realise it was alphabetical that’s mad
If anyone is looking for a unique urban fantasy, Russian author Lukyanenko can be an interesting option. Most of the books in his World of Watches series are available in English.
You? Here?
@@stefanmarkovic8424 I am still surprised whenever I see him here
@@satyamprakash7030 they did historical battles from game of thrones i think. its good look for it.
I I ook
Applep
I love how discworld literally helped people come to terms with death. Viewed it less as something scary and more as an inevitable comfort. Fans with terminal illnesses genuinely sent letters to the author explaining how his depiction of death made them less scared, how they hoped he was as kind.
I'm in no hurry to meet him, but I hope he's there in the end.
The "this sub-genre is better than that one" comes when some people forget that what they like isn't an objective truth
What they should be saying is "this sub-genre fits my tastes better than that one" and a lot of the unnecessary conflicts would not come up
I really don't think you should have to be that conscious of your word choice. Obviously when I say "this is better", I'm voicing myself and myself only.
I often voice my opinions by using statements such as: This thing is better than that thing or That would never happen, etc
Obviously those are an opinion and a prediction, respectively. When it comes to discussions involving subjective preferences, theories or predictions I’m not going to continually explain that my opinions are opinions. That should be self explanatory...
it's sad that it has to come to this. We're just here cause we like reading books and we got all this debate club shit going on. I understand we talk about our hobbies with other people who like them as well, but I dont understand why people want to constantly discuss everything all the time like this. Its just sub genres guys.
But how will I feel superior to others because of my taste in books?
@@09RetsamEdalb Now, it also comes down to the circumstances. I admit, I may've been too extreme with my wording there. Usually saying things like Pieter-Ben Smit mentioned: this is better/that'd never happen, are totally fine. Though sutuations like ones mentioned in the video - trashing other sub-genres (or books for that matter) just because someone likes them better than others - that is what I wanted to criticise
Star Wars is science fantasy is the Hill I will die on. People need to stop calling Star Wars science fiction. It just isn't.
The simple existence of the force is what pushes it into science fantasy, I completely agree with this opinion.
You can easily categorize it many different ways without being wrong. The most appropriate, I believe, is Space Opera: "Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, melodramatic adventure, interplanetary battles, chivalric romance, and risk-taking."
@@nofacej1 yeah, but Star Wars has magic (the force) which makes the "science fantasy" tag adecuate.
TBH with my experience Fantasy has always been more logical than realistic than most science fiction.
The Force is just a hard magic system.
When Daniel said “dragons that are important.”
and my mind screamed Eragon. I really felt that
Dragon I thought Dragonriders of Pern. Then based on his description of high/epic fantacy then it can make a running in that section as well.
Erdagon is such an underrated series.
Magic realism is s genre that adds magic or fantastical elements to a realistic setting and usually deals with exploring the culture of a society. It was really popular in Latin America in the 20th century and it's most known authors are Latin American like García Márquez, Jorge Luis Borges, Isabel Allende, etc. Great video btw.
15:50 Oh my dear Daniel... I wasn't ready for that.
15:44 "Portal Fantasy" aka Isekei Anime
Daniel: Erotic Fantasy- it is a real subgenre
My brain: Interspecies Reviewers
From my brief dip in the genre, it often involves some sort of BDSM, at least I've not seen other types of erotica in that genre.
I was JUST thinking of typing this same comment!
@@mascotwithadinosaur9353 ah, I see you’re a man of culture as well
@@SerafRhayn Damn it, i'm to late :D
@Seraf Rhayn OMFG YOU ARE LITERALLY SO RIGHT DJSOAJBSKD
What a fantasy way of saying having sex for the first time, “having their first lay”
Love it
Yuup
"In the grim darkness of the 41st millennium, there is only war."
Love that Warhammer 40k birthed a whole sub-genre.
Dude Warhammer has inspired a ton of things. When I play WoW Im like "yep they took that...and that, and that, and that there!" It never ends lol
@@gabbyb9418 well of course! WH40k Is one of the oldest and most famous Science Fantasy franchise.
Don't let this distract you from the fact that 40K takes a lot from Dune and LotR
@@gabbyb9418 WH40k is what would happen if Star Wars, Dune, Silmarillion, C’thullu mythos, Bible and Alice in Wonderland had a testostherone and cocaine-induced orgy and created a monster of a child who had a very bad upbringing
Question for the day. What is a good high fantasy series with both religious/spiritual and psychological themes?
Daniel, magical realism is Sanderson's antithesis.
It is where fantasy has no rules beyond serving as allegory. Where the fantasy is part of the ordinary to the point of being ignored.
Example; One Hundred Years of Solitude. The "guilt" of a character for being indirectly responsible for the death of an enemy, is shown in the narrative as a ghost that simply inhabits his old house, where a character returns from his death just because he considered it boring. Where the knowledge of the death of a son reaches the mother when the blood of this son travels from a house through the streets, crossing an entire town only to reach her feet.
Anyway, it is magic without rules that only follows a figure similar to fables, that is, fantasy is used to explain everyday or cultural things (Human guilt, love, fear of death or rejection of the idea of this, mother's instinct).
And I say that it is Sanderson's antithesis, because in fact it is common in this kind of story that when there is a character who tries to "learn" magic, he is condemned to live in the ordinary.
Bless you kind commenter lol
My problem with this statement and others I have seen (including what's in the video) is that no clear consensus seems to exist. Much like 'Mary Sue' and virtually anything on TVTropes, the definition of any of these terms is dependent on who is talking. Those who move within the same circles as Daniel will likely use the term the same way or similarly to how he does, while those with whom you converse regularly on the topic will use a similar definition to yours. I consider the label and most others to be next to meaningless because of this. That said, your definition is reasonable given certain ways of viewing the term 'realism', ways which you clearly feel apply. Your opinion on what the term should mean is just as valid as anyone else's. I simply wish to suggest that your definition, and Daniel's definition for that matter, is not THE definition.
I’d also put “Holes” by Louis Satcher into the magical realism genre. Story has curses and events too contrived to be coincidental as just a part of the world; it’s accepted as fact that Stanley’s family has bad luck because his pig-stealing, no-good great great grandfather didn’t fulfill his promise to a witch, and Greenlake dries up after the death of Sam, only raining again when the granddaughter of his murderer faces justice.
Wow, that was well said
Brandon Sanderson has actually pointed out, a good example of magical fantasy is the Disney movie Encanto.
Would be cool if you did a video focused on the Asia sphere fantasy genre. Things like Transmigration, reincarnation, Isekai varieties and cultivation.
Yeah that'd be cool
But most western authors are not familiar with Eastern fantasy
The Outlander series could be a good recommendation for erotic fantasy. It's more Romance than Erotic, and it's also Time Travel, Historic, and quite other genres.
I love a book that is quite many things.
@@jhart1127 I don’t know the tv show looks eh
Absurdist Fantasy: best ever written, I'll vote "Alice in Wonderland."
The Bible?
@@Maskawanian the Bible is backed up with archaeology and is a religious treatise. Including letters to people from historical figures. Whether you believe in it or not, most of it is not fantasy just as you wouldn't say the Dead Sea Scrolls or Quran, Bhagavad Gita or Ramayana are fantasy. They're religious texts.
And yes Alice is absurdist at least as defined by Kierkegaard, but not as defined by Camus. Sadly Discworld is not absurdist by either Kierkegaard's or Camus's definitions though it certainly has absurdist elements, particularly the Nights Watch novels. He is however a brilliant satirist. Is satirical fantasy a thing???
@@deisophiagaming8216 Hahahaha, as long as you can sleep at night telling that lie to yourself
@@deisophiagaming8216 Dude, out of hundreds of Bible stories, pretty much only two of those have ANY credibility whatsoever. The Assyrian and Babylonian exile - that's pretty much it. All others have absolutely not a single archaeological evidence for them. And no there are no letters to prove anything as the earliest written connections to those stories were written hundreds of year after the so-told story.
As long as those religious texts are consisting of fantasies, one definition isn't replacing the other.
@@vladi1Z love the way all of you ignore the Bhagavad Gita, Qu'ran and other religious texts... So limited.
But that said there is extensive archaeological evidence as well as written Roman records for the Bible Torah and Qu'ran. Sites like Nineveh, Shivta, Caves at Qumran, Masada, Tel Meggido, Tel Hazor, Petra, El-Araj and so so many more. there are of course hoaxes like the Shroud of Turin, as well as the very questionable validity of numerous relics found within churches spread across Europe. Try as you might many biblical accounts are corroborated by various inscriptions on monuments such as the Jehoash inscriptions, Greek books by Herodotus and Thucydides, various Stele from both Assyrian and Babylonian ruins. (Sadly much if which has been ruined with the many many attacks on Iraq and Iran, some of which is at least preserved by places like the London Museum).
By the way it's fine not to believe in a religion but to ignore evidence that does speak to historical facts is wilfully blind and ignorant. So texts like the Bible are not simply fantasy there are corroborated historical facts, associated with them hence they are religious texts a separate genre.
It's probably because of critical role but i like it when a main character has a flintlock, but i prefer the world not to have guns because i guess i prefer pre-gun combat for armies & worlds
So I know this comment is a year old, but the whole "the middle ages didn't have guns" belief is a massive misconception. They absolutely had guns back in the middle ages, but not what we think of as guns now days. They had small portable hand cannons which then evolved into very early musket guns and so on. There's a really great video by Shadiversity on guns in the middle ages which also talks about the armour knights would wear in an attempt to protect themselves from these guns. Iirc they were mostly used in sieges though.
Like yeah pre-gun combat is super interesting, but I think it'd also be interesting to see a fantasy setting in this time that also had these early guns that wasn't a pirate fantasy story.
@@GiveMeYourEyes947 Pre-Arquebus handguns didn't have a very important role on the battlefield. Until the Renaissance, you're mostly going to see primitive cannons in sieges called bombards, which were popularized in the 14th century.
I guess a dirty tube of iron firing at a castle for days on end isn't romantic enough for most fantasy settings.
Honestly me too, I always kinda wanted to see a duel between an artificer/gusmith character and a wizard.
@@GiveMeYourEyes947 there is also a very interesting period where medieval combat war transitioning into line combat. This is the period with the pike and shot formations and mounted pistoleers clad in full plate.
For alternative history, and I guess also dragon fantasy, I cannot recommend the Temeraire series enough. It's a reimagining of the Napoleonic wars, with the addition of an air force of dragons. I'm obsessed.
I still have no idea why people are sleeping on this series.
That sounds really cool.
The best way to describe genres and subgenres is this.
(Sub)Genres are to stories as # tags are to instagram posts.
Overlap is garenteed, improperly placed labels are more prevalent than not.
YOU MUST HAVE TEN BOOKS TO BE EPIC FANTASY!! WE ALL KNOW LORD OF THE RINGS ISN'T EPIC FANTASY, NOPE, NOT AT ALL.
Well, technically, if you count all the books Tolkien wrote about the universe, its almost there...
Well, techinally (2), LOTR isn't Epic Fantasy because Middle Earth is actually canonically Earth but some 10,000 in the past. Do I get to be the nitpickiest nerd?
@@vitormelomedeiros Scientists would have a laugh about that one, but lets accept it as a nice fantasy theory:-D
You know i heard once, in an interview i could probably never find again that Tolkin once said that LOTR did take place on earth. but he would never say were.
LotR is an epic fantasy short story.
I've read "The Name of the Wind" when I was 'coming to age' and will probably read the last book of the lot when I get to retirement...
That's awfully optimistic . . .
@Krazzy Panda212 noway
@@pkrdy3 maybe in 5 more years
Best
Comment
Ever.
Lets not pressure Rothfuss into creating something similar of GoT ending season. Retirement age is appropriate deadline. Or.. deathline, I guess..
Dark fantasy doesn’t have to explore the dark side of the human mind. It’s a mix of horror and fantasy.
The best type of fantasy
The message of this video holds true...genre doesn't matter. One of my favorite book series growing up was The Infernal Devices. In itself it can qualify to fit in, steampunk fantasy, vampire fantasy, dark fantasy, YA fantasy, gaslamp fantasy, fable fantasy, low fantasy, and many others I can't even remember. Most stories in general cross genre in some way, and in fantasy thats often brought to an insane level as people can take influences from thousands of sources, some even unconciously.
Magical Realism is an entirely different thing than what you described. Look Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Haruki Murakami, Sulman Rushdie etc. It has nothing to do with Mistborn.
Correct. Magical realism is basically normal human beings in our normal world with slight paranormal things going on. For example maybe a person can see into the future or has an unnatural abilities. For example - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
I'll give some movies as examples too- The green mile, The age of adaline, Penelope. These are magical realism.
@@zishatanzila8474 Practical Magic, both movie and book are the best examples I've come across.
Zisha Tanzila would Ninth House fall into this or occult fantasy or occult fiction?
@@christopherbacon1077 best example... I don't think so. Best example is certainly 100 years of solitude. But I didn't know there was a book and as I like the movie I will look for it.
@@HAngeli Never read 100 Years of Solitude so can't judge
"Midsummer Night's Dream," YES!
The "Fables" comic book series also qualifies. It's also urban fantasy for the most part.
Brentweeks shouted out your channel on his Facebook page
Cool
Orson Scott Card's "The Tales of Alvin Maker" is a great representation of Historical Fantasy. It juggles a plethora of historical figures while weaving in fantastical elements to make a great overall series.
Well, now I have to race Daniel to finish Once and future king first
Smooth move skating out of recommending an erotic fantasy book. That had me laughing out loud!!! LOL
Kushiel's Dart -series, actually quite good besides the erotic scenes. Sex is central to the plot but it's not on every page. Laurel K. Hamilton's books. The Fae Chronicles series by Amelia Hutchins (very much erotica this, BJ's galore).
It's not that hard, boys & girls - pun intended.
@Steven Sandleben People don't bang though, they just do weird sexual stuff...like Lestat and the nun ughhhh gag.
Recommendation for erotic fantasy: the claiming of sleeping beauty by Anne Rice.
You never look at the fairytale of sleeping beauty the same ever again after that.
Would Lost Girls by Alan Moore count?
I'm thinking the black Jewels series by Anne Bishop.
This video was perfect, I voted for the idea and you exceeded my expectations Sir. Thank you.
One of the shining moments of my high school education is that Once and Future King was one of my English/History assigned reading texts and I devoured it, it was SO good and I still recommend it. Kids in my classes who “didn’t read” actually read ahead and past the assigned chunks, just loving the book. It was one of the most bonding and positive education experiences at that school. 💕
Good morning to you too, Daniel! I voted for this video and can't wait to watch it on my break! Just wanted to stop in and say your awesome.
That was a fantastic video. Everything makes sense now thank you so much Daniel.
Alternative history fantasy I would recommend His Majesty's Dragon
Magical realism is basically normal human beings in our normal world with slight unexplained paranormal things going on. For example maybe a person can see into the future or has an unnatural abilitiy. For example - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
I'll give some movies as examples too- The green mile, The age of adaline, Penelope. These are magical realism.
You are gaining a lot of popularity Daniel. Im proud to have been a subscriber since you only had a couple thousand!
15:50 i think we've found a new gif
OMG, yes
Thank you so much for this summary! ^_^ I especially appreciate your explanation of the Dark Fantasy sub genre since I focus on it in my own writing 😊💙
For Military fantasy, I enjoyed Glen Cook's "The Black Company" (also fits into Grim Dark, and Epic/High fantasy). And for Erotic and Romance fantasy, I'd really recommend JR Ward's "Black Dagger Brotherhood" (also fits into Vampire, Paranormal, Assassin, Low, and Urban fantasy).
As someone who's ventured into fantasy fairly recently, this video really helped!
idk about the actual definition of magical realism, but how people and authors use it is to describe books set in our world and time with mystical/unexplained/whimsical magic
brandon sanderson is actually the furthest thing from magical realism
Some recommendations:
Erotic fantasy: Kushiel’s Dart series
Portal Fantasy: Mordant’s Need Fantasy
Military Fantasy: Warcraft, Starcraft series
Dark Fantasy: The Talisman by Stephen King & Peter Straub, a (previously) one-off novel that blew my mind.
Dragon fantasy or alternate history fantasy: The Temeraire series (a reimagining of the Napoleonic wars - with dragons).
Really goodlist! Thanks
The last one sounds Bat shit crazy
I would say that the best dragon fantasy is Anne McCaffrey, hands down. I still haven’t finished the series, but the first several novels are brilliant and imaginative.
I was going to mention her too! I love her books!
It also can be consider high/epic based on Daniel's description.
"The highest and most epicest fantasy"
I was so sure you'd mention WoT here 😂
Anyway, I agree that subgenres don't really matter and there's way too much unneccessary debate!
If you have read Malazan, please disregard the following text, but it is just one explanation to why it would be the highest most epicest fantasy :)
Even though I am a fan of both, WoT can't even compare to Malazan in this regard. Apart from having a world that is probably the size of earth where most of the continents are explored in the books, it also has innumerous planes making it even larger. That was size wise... Time wise, it speaks of a history of more than 300 000 years and the story even follows some characters that has been around for all that time. During this time there has been civilisation after civilisation rising and falling, and many of them playing a part in the story.
Characters, Malazan doesn't follow a set of characters as much as a set of conflicts with one over arching conflict, meaning that is has a huge number of characters that you follow. I am quite sure that there are many more point of views in Malazan than WoT but I can't swear it.
So yeah... It is a pretty big series ^^
@@pontuslindheohlsson2184 Malazan is my favorite series, so yes, I know how epic it is :)
My comment was based on the fact that WoT is Daniel's favorite and he usually mentions it all the time :)
@@beatrice5043 Glad to hear it :) I am rereading the books now, just got my heart crushed once more by the Chain of Dogs...
Daniel has talked about Malazans insane scope in a couple of videos and he tends to be neutral in that kind of questions.
Ayy Daniel, thanks for the shout-out! No one's ever called my name badass before, but I'll wear the title proudly. :-)
Looking forward to more great content from ya, and supporting you through it all the way. Peace!
Edit: Also, you pronounced my name perfectly! Pretty rare for people to do, in addiiton, so count yourself among the gifted few.
Thank you for this informative and entertaining video! I especially appreciate that you included recommendations.
My soul is so happy that Discworld got a mention and that you went past book 1. If you love Death, please please please go on to book 4.
"Get off your high fantasy horse" Brilliant!
Recommendation for good vampire fantasy is The Utterly Uninteresting and Uneventful Tales of Fred the Vampire Accountant (and all of the books after that) as it is also one of the best series I have ever read. It is super transformative of any idea that I had of vampires and vampire fantasy.
No spoiler summary: Nerd accountant (specifically he helps others with taxes) gets turned. With newfound powers of concentration does more taxes and helps propel his accounting service.
That honestly sounds amazing. And hilarious. I must read it.
@@StarlitSeafoam yea. It's the only book I considered with the main character as a vamp so far
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is perfect for Halloween season, it’s on Netflix and totally worth a watch 👌🏻
Finding all of these sub genres of fantasy is like Metal sub genres. They all are the same.
nope
But they're not really. The Lord of the Rings is very different from The Dresden Files, The Inheritance Cycle is nothing like Harry Potter, The Song of Ice and Fire is worlds apart from The Golden Compass
uhh kinda but not really, especially metal lol
I kinda wonder if you listen to metal, or have read much fantasy. Everything shares something in common, hence the "sub-genre" title, so naturally some things will be familiar. Otherwise the differences can be nuanced.
@@thomaskittock2866 There are definitly neuasnces that group these subgenres, and some of them have clear distinctions that should absolutly categorized differently. My point is that there are soooo many subgenres of metal and fantasy that some of them are redundant and the amount of sub genres is insane. This came to my mind because I just watched a metal subgenre video and connected the stupid amount of sub genres there to here
The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock is a great example of heroic fantasy. He inspired Geralt from the Witcher to some extent and is behind some of the trends in grimdark. He's agnsty as hell though so watch out for that.
Ha "moorcock"
YASSS U MEANTIONED DRACULA
It is my favorite old book! It’s so interesting and really pulls you into the mystery. Also the way it is told is soooo cool it’s like you are doing research into the mysterious cases.
I always figured that 'low fantasy' just meant that the magic is very subtle or off to the side as opposed to a major part of the setting like in epic fantasy and not necessarily taking place on Earth.
Aye what if I make my own setting but it's basically almost entirely like this world, just geographically different with made up names and follows all the same rules and laws of physics we do, but it only has the smallest hint of magic here and there that isn't even necessarily relevant to the plot about he farmers week on his farm? Then is it not "low" fantasy due to the low amount of fantasy elements while still not being set on this earth?
And what if I take a setting like the Abe Lincoln Vamp hunter example he used, a real historical place and time, but I amp up the fantasy settings to 11? Make the places and amount of people bigger in scale, add huge amounts of magic and detailed magic systems, add fantasy races like elves and dwarves with their own extensively detailed history and cultures, add magical fantasy beasts like dragons and such, make the fantasy elements integral to be plot, then is it not "high" fantasy because of the high amounts of fantasy elements involved while still being a real historical or real world setting?
I guess it depends on what the majority of people feel the definition should be though.
I'd also seperate epic from high personally. If I add all those massive world details through exposition but the story itself is a novella contained and focused on say a single character not moving much through a small space in a short time then it's not really epic through what we see happening within the book, but if you have a giant page count showing multiple points of view from across a massive map space that the characters are constantly moving across with the book also showing large armies covering ground and fighting massive battles and defending giant cities against extremely powerful forces that could rule the whole world then the actual happenings of the book are very epic in that sense
Magical Realism is when a story has subdued fantastical elements that may or may not have a logical explanation. They are almost always set in the real world or something like it. It's basically regular fiction where the characters encounter something that seems magical and it is left unresolved, or could be passed off as hallucinations or something. Mistborn definitely isn't Magical Realism.
Low Fantasy is similar. It's a story set in an obviously fantastical world but the magical elements are subdued. Magic is usually vague and rare, and generally appears mundane, with few magical creatures. The story might become more High fantasy as it gets to the midway point or beyond, but the setting is predominately just an alternate world. KJ Parker is an extreme example of this as his books sometimes have zero magic at all, but Robin Hobb is probably a more normal recommendation. Harry Potter definitely is not Low Fantasy.
High Fantasy, therefore, is just where magic and magical creatures etc are clear as day and definitely real.
Epic Fantasy is more about scope and scale, just like any "epic" story. A Song of Ice and Fire could be considered Epic Low Fantasy.
Heroic fantasy I think refers more to Sword and Sorcery unless I'm mistaken; Conan is probably what is meant by that.
Damn, Daniel! Good job, man!
I really enjoyed it
This was extremely helpful, thank you!
You say "Portal Fantasy", I say "Isekai".
Is it not a portal fantasy because of truck-kun? Is he not a respectable portal after all that overtime?
Great Video, and very fun to watch! I would never even think to describe Sanderson as magical realism though. If anything I would think of magical realism as a subgenre of low-fantasy, where the book is barely distinguishable from literary fiction except there are magical elements which are not treated as spectacular elements to a story, leaning more towards surrealism than traditional fantasy. When I think of magical realism the first books that come to mind are 100 years of solitude or Like Water for Chocolate, which are appropriate since both are by Latin American authors which is where the genre was spearheaded. This is not a criticism btw, just my interpretation of the genre. Keep up the good work, look forward to your videos every day!
your camera quality is so high def! good job on the upgrade!
Thank you for the clarifications and recommendations!
NEW WEIRD is amazing.
A video with you and Tim. Heaven. Both of you are my favourite youtubers
thank you a lot for this video! it really helps as a beginner to select some authors and books to start with, as the fantasy landscape is so confusing when you haven't read anything
Great vid! Thanks for the recommendations.
Another fun subgenre is “animal fantasy”, with the most successful most likely being Redwall. :) The Mouse Guard graphic novel series is also *legit*.
It doesn’t have to be medieval, though, such as Watership Down or the “Warriors” books by Erin Hunter.
I see your examples and raise you Tailchaser's Song, sir! Also, I loved Redwall, but I have a hard time thinking it was ever more popular than Watership Down...
Hand -of-Omega - I have just read ‘Hollow Kingdom’ by Kira Jane Buxton. In it humans have turned into zombies and the story is told by a pet crow S. T. (Shit Turd). He decides that he has to try and save all the domestic pets trapped in houses aided by a dog named Dennis. It also gives quite a few other species’ opinions on what is going on.
7 more days for new Joe Abercrombie 🤺🤺💀
flintlock fantasy is a genre i am about to try to get into with the powdermage trilogy because of your recommendation through a couple of videos. thank you sir!
This video is so useful, thank you!
the moment he didn‘t mention Eragon at Dragon Fantasy killed me😢
Love the video 👏 really enjoy the kinda lecture-style informative videos. Educate our nerddom Daniel 🤓
damn. thank you! for all the explaining and the examples! in just a handful of videos you've added a good dozen books to my "check this out" list! awesome
I bought "The blade itself" right after watching your video and my god i didnt know fantasy could be so great. many thanks to you!
For Erotic Fantasy, Kushiel's Dart. Highly recommend these books!
Love that series!
Im judging by the cover here, but if the book is actual called "kushiel's dart" being erotic fantasy, I'd buy if just for the title. But, it it's written by Kushiel. And the book is called 'Dart' it would not make me snicker so much..
@@qine6559 so which was it
Hi Daniel, really enjoying your videos, keep up the good work! I do have to point out that I think you got magic realism wrong. Magic realism is more the use of fantasy and supernatural elements in a real world setting that’s not explicitly explained as magic and is just accepted as part of the narrative. The fantasy element is usually used as a metaphor to enhance the themes of the story. Or at least that’s my understanding of it, it’s a hard genre to explain and make sense of. I really enjoyed Bone Gap by Laura Ruby as an example of magic realism. Mistborn is definitely not magic realism though.
Made me really happy for some reason to hear you mention Lovecraft
As much as I love Dresden Files, whenever I think of the Urban Fantasy genre as a whole, the Mathew Swift series (by Kate Griffin) comes to mind immediately. It binds the fantastical elements directly to the urban environment itself, with the justification of magic in the setting coming from "excess life" that bleeds out into a person's day to day activities, like many snippets of long-forgotten phone conversations adding up to become a border-line god made of electricity. The author also really likes to play around with stream-of-consciousness and perception to make that kind of idea work fairly well.
The biggest problems with the fantasy sub-genre clasifications are that most authors have a tendency to overlap between genres in there works. The best exemple is Elric of Melnibone by Michael Moorcock, a book series notable for its adherence to the counterstereotype of sword and sorcery, made his roots deep in dark fantasy and been a predecessor of grimdark at the same time.
The man has written fantasy, sci-fi, historical fiction, erotic fiction, and historical erotic fiction. And it's all connected by his multiverse.
I've always internally, probably even unconsciously until this video made me think about it, considered high fantasy to simply be any series that had classic DnD races like elves, dwarves, etc in it. Likewise I've always internally considered low-fantasy to simply be any fantasy setting where magic is related to something like 5% or less of the pagetime and didn't have any of the aforementioned fantasy races in it. Cool to learn more of the nuances.
Hey Daniel, is there a video you could do like this for science fiction? Love all the content you’re putting out! The daily videos are great for my morning coffee break!
WOW this helped me a lot, i didn't know there was this many sub genres!
I know it's not really your wheelhouse Daniel, but for Dark Fantasy I cannot recommend anything higher than Berserk.
Yes it is a manga series, so that will be a turn off for many people. However, if people can get past that, it's basically the embodiment of what I feel the genre thrives on. A dark setting with characters who struggle against the very nature of their world. It is to this day, the base for all western-medieval fantasy in Japan.
Weaveworld or Books of Art trilogy(two book for now) by Clive Berker are my fav dark fantsay
Holyyy, holy forces!!!!!
I'd say berserk is grim dark for sure. And it is the greatest story ever told imo. But Murias art is berserk is the definition of a picture is worth a thousand words.
Slayereyez I’ve always been of the opinion that the exchange rate between pictures and words fluctuates depending on the words and pictures in question. By this logic, Shrek 3 is worth more than any piece of written literature
@@disorientedkiwi7984 lol surely you can't compare an animated film like shrek to berserk its borderline blasphemous. If u have not already, step out of your comfort zone and read Berserk and Vagabond. I can almost guarantee if your posting here you will be glad you did. Most art looks small and unsubstantial when compared the likes of kintaro muria and ,Takehiko Inoue
Mr. Norell and Jonathan Strange is also a Victorian Fantasy.
It's amazing too.
Not to be nitpicky, but it takes place during the Regency period, not the Victorian period. George III is still king in the novel and is actually a portrayed character.
You know, if people did this to Asian or African history, it'd be considered racist
Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry is an amazing portal fantasy work and surprisingly has Arthurian elements. I think that's one of the best series I have ever read in any genre and it's only a trilogy so that's a bonus if you don't want to read millions of words to get to the end.
trying to find a subgenre for lord of Mysteries, you have mc Playing a detective in a victorian london like City, using a pistol as weapon while having seers power but you also get fights between gods and angels that shake the world and lovecraftian horror with outer gods.
you also have elves, giants, dragons and other Mythical beings. but also steampunk.
you also get evil Organisations causing mass murder to summon their evil god
and mc is transmigrated from modern earth
you also get like 2000 pages that play on the high sea with pirates and pirate ships.
one of the main side Characters is a vampire
Hmm, very interesting!
My personal differentiation for epic vs high, is more like the dragon fantasy idea. High fantasy is the traditional elves, dwarves, orcs, humans etc. Obviously LOTR fits here.
Epic fantasy is more about scope/size than setting. For example, obviously stormlight archive and probably mistborn go here, but I wouldn't put elantris or worldbreaker, even though they're the same style from the same author, even the same universe.
Clearly there are many books that would fit into both, like the aforementioned LOTR, and probably the legend of drizzt books. But to me they are describing different aspects of the story. High is setting, and epic is scope.
Just my thoughts, thanks for the video!
Drizz't is awesome!! One of my most favorite series!!💜
So your definition of "high fantasy" is anything that copies LOTR?
Since you brought up Lovecraft, I feel that I must recommend his contemporary Robert E. Howard for the Conan stories. Since the stories are written serially saying that all of them belong to one genre is probably silly, but hero fantasy is probably the closest (and sword is sorcery is kinda meaningless as a genre). Also they are public domain so download to your hearts content. I would suggest "The Queen of the Black Coast" as a starter.
Ive been bingewatching this channel for 3 days🤦🏻♀️
The recent trend with Arthurian Legend is to try to go historical rather than fantastical. One of my all time favorite historical takes is the Arthurian Aksumite cycle. First book takes place in Britain, and all the rest take place in Aksum and the area around the Red Sea. It's very cool, and nicely showcases how interconnected the Mediteranian, European, and North African world was in the so called "Dark Ages".
Military Fantasy: Temeraire! (which is also dragon fantasy)
Also, you should read/review the Temeraire series!
Also, watch an anime called Tanya the Evil!
"The ones that take a minute to load"
_laughs in brown bess three-round-per-minute rate of fire_
Also I though high fantasy was fantasy with a high "fantasy" content; magic, made up worlds and cultures, fantasy creatures, et cetera, and epic fantasy was fantasy where the story is on a large scale and could effect the whole world. Something could be both high fantasy and epic fantasy, like, say, the first Mistborn trilogy, but something else could be high fantasy but not epic fantasy, like the Wax and Wayne books from the same world.
That's a very different definition of High Fantasy than I've ever heard. To my knowledge, High Fantasy is when the fantastical elements are very common and apparent, with magical things being regularly seen by the characters, fantastical creatures being somewhat common and even your average peasant not doubting the existence of the supernatural. The opposite of low fantasy.
I would love to see a second one of these ever few years where dan recommends something from each gene
Hey Daniel, just a quick question at 0:37 that image of the lady lying down, who is the artist behind that? I know that John William Waterhouse has done similar paintings, but I've never seen it before. Thank you so much, and keep up the great work✊🏾❤️
Erotic fantasy: The dragon comes out of the cave dressed in an eyeless, black latex suit with its wings tied together and the chosen one has a whip with magical 'bullets' and 'rabbits' on the tip. I will call it, 50 DEGREES OF FIRE. I can see the reviews already.
"If the devil fapped, he'd clean up with this book." ~Jerry sprinkler.
" This is not a book, it's a way of life." ~Dr. Ahhz.
" How much coke did 'HE' have?" ~ Stephen Kringe.
" This book will petrify your socks." ~ George R. R. R. R.
Coming soon tu a banned site near yuu. Wink, Wink.
A tale of the Kin series by Douglas Hulick (gas light?) and The Demon Cycle by Peter V Brett (many, many subcatagories!) are wonderful reads.
Also, thanks to your recommendations I'm now two books into The Witcher... can't believe it took so long for me to get around to this!! Amazing.
I really enjoyed this and it added a couple of books to my list. I also enjoyed the guessing game of what your recommendations would be.
I'm writing my own book and listening to this I'm realizing mine fits a few different genres:
Portal, Urban/Low and Epic/High fantasy.
Now looking at my list it's semi obvious why and how both urban and epic can be in the same book... I'll also elaborate before somebody complains or asks... there's two different POVs which is why I'm deeming it appropriate to place them in those genres.
Whether or not when it's published it falls into any of these categories is totally not up to me. If it doesn't fit them exactly... well... too bad... I'm absolutely adopting them for when I explain my book to save my breath lol.
Thank you Daniel for explaining the genres! I wasn't entirely aware some of these genres existed, will you be making another video similar to it? Also because of your videos I have several books/series I want to read!
I don't have a very good memory of all the books I've read (or a good memory in general lol) however I'll add to some of the suggestions with a few that came to mind during this video.
One urban fantasy is the Mercy Thompson series and another is the Alpha and Omega series both by Patricia Briggs.
Mercy is a half Native American coyote shifter (or skinwalker as she calls herself) who always happens to find herself in trouble without even wanting to or trying to get into it. There's werewolves, vampires and even fae in the story as it continues. As the story goes on we learn a lot about Briggs' universe and what happens in it and how that effects both the supernatural creatures and the humans.
(My favorite character is a werewolf name Ben)
Alpha and Omega is about two werewolves, Charlies and Anna, in the same universe as Mercy (both of whom know her) they're mates and they solve mysteries of the supernatural world! Bringing justice to it and working on the political side of things. The story of their bookish universe slowly unfolds as both book series progresses.
There IS an order I recommend reading these series in. Read them together as one big story! If you don't some thing's may not make sense; especially in the Alpha and Omega series.
(My fave character from THESE books is Asil)
Another series which fits urban fantasy along with vampires is the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris.
Some people might know that story loosely from the first couple of seasons of TrueBlood however the show is barely an adaptation and the books are AMAZING!
It's about a waitress who works at a bar in Louisiana who happens to read minds. One night she meets a vampire in her little home town named Bill. The vampires have come out to the public and they are fighting to be recognized as people too. We follow Sookie as she unlocks secrets of her past, her powers and delve deeper into the world of the supernatural that Harris has created.
(My fave character so far has to be Eric)
If anyone has read these books and made it to the end of my probably very long comment and knows any of these characters then you, my friend, are awesome!
What is the story of your book about?
@@lux2625 A teen boy goes missing. His best friend, a wolf shifter, takes it upon herself to find him. Instead she finds a seelie elven prince in hiding. When they're attacked by guards of his kingdom, sent to bring him home, they accidentally get teleported to his world just off the coast of the unseelie realm.
Meanwhile, her best friend is being tortured for something he doesn't know he can do, her brother is going crazy trying to find her and the supernatural detective assigned to her case grows more and more confused and realizes that there's a long string of missing persons who disappeared in similar ways all around the world but nobody can figure out why fae are kidnapping humans after several hundred years of relative peace.
@@OmegaTheSillyWolf Nice, do you have a link to read it ?
@@lux2625 No, I hope to publish it once it's finished. So far I have about half of it done T . T I'm mostly just editing and revising it so most of it is just padding it out with details and explanations. The important parts are already down, thankfully lol
@@OmegaTheSillyWolf Oh good luck with that. Part writing is a lot of rewriting xD let me know when you finish releasing it to the market, I'll take a look at it.
What is your favorite Fantasy Sub-genre?
steampunk sci fi
Epic or dark
Have you tried any Indian fantasy books? Would love if you check them out. Popular names that come up are Amish Tripati, Samit Basu, Indra Das. If you want to start by something small, read Indra Das' Breaking Water. It has a subversive take on zoombies. I think you will love it.
I'm a dark fantasy kinda guy
Epic/High/Urban Fantasy, but there are so many that are so good. though truth be told, i always thought High Fantasy was a story that used alot magic and artifacts in the series.
I have so many books to read now, thank you! 🙏
Magical realism tends to attract a lot of gatekeeping-type comments, like that you were afraid of with high fantasy. It's a more "literary" genre, sometimes thought to be literary-types trying to worm their way out of having liked a fantasy book (Pratchett said this, for example). Gene Wolfe called it "fantasy written by people who speak Spanish". It's usually associated with Latin America. There's often a political element to it and the magic "system" is usually barely explained at all, often because it's based in folklore and/or the audience is presumed to be already familiar with it. Also, the fantasy element in magical realism is usually pretty low-key. It is basically never set in a secondary world, so I don't think Mistborn would qualify.
The classic example is One Hundred Years of Solitude, or just about anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.