The Many Faces of Fantasy

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The Many Faces of Fantasy

• Neil Hollands
• Williamsburg Regional Library
• Williamsburg, VA
• nholland_at_wrl.org

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1. Quest (Epic High) Fantasy

• A motley collection of heroes band together to
  find the magical Doohickey, slay the evil
  Whatzitz, and/or get help from the all-powerful
  Whozitz. Nail-biting adventures ensue,
  culminating in saving the world (until the next
  book in the series anyway.)

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• Patrick Rothfuss
• The Name of the Wind
• The Kingkiller Chronicle

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2. Coming-of-Age Fantasy

• Raised by farmers/wolves/traveling musicians,
  young Destiny has always felt slightly out of
  place. Perhaps its the enormous CHOSEN ONE
  tattoo on his/her forehead, or the bursts of
  uncontrolled magical power that have destroyed
  several playmates. But when a crotchety old
  wizard returns to reveal the truth, Destiny
  begins an adventure to master his/her skills and
  combat the Dark Lord.

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• Michael Scott
• The Alchemyst
• The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

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3. Political Fantasy

• Its always taken luck and genius to survive the
  cutthroat politics of (insert name of world,
  kingdom, city, or nonprofit organization here),
  but now something REALLY rotten is going on. It
  falls on the shoulders of our hero/s (unlikely,
  inexperienced, unwanted, underestimated) to
  overcome early missteps, survive treachery and
  betrayal, and outwit the forces of evil.

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• Daniel Abraham
• A Shadow in Summer
• The Long Price Quartet

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4. Alternate History Fantasy

• Before academia or technology drove it screaming
  from the world, magic pervaded medieval/ancient/Vi
  ctorian life. Historical fantasy authors balance
  precariously between demands for historical
  verisimilitude from SCA inquisitors and their own
  attempts to convince us that the War of the Roses
  was a clash between mermaids and centaurs.

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• Emma Bull
• Territory

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5. Realistic Epic Fantasy

• The antiheros (who only rape, pillage, and murder
  when it meets a moral code or is REALLY
  important) wade hip-deep through muck, gore,
  moral qualms, and the bodily fluids of especially
  nasty enemies, using sharp weapons in the same
  way that a blind man uses a cane. Although
  several of them die horribly along the way, they
  ultimately defeat the nasties, thus allowing
  their putrid world to keep on stinking.

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• George R. R. Martin
• A Game of Thrones
• A Song of Ice and Fire

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• K. J. Parker
• The Company

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6. Heroic Fantasy

• Whats that on the horizon? Is it a bird? Is it a
  plane? No! Its Pulp Badass! Accompanied by his
  sidekick Comic Relief and the love of his life,
  his sword Heartbreaker, he travels the world in
  search of justice and groovy magical stuff. Its
  a lonely, difficult life given variety only by
  the many fun and exciting ways there are to kill
  nasties.

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• David Gemmell
• Troy Lord of the Silver Bow
• Troy

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7. Paranormal Adventure

• Believe it or not, in the big city there are
  strange happenings lurk just below the surface!
  And not just among the usual freaks, perverts and
  deviants there are monsters, fairies and magic
  too! Our hipster hero must battle the beasties
  and negotiate with various magical forces while
  still leaving plenty of time to pursue the
  opposite sex, drop clever one liners, and
  maintain a suitably cool public persona.

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• Rob Thurman
• Nightlife
• Cal and Niko Leandros series

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8. Dark Fantasy

• Its a horror novel, with more than the usual
  dose of weirdness and magic. If you can draw a
  clear dividing line between the two genres,
  please let me know how!

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• Christopher Golden
• The Myth Hunters
• The Veil

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9. Fantastic Romance

• Our heroine, intrepid but always endangered,
  cant decide whos hotter, the smoldering vampire
  or the brooding werewolf. Thats just as well,
  because with help from her wacky friends, shell
  probably have to kill them both before the story
  ends. Latex and whips may be involved, but only
  in the more tender scenes. Shell win, but not
  before she or one of her friends becomes undead
  themselves.

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• Lois McMaster Bujold
• Beguilement
• The Sharing Knife

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10. Romantic Fantasy

• Headstrong and beautiful, our princess/slave
  girl/sorceress heroine is infuriated by, yet
  inexplicably attracted to an arrogant, troubled
  prince/warrior/god with long hair and a skirt, er
  kilt or battle dress. While learning to control
  her strange magic, coping with the surprise that
  one of the pair is the missing ruler/chosen one,
  and overcoming disasters caused by his stoic
  silence or pigheadedness, she discovers the good
  man within, the misunderstood lover who can tame
  her sassy ways. By the way, Prince Perky and
  Rogue Smolder must make time in their social
  calendar to save the world.

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• Maria K. Snyder
• Poison Study
• Yelena

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11. Humorous Fantasy

• The awkward and horrible nature of reality is
  rendered VERY FUNNY by transporting the setting
  to a thinly disguised fantasy world, then made
  VERY HORRIBLE AND AWKWARD again by the use of
  atrocious puns.

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• Austin Grossman
• Soon I Will Be Invincible

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12. Literary Fantasy

• With convincingly but cryptically drawn
  characters, dreamlike environments, alliterative
  in-jokes, droll wordplay, graceful metaphor,
  non-linear timelines, and meta-references, the
  author creates a subtly magical variation on the
  real world that slowly induces confusion, then
  insanity, in the reader.

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• Keith Donohue
• The Stolen Child

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13. New Weird (aka Slipstream)

• If the book is typical, its NOT New Weird. Books
  in this subgenre are kind of like drugs, except
  theyre legal and slower acting.

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• Jennifer Stevenson
• Trash Sex Magic

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14. Fables

• In a strange land, a story from the Brothers
  Grimm happens, but much more slowly. Experiencing
  the tale from the lead characters perspective,
  readers discover that its even more twisted than
  the creepy story that scared them into compliance
  with parental rules when they were children.

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Shannon Hale Book of a Thousand Days
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15. Mythic Explorations

• In a dreamlike world and dreamlike tone, the gods
  of different cultures clash, and the heroes of
  mythology live in the house next door. Magic
  mixes with anthropology lessons and a trickster
  god or two. If you have to give a report on it,
  use words like mythos, allegory, and Jungian.

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• Catherynne M. Valente
• In the Night Garden
• The Orphans Tales

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16. Science Fantasy

• Advanced technology and magic meet in tales
  contrived to torment cataloguers, who cannot
  decide whether to use the dragon sticker or the
  rocket sticker.

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• S. M. Stirling
• Dies the Fire
• The Change
• (Emberverse) series

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And if you still want more

• Neil Hollands
• Read On Fantasy Fiction
• Published in 2007 by Libraries Unlimited/
  Greenwood Press