The Fantasy of a Whole Genre

I thought I should try and explain a bit about the genre of fantasy, since it happens to be a big part of what I read on a day to day basis.

There is a difference in types of fantasy that not many people know about (outside the fans, of course). Many different sub-genres exist within the overarching genre of fantasy. The two big categories are high fantasy and sword and sorcery fantasy. Others include urban fantasy, science fantasy, alternative history and a few others. But for the purpose of brevity, I’ll only focus on the big two for now. The definitions will be loosely based, simply because they are that difficult to nail down substantially. In addition, a lot of books and short fiction will bleed over to other genre elements, which makes it all the more difficult.

Please remember that most, if not all, of the books mentioned here can contain mature subject matter, whether that means sex, violence, or just mature themes. These will be marked with an *.

But let’s start with Sword and Sorcery.

Sword and sorcery fantasy is what most people associate the general fantasy stereotypes with. This is your standard Dungeons & Dragons universe. This is commonly associated with Dragons, Knights, Rouges, Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, and a whole host of other creatures and characters that exist within a predefined world. Commonly, a sword and sorcery fantasy novel will use the established worlds and common knowledge of those worlds within their novel, using generic styles to establish the world and focusing more on plot. If someone who is familiar with this universe, it allows a ease of access to the story, as most of the general setting is taken care of by previous writers and players. These, for the most part, are an easy read, as much of the story is already there, only the characters and plots are different (though not always, we’ll get to that in a moment). The various themes, magic system, religious structure, political and population settings are the same, almost always. This is not to say that sword and sorcery fantasy is not good to read, though. It can be very entertaining, but it tends to follow the same structure the world over:

A hero, usually: down on his luck/shining example in humanity,
Finds that he: has gotten in trouble/must save a person,
And: resists going on a quest/sets out on a quest immediately,
To find the: sacred object/demonic object
Which will: save the world/ destroy life as we know it.
And defeat the indomitable ancient evil.

Key Sword and Sorcery Series:

Dragonlance Chronicles*
Forgotten Realms*

I much prefer High Fantasy, which can be summed up in one sentence, though not completely. High Fantasy authors create their own world. They may rely on general principals of fantasy, of a medieval setting, with Kings and magic, but the key difference is that the world that they have built has been created from scratch. These series are often the more in-depth and interesting reads, being more highly involved with character, who are three dimensional instead of stereotypes. The characters within sword and sorcery novels often are a tweaked template that has been created before, while High Fantasy tends to create characters that are much more believable. The systems in place as well are created entirely for the novels. Each book has an entirely different set of rules, lands, magic systems, everyday life, and even the political and religious structures are highly defined within a good High Fantasy novel.

Key High Fantasy Series:

The Lord of the Rings*
The Song of Ice and Fire *
The Wheel of Time*
The Sword of Truth*

It should also be noted that High Fantasy Novels often exist on multiple levels, unlike sword and sorcery novels which often only exist on the surface. High Fantasy usually uses the characters and story to tell of philosophies, or religious opinions. They can extend to political ideologies or just studies on human nature and interaction.

So a good rule to go by is:
Sword and Sorcery fantasy – predefined, with only minimal tweaks to create a “unique” work.
High Fantasy – created from nothing, entirely unique in execution, and often has truly creative techniques within it.

One issue I always have to address is why I qualify The Lord of the Rings as a High Fantasy Novel, and not as Sword and Sorcery, as a lot of the details within Lord of the Rings fits the description of Sword and Sorcery novels so well. And I always argue that neither the land nor the stereotypes existed back when Tolkien wrote the novels. He created an entire genre off of his world that he built, because Tolkien’s work was one of the largest influences for creating Dungeons & Dragons in the first place. The fact that he created the world out of nothing (besides various myths and legends from across the globe, but that’s a discussion best left to some other time).

This is not to say that all Sword and Sorcery Fantasy novels are bad, or that all High Fantasy Novels are good. Each must be judged on its own merits, but in my experience, High Fantasy usually exhibits a feel of more care and time within it. As the author created an entire world, they have often put more effort into creating their work, where Sword and Sorcery authors often have most of the work (the world building) done for them already, so it often can lead to lazy writing.

I tend to love High Fantasy more than Sword and Sorcery, because of its deep and intricate plot, but many people prefer the light Sword and Sorcery novels. Which one you choose depends on what you like. Neither is wrong, neither is right, it is all a matter of opinion.