types of fantasy?

[redwing00]

I remember seeing polls posted a while ago (possibly years) listing, describing, and asking which type of fantasy was the favorite. I'm just looking for more options. I'm not asking for specific settings, I was just wondering on terms of genearality: high fantasy, grim and gritty, etc. (that's the only two i know). I've heard of 'pulp' but i have no idea what that means.
thanks in advance,
redwing

 

[tetsujin28]

Well, lately people have been using 'pulp fantasy' to mean things like Doc Savage, etc. Personally, I think it's more like Conan, or what used to be called 'sword and sorcery'.

 

[Desdichado]

I've never heard that sword and sorcery isn't still called sword and sorcery. I think the use of pulp fantasy at least in regards to Eberron is the integration of "pure pulp" elements that aren't necessarily fantasy. The kind of melding of Raiders of the Lost Ark with fantasy, if you will.

 

[Dark Jezter]

I'll list comparisons between high fantasy and sword & sorcery fiction, based on what I've observed and read from other sources...

In High Fantasy, there are several fictional races like elves, dwarves, halfings, orcs, etc.
Sword & Sorcery worlds tend to be dominated by humans. If other sentient races do exist, it's mostly in rumors and tales.

In High Fantasy, magic isn't such an uncommon thing, and wizards can often be found among the ranks of both good and evil.
In Sword & Sorcery, magic is a rare and mysterous force. Practitoners of magic tend to be evil more often than not.

In High Fantasy, a party of good-hearted adventurers battle against all odds to stop the forces of darkness.
In Sword & Sorcerery, it's usually a lone warrior (although perhaps with a sidekick) battling an evil wizard or a hideous monster to save the comely wench or get the fabulous treasure.

High Fantasy stories can take up entire novels, or entire series of novels.
Sword & Sorcery tales tend to be more episodic in nature, and can be told in the pages of short novellas or pulp fiction magazines.

In High Fantasy, the heroes are usually squeaky-clean and lack faults. They are compassionate, merciful, just, and altogether good.
In Sword & Sorcerery, antiheroes are more popular than pure heroes. The protagonist in a sword & sorcerery tale might be violent, short-tempered, cocky, or greedy.

 

[Eternalknight]

Taken from my copy of The Ultimate Encyclopaedia of Fantasy, the accepted genres of fantasy are:

Fairy Tale (Mother Goose, etc)
Animal Fantasy (The Wind in the Willows etc)
Arthurian Fantasy (King Arthur)
Arabian Nights Fantasy (er, 1001 Arabian Nights)
Chinoiserie (basically oriental fantasy)
Lost Race Fantasy (Tarzan, etc)
Humourous Fantasy (Discworld etc)
Sword and Sorcery (Conan etc)
Heroic Fantasy (Lord of the Rings and most forms of D&D).

 

[Dr. Talos]

With the intent of not drawing this thread off-topic, Science Fantasy in the vein of Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Earth and Jack Vance's Dying Sun and to a certain extent Frank Herbert's Dune. Science Fantasy is set in a steeing where wither science and fantasy are indistinguishable or the scince is so far advanced that it seems like magic to the genereal populace.

Star Wars can also be termed as Space Fantasy or Space Opera. Here science is used as magic, very similar to Science Fantasy but more overt in its use of science fiction settings.

You have Dark Fantasy which is a blending of Horror and Fantasy. Stephen King's Eyes of the Dragon is a good example of this genre.

 

[hong]

The best discussion I've seen so far on this topic is in Steve Long's _Fantasy HERO_, the sourcebook for the HERO System. I've got the 5th Ed version of this tome, and it really _is_ a tome; 400+ pages of densely spaced type packed with all sorts of information. A lot of it is crunch for HERO, naturally, but the discussion on fantasy subgenres translates to any ruleset you're using.

Crossworlds fantasy: stories where the PCs are real-world people who get transported into a fantasy world. Think CS Lewis' Narnia.

Epic fantasy: stories featuring grand, romantic, monumental struggles against a vast, overwhelmingly powerful foe. Larger-than-life tales, told with a totally straight bat. LOTR, the Belgariad, the Dragonlance Chronicles, etc.

High fantasy: Epic fantasy by the rest of us. Dungeons, dragons, weird and powerful magic, but with rather more down-to-earth/cynical/humorous characters than are usually found in epic fantasy. Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea, Vance's Dying Earth, Steven Brust.

Low fantasy: "Realistic" fantasy, ie little or no magic, low-powered characters, often a very pragmatic approach to things. The Three Musketeers and other "swashbuckling" tales, GRR Martin's Song of Fire and Ice.

Swords and sorcery: Conan. Culture is for pansies, the good guys are all barbarians. "Good" being relative, since everybody is generally looking out for number one.

Urban fantasy: Modern fantasy, ie magic in the 20th/21st century. Buffy, White Wolf's World of Darkness, Shadowrun, Urban Arcana, etc.

 

[WayneLigon]

Urban Fantasy is another growing genre. Fantastic (usually Old World) elements juxtuposed with the modern (since industrialization) world. The Bordertown stories and novels, almost anything by Charles deLint, the SERRAted Edge by Lackey and Co., a number of others.

Another version of this is the Futuristic Fantasy (as oppossed to Science Fantasy) where magical elements are used in a space or future setting (ShadowRun, Roads of Heaven series by Melissa Scott, some of Piers Anthony's work). Some older science fiction can almost be classified in this way, but really it almost has it's own genre (I've heard a word for it but cannot remember what it was; something like Gothic Space Romance).

 

[johnsemlak]

No time to discuss it but I was wondering if people consider Gothic Horror (bram stoker, mary shelley) to be a kind of fantasy?

 

[Desdichado]

No time to discuss it but I was wondering if people consider Gothic Horror (bram stoker, mary shelley) to be a kind of fantasy?

Of course.

fan·ta·sy ( P ) Pronunciation Key (fnt-s, -z)
n. pl. fan·ta·sies
Fiction characterized by highly fanciful or supernatural elements.
An example of such fiction.

Fantasy is much broader than the traditional expectations of the genre get credit for.