Palacký University in Olomouc Philosophical

Fantasy and its subgenres

In this middle chapter I will try to briefly describe the fantasy genre and its subgenres, even though it is a very complex and broad genre. For this part of the thesis I chose The A to Z of Fantasy Literature by Brian Stableford as the general source, since it offers rather extensive information on the genre, its history and its authors.

1. What is a fantasy?

There are many definitions of “fantasy” or “fantasy literature” varying author from author. For example Gary Burns in his A Companion to Popular Culture defines fantasy with respect to its “sister genre” – science-fiction.

“Like science fiction, fantasy – as a genre of popular fiction – also speculates or extrapolates narratives set in the past, present, or future, in stories set on Earth or in otherworldly dimensions, but whereas science fiction involves the logical application of science and technology, fantasy uses magic and magical beings that may or may not have any scientific basis in known fact.” ³⁶
To sum it up we can say fantasy is a literary fiction genre dealing with supernatural elements, such as magic or magical creatures. The story often takes place in an alternative world with different laws of nature or a world inhabited by completely different species.

2. Subgenres

The genre is still developing and new subgenres are appearing with almost every new fantasy series. The updated “Fantasy Subgenres Guide” by the online community standing behind bestfantasybooks.com offers sixty four subgenre categories including categories like “Gritty Fantasy”, “Mundane Fantasy”, “Portal Fantasy” or “Gunpowder Fantasy” next to more classical ones such as “Heroic

³⁶ Gary Burns, A Companion to Popular Culture: Blackwell Companions in Cultural Studies, 38
(Chichester: John Wiley&Sons, 2016), 115.
Fantasy”, “Romantic Fantasy” or “Sword and Sorcery Fantasy”.³⁷ They are often overlapping and can be put in some sort of subdivisions.
The first step in dividing the subgenres would be to decide if the work should be considered “High Fantasy” or “Low Fantasy”. Stableford works with Kenneth J. Zahorski and Robert H. Boyer’s taxonomy, stating “high fantasy consists entirely of fiction set in secondary worlds, while the “low fantasy” with which it is immediately contrasted consists of fiction set in the primary world, into which magical objects and entities are introduced piecemeal”. ³⁸ On the other hand, Burns focuses more on the characters than the settings, saying “high fantasy offer stories that depict large-scale confrontations between the forces of good and evil. Good and evil are clearly represented. High fantasy also presents larger-than-life heroes who undertake grand quests to save the world from the powers of evil”. ³⁹ He also mentions the interchangeability with the term “epic” fantasy, stating this subgenre was popularized in the twentieth century by C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Speaking of low fantasy, he describes it as “much more intimate and private than high fantasy. It features stories that deal more with individual problems at a personal level, and less with world-shaking conflicts”. ⁴⁰ At this point he also says the subgenres of low fantasy encompass “swords and sorcery” fiction, featuring “mighty-limbed warriors combating wizards and dark magic”. ⁴¹
Even with this most basic division, the authors differ in their opinions about what is the most defying element, and also about the interchangeability of the terms. However, it is quite clear that Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings can be considered a prototype of the high/epic fantasy subgenre – the story is happening in a secondary world and presents a hero Frodo going on a dangerous journey to save the Middle Earth from the reign of the evil Sauron. It is quite hard to find some “grey” characters as well – broadly speaking there are the good ones (against Sauron) and the bad ones (with Sauron).
Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire is often put in the same category, mainly because the amount of characters, and the rich world building he used to create



³⁷ “Fantasy Subgenres Guide,” Best Fantasy Books, accessed August 15, 2016, http://bestfantasybooks.com/fantasy-genre.php.
³⁸ Brian Stableford, The A to Z of Fantasy Literature: The A to Z Guide Series, 46 (Plymouth: Scarecrow Press, 2009), 198.
³⁹ Burns, A Companion, 115.
⁴⁰ Burns, A Companion, 115.
⁴¹ Burns, A Companion, 115.
Planetos. But many aspects of the long and complex story complicates its categorization and going with the already mentioned “Fantasy Subgenres Guide” we could as well put the Song into “Modern Heroic Fantasy” or “Alternate World Fantasy”, but it also shows some elements of “Swords and Sorcery”. Martin himself admitted he has always wanted to write some epic fantasy work because he loved Tolkien since he was a kid. ⁴² But he has also said there were aspects of Tolkien’s world he did not like, mostly the “if you are good you will live a long and happy life” approach. He described this problem for the Rolling Stone, saying:
“Ruling is hard. This was maybe my answer to Tolkien, whom, as much as I admire him, I do quibble with. Lord of the Rings had a very medieval philosophy: that if the king was a good man, the land would prosper. We look at real history and it's not that simple. Tolkien can say that Aragorn became king and reigned for a hundred years, and he was wise and good. But Tolkien doesn't ask the question: What was Aragorn's tax policy? Did he maintain a standing army? What did he do in times of flood and famine? And what about all these orcs? By the end of the war, Sauron is gone but all of the orcs aren't gone – they're in the mountains. Did Aragorn pursue a policy of systematic genocide and kill them? Even the little baby orcs, in their little orc cradles? In real life, real-life kings had real-life problems to deal with. Just being a good guy was not the answer.” ⁴³
Most characters in the Song are grey characters – the reader is led to hate some of them at first only to like them thousands of pages later… and them being killed in the most unexpected moment another hundreds pages later. The characters that seem to be the protagonists die. Characters whose goals were not revealed even after five thousands pages survive. The reader cannot be sure his favorites, or at least some of them, will make it to the end. And what is the end? What is this story about? The final war with the Others, when almost nobody in Westeros believes in their existence? The characters are playing their game of thrones and the time passes. And with George Martin behind the typewriter we cannot even be sure this will have some epic-worthy ending, since he seems to break so many “rules” of the genre, rules established mainly by Tolkien.





⁴² “EW interview: George R.R. Martin talks ‘A Dance With Dragons’,” Entertainment Weekly, accessed August 15, 2016, http://www.ew.com/article/2011/07/12/george-martin-talks-a-dance- with-dragons.
⁴³ “George R.R. Martin: The Rolling Stone Interview.”

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