When I finished my first book in the Pearseus universe, I was faced with an unexpected problem: everyone kept saying that identifying your genre was important. But my book crossed many genres. It was, essentially, a fantasy tale taking place in the future, with technology and a tiny bit of crystal magic. So, how the heck do you find a genre to shoehorn this kind of book into?
After several unsuccessful attempts to do so, I now describe it as science fiction fantasy (aka science fantasy) but wish I had come across this handy guide from Thoughts on Fantasy before I spent so many hours researching fantasy subgenres!
From Tolkienesque High Fantasy to Paranormal Romance, this is the ultimate guide for all things fantasy. Just click on a link below for a brief description of that subgenre, examples of books written in it, and typical elements that characterize it. And if you would like a definition of the fantasy genre as a whole, see: What is Fantasy Fiction?
Fantasy Sub-Genres
- High Fantasy / Epic Fantasy
- Low Fantasy
- Portal Fantasy
- Urban Fantasy / Contemporary Fantasy
- Paranormal / Paranormal Romance
- Fantasy Romance / High Fantasy Romance
- Young Adult Fantasy (YA Fantasy)
- Children’s Fantasy
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Sword and Sorcery / Heroic Fantasy
- Medieval Fantasy / Arthurian Fantasy
- Historical Fantasy
- Comic Fantasy
- Science Fantasy
- Grimdark Fantasy
- Gothic Fantasy / Dark Fantasy
- The New Weird
gibsonauthor said:
Reblogged this on s a gibson.
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kimwrtr said:
Reblogged this on Kim's Musings.
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Dracul Van Helsing said:
The complete hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy of fantasy.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol–exactly 😀
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The Story Reading Ape said:
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
Great information from Nicholas, in case you need to know 😀
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harmonykentonline said:
Linking to this on my week in review post tomorrow, Nicholas. Great post 🙂
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Yay! Thank you so much, Harmony 😀
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Charles Yallowitz said:
High heroic fantasy for mine. It does get difficult when you try things that might be multiple genres. Even the simple ones like High Heroic Vampire Fantasy can get confusing.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
As you well know 🙂
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V.M.Sang said:
Thanks, Nicholas. This is a great help. I, too, have problems with knowing where to fit my stories.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
The price of creativity 🙂
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V.M.Sang said:
Reblogged on Dragons Rule OK
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Pingback: Fantasy Sub-Genres | Dragons Rule OK.
Marcia said:
Love this helpful list, Nicholas! Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Yay! So glad you found it useful 😀
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Marcia said:
Reblogged this on The Write Stuff and commented:
For you folks who write any kind of fantasy at all, Nicholas Rossis has posted a great list to help you determine which fantasy genre is applicable to your work. Check it out! You may be able to use several of these sub-categories to get more eyes on your books. Thanks, Nicholas!
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Writing your first novel-Some things you should know said:
Thanks for sharing! I’m not a fantasy writer-yet 🙂 I appreciate your blogs. You always provide such useful information.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Yay! Thank you so much for that 😀
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sallyrose333 said:
This is super helpful. I didn’t really know about Science Fantasy and thought if you had elements of both of science fiction and fantasy it was Speculative. So thank you for sharing this!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
I was so relieved to find out about science fantasy myself. Finally, Pearseus had a home 😀
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Staci Troilo said:
Great list! (And better late than never, right?)
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol–exactly 😀
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Mae Clair said:
Extremely helpful list. Awesome!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Yay! Thank you, Mae, I’m so glad you found it useful 😀
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coldhandboyack said:
Cool list. No flintlock fantasy though. That’s kind of where my new one would fit in.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol–another day, another subgenre 😀
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coldhandboyack said:
Yup.
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Giovannoni Claudine said:
Clever! Thank so much for sharing Nicholas, I’ll keep it on mind… 🙂 claudine
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Glad you found it useful 😀
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Susan A. Royal said:
Reblogged this on Susan A. Royal and commented:
This is going to come in handy.
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clayfoot2 said:
Reblogged this on Journeys of the Clayfoot and commented:
A handy list of ways to categorize those sub- and sub-sub-genres that cross boundaries, not quite fitting solidly in one genre home.
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Deborah Jay said:
Reblogged this on deborahjay and commented:
If you aren’t quite sure exactly which fantasy genre you are writing or reading, here’s an extensive list to help clarify this complicated question. Thanks to Nicholas for sharing.
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patriciaruthsusan said:
This is an excellent post, Nicholas. Thanks for all the information. 🙂 — Suzanne
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Yay! Glad you enjoyed it 😀
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patriciaruthsusan said:
Reblogged this on Musings on Life & Experience and commented:
An excellent post on fantasy sub-genres.
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Don Massenzio said:
Reblogged this on Author Don Massenzio and commented:
Check out this post from Nicholas Rossis’ blog on the topic of fantasy sub-genres.
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rijanjks said:
Wow! So many choices! I can see where it would be difficult to decide what fits your story best.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Tell me about it. And that’s not even counting genre-crossing!
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DebyFredericks said:
Ah, the eternal question! But necessary. When you’re sitting in a bookstore asking people “Do you like to read fantasy?” it’s always good to have that tag-line ready.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
It is helpful for sure… but it can be maddeningly hard to shoehorn your work into a single genre 😀
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Adele Marie said:
Thank you so much for this as I have trouble with my books too. They cross genres and won’t snugly fit in, a bit like me I guess. lol
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol–same here 😀
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