Talk:High fantasy
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should we seperate high fantasy from heroic fantasy ? Imran 00:04, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)
i dont think Christopher Paolini's Inheritance trilogy is high fantasy, the first book ain't more than sword and sorcery. camara
why is george rr martin on both the high fantasy and low fantasy pages as an example?
perhaps because it's possible to write books in two different genres? -Norph
The A song of Ice and Fire cycle of novels have several features which makes it acceptable to think of it as both high fantasy and low fantasy. It is high fantasy because it focuses on nobility, it deals with epic themes and has a larger-than-life scope. But there are equally valid reasons to call it low fantasy: The amount of magic is far less than in the majority of high fantasy novels(this is the most important reason). Characters are not "protected" by fate, as they are in, say, the Wheel of Time cycle. And also, the feudal system is not glorified. This is why I wrote on the low fantasy page that A Song of Ice and Fire belongs to the high fantasy GENRE, but often is categorized as low fantasy. sindreman
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[edit] Twenty book maximum
I realise your ambition, but please consider that 20 titles are enough. Please stop putting any more books or authors' exemples, because I will subsequently delete them. Please be so kind and do not this anymore. 20 books and authors, are completely enough for such an article. Thank you for your attention: Painbearer 23:28, 5 November 2005 (UTC)
Since my edit was reverted on the grounds that "twenty books was enough", I produced a new one. Obviously, it is more important to put the really major works at a higher priority, but the question is, which ones are they, and whose opinion determines? But I think it's clearly idiotic to leave E. R. Eddison off, and insist that D&D books such as Salvatore and Dragonlance go on. An an article just on gaming inspired fantasy would be nice, actually. I suggest if someone wants to both insist that the list be kept to twenty books {\it and} that they determine which books, they are not being reasonable. If someone wants to insist that the list be limited to twenty books, but doesn't like my present suggestions, that would be reasonalbe. But if someone decides to boot one selection in order to return The Sword of Terrible Writing to the list, they should justify it here. Gene Ward Smith 03:41, 6 November 2005 (UTC)
- I've split the list off into its own article, List of high fantasy fiction. It can now grow or shrink to whatever size is appropriate without impacting this article about the genre in general. Bryan 06:42, 6 November 2005 (UTC)
Perhaps it would be useful to categorize works of fantasy by the period they were written? Eddison has a special role because he was an early author of fantasy, influencing later authors. Roleplaying or other game influenced fantasy could be a special category, too.
[edit] Saga or series
I've reworded this section. Perhaps some sections of the original text were not written by a native English-speaker? I tried to clarify the meaning of some of the sentences.
The opening sentence remains somewhat vague, in my opinion. It states "Role-playing campaign settings like Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance [1] are an excellent basis for many fantasy books and many authors continue to contribute to the settings." I think this could be clarified somewhat.
Does the sentence mean that the settings in the books are a basis for many fantasy books? That would seem like putting the cart before the horse. Or does it mean that, once written, the settings provide a basis for many additional books in that series? I would imagine it's the latter. If the original author would care to clarify, please do so. If not, I may change the sentence structure to more clearly convey the latter interpretation.--Dunedan 05:24, 23 November 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Generic Fantasy
I think there should be a topic concerning criticism of High Fantasy. All those "Tales of the Forgotten Magic Dragonlords of Darkness" books (usually trilogies) are widely considered as pulp fiction. Here's a good aritcle about it: http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/gulliver.htm
[edit] 'Excellent' Basis
Matter of opinion, that. Changed to 'common' basis instead.
[edit] Article needs dates
There is no indication in the article about when high fantasy as a genre started. At the very least, someone needs to track down when the term "high fantasy" was FIRST used, as that would at least give some context to all this. Personally, I would date the start of high fantasy as a recognisable subgenre to the 1950s (when Lewis and Tolkien were publishing), and the explosion in imitations of this style to the 1960s - but I am just guessing here, really. Some sourced statements would be nice. Carcharoth 15:46, 17 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Image in Genre Overview
The image currently in the Genre Overview section really should have some sort of caption. I would give it one, except I have no idea what its supposed to be an image of, exactly, or where the image is originally from. Unless someone can give this image a good caption, I think we should replace the picture with a different one. - Runch 19:57, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Subgenres
The article says:
'In some fiction, a contemporary, "real-world" character is placed in the invented world, sometimes through devices such as portals to other worlds or even subconscious travels. Purists might not consider this to be "true" high fantasy, although such stories are often categorized as high fantasy due to the fact that they've yet to be classified as their own distinct subgenre, and often resemble this subgenre more closely than any other'
I'm nigh on certain I've seen this named in more than one place as a 'secret garden' fantasy, or something very similiar, but the search is swamped on google by the novel. Anyone else heard anything like this, maybe with a source? I will have a look through some of my books on fantasy and see if I can find anything. --KharBevNor 01:09, 18 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Danny Birt
Is this author a good example? Me, I would think The Tough Guide to Fantasyland would be a better cite of the satirical attacks on this genre. Goldfritha 03:12, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
- Out he goes, then. Goldfritha 21:18, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] fix this paragraph, sheesh
This is pretty bad, clearly written by several editors putting in their own two cents:
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- The term can also distinguish between high fantasy and low fantasy—or to be more precise, low fantasy can be contrasted with high fantasy, as the term "low fantasy" has been defined in varying ways that contradict each other—but all contrast with high fantasy. In the commonest, "low fantasy" is distinguished by the relative amount of supernatural forces in the world—low—or by its setting in the real world with fantastical elements intruding. Brentt 04:19, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] oldest?
"While it is far from being the oldest fantasy subgenre"
Does anyone have any references to the relative ages of the subgenres? Goldfritha 04:04, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] P.O.V. Issues
I deleted the following paragraph from the end of "genre fantasy" because it injected too much p.o.v. into the article, although the criticisms are certainly common. Maybe there's a better way to make this point? "Recycling of ideas sometimes makes high fantasy dull or repetitive. Many of the novels are strongly influenced by Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, which is considered the groundwork of the genre. Others lift generously from real-life myths and legends, which can also result in a very familiar feel." Chris Hall 14:02, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
