Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Carcharoth (talk | contribs) at 15:46, 17 April 2006 (Article needs dates). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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

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.

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 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)

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

'Excellent' Basis

Matter of opinion, that. Changed to 'common' basis instead.

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)