The last poll was a slightly more personal when I asked you which series you would like me to finish/review. As I try to do every year, in 2013, I will read some books from the past and not just the new releases. I offered you several choices from the series I had already started and two of them stood out from the crowd:
The Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson (I still have to read the final volume)
The Twilight Reign by Tom Lloyd (I have only read book one so far)
The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks (still one to go)
I will still try to finish all the series I included in the poll, the those three will be at the top of my list.
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My next poll will return to my favorite subject matter, the definition of the Fantasy reader, the exploration of his preferences. This time, let's talk about some genre mixing!
As a basis, let's assume that the Fantasy genre I will be talking about is Epic Fantasy and its usual sub-genre acolytes. So we're talking about Epic, High, Heroic, Traditional or even Sword and Sorcery. The Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Moorcock and friends evolution of the Fantasy fiction branch, the genre usually set in a medieval culture and society, be it in another world or a parallel universe to ours.
There are still many authors who choose to write in a specific genre but we are seeing more and more genre mixing. The Fantasy writers seem to impose themselves less limitation or are simply doing it naturally. Creativity is at the heart of it, so why should anyone limit himself when you can create new combinations full of potential. The end result may be the formation of even more new sub-sub-sub genre of Speculative fiction but I feel that this genre mixing is an interesting opportunity for authors to create really original pieces.
Joe Abercrombie mixed the Western with his Fantasy setting. Steampunk elements found their way into books like Farlander by Col Buchanan or The Last Page by Anthony Huso (this one is probably more steampunk that epic...). Richard Morgan and R. Scott Bakker included some Sci-fi elements in their series like the aliens from other worlds. Crime noir is infused into Mark Charan Newton's Legends of the Red Sun series. Steven Erikson and Glen Cook series could be labelled as Epic-Military Fantasy. Alex Bledsoe mixed mystery and sword and sorcery with his Eddie LaCrosse books.
The list could go on and on. Some genre could be better natural fit than others but it's the end result that counts. Even if all that genre and sub-genre classification may be an abstraction that doesn't deserve such a big fuss, for the sake of the discussion, let's pretend it has more meaning than helping us choose the books we want to read.
Which genre creates the best mix with Epic Fantasy?
Steampunk
Sci-fi
Romance
Horror
Dark Fantasy
Dystopian
Military Fantasy
Mystery
Paranormal
Urban
Historical
Crime (noir)
Other
6 comments:
military for me, there's a big grey area between the two.
Am still looking for the appropriate description of high fantasy set in a city, thoughts? Urban fantasy clearly doesn't work...
Military for me as well, I love those big epic battles and cavalry charges :)
My most recent post: The Weight of Blood Review
If you are speaking about a mix with Epic Fantasy, I think the best would easily be military. Most fantasy have big battles anyway so it fits right in.
I think Urban, Romance & Paranormal would work well but some genre like Sci-fi would not.
it is great post ..
Vote number four for military as well.
I have to agree military and epic Fantasy go best together or rather have the best examples of great EF. Until an author comes along that can raise one of the other genre mixes Military wins handsdown.
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