Fantasy is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, genres in
literature. While some credit George MacDonald (mentor of Lewis Carroll) as the
first fantasy author (John Ruskin's The King of the Golden River published in 1841 not withstanding), others point to the Grimms' Fairy Tales published earlier in the
century, while the puritans would, not without merit, trace the history of
Fantasy all the way back to the Epic Mythologies (Beowulf anyone?). The
earliest Fantasy book that still remains popular would perhaps be The Wizard of
Oz, even though it would now qualify more as a Children's book with limited
appeal to the adults.
As
with the history of fantasy, the sub-genres of Fantasy remains an equally
contentious discussion point and varies from a few to over 50, depending on whom
you ask and how granular the sub-division. In this post, I would try to provide
my reading recommendations under the main two sub-genres, High and Low
Fantasies. The categories are fairly broad and I think I do more justice in
keeping the categorisation limited than splitting them into a large number of unmanageable,
and perhaps less useful, sub-genres for the casual fan of the genre. I have also
tried to split my reading recommendations into casual and advanced categories, since
some of the recommendations would be quite heavy for a casual reader of the genre.
1.
High
/ Epic Fantasy
This
is probably one of the most famous sub-genre of Fantasy. The term High Fantasy
itself was coined by Lloyd Alexander, an excellent fantasy author who wrote mostly
YA literature, The Book of Three being his most famous work. This sub-genre
includes complex world building, feature fantastical races and usually (but not
always) features a Hero’s journey.
Reading
recommendations for casual readers
1. Chronicles
of Narnia series by Lewis Carroll
2. Mistborn
series by Brandon Sanderson
3. Lord
of the Rings series by JRR Tolkien
4. Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
3. Chalion Series by Lois McMaster Bujold
Reading
recommendations for advanced readers
1. A Song
of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin
2. The
Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (concluded by Brandon Sanderson)
3. Malazan Book of the Fallen Series by
Steven Erikson
4. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin
5. The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud
2.
Low
/ Contemporary / Urban Fantasy
The
key feature that differentiates low fantasy from high fantasy is that low
fantasy doesn’t undertake massive world building, but builds on / tweaks the
existing world. There is a lot of overlap between this sub-genre, Contemporary
Fantasy, and Urban Fantasy, and it is largely a matter of personal preference on
which book to be classified under which sub-genre. I have therefore decided to categorised
these books under one common, all inclusive sub-genre.
Reading
recommendations for casual readers
1. Harry
Potter series by JK Rowling
2. Artemis
Fowl series by Eoin Colfer
3. Percy
Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
4. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (anything by Neil Gaiman really, but this is as good a place to start as any)
Reading
recommendations for advanced readers
1. His
Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman
2. Dresden
Files by Jim Butcher
3. Watch
Series by Sergei Lukyanenko
4. The Once and Future King by T. H. White
Disclaimer:
I have included only one set of work from each author, some authors deserve multiple nominations on the list, but for the sake of variety, I have refrained from doing so.
