Regarding Original Post
Hi everyone. It isn't so much my own separation or views of how these sub-genres of fantasy are divided so much as what I've gleaned or read in terms of the marketplace (agents, publishers and their categories) which admittedly can blur the lines. Magic realism is continuing to be defined, more so now, in terms of real world settings and magical elements. Thus more and more books are being slotted into that sub-topic. Alice Hoffman is a phenomenal author in that genre. Urban fantasy, I believe, on Ian's input, does share elements of magic realism.
Low fantasy (as defined by Wikipedia)- is a term used to describe a variety of works within differing
sub-genres of
fantasy fiction. The word "low" refers to the level of prominence of traditional fantasy elements within the work, and is not any sort of remark on the work's quality. Within the fantasy genre, low fantasy is often contrasted with
high fantasy, which typically takes place, partly or entirely, in a completely fictional setting and places an emphasis upon fantasy elements such as magic, monsters, and non-real literary devices. Low Fantasy works typically place relatively less emphasis on such fantasy elements and often take place within real-world environments, as opposed to entirely fictional settings.
High fantasy or
epic fantasy is a
subgenre of
fantasy that is set in invented or
parallel worlds. High fantasy originated with the writings of
William Morris,
George MacDonald, and
Lord Dunsany, and came to fruition through the work of authors such as
J. R. R. Tolkien and
C. S. Lewis, whose major fantasy works were published in the 1950s.
[1] High fantasy, along with
sword and sorcery, has become one of the two genres most commonly associated with the general term
fantasy.
I'm interested in where marketplace (reader) interest is between the two.
Too bad "Your Highness" doesn't sound like a good film; saves ticket admission to know ahead of time, though!
