Are you ready to dig a little bit deeper into the different types of fantasy fiction? In this chapter, we’re going to look at young adult fantasy, science fantasy, paranormal romance, and the kinds of books that are not fantasy.
Keep in mind that this is a pretty subjective area. I’m giving you some solid guidelines but not forcing you to conform to my idea of what fantasy is and isn’t. So if you have an idea that doesn’t fit neatly into one of these categories, that’s okay!
Okay, let’s take a look.
- Paranormal romance. Paranormal romance is a type of fantasy fiction that grew popular with the Twilight novels. Paranormal romance straddles the line between romance and fantasy but falls into the fantasy category because it uses creatures like vampires, werewolves, and ghosts as important parts of the story. Like fantasy novels, paranormal romance often has nonmaterial causality and worlds that are very different from our own. These worlds are internally consistent and clearly different from ours. Unlike most fantasy novels, paranormal romance is first and foremost romantic. The story is about two or more characters falling in love and overcoming incredible odds. In Twilight, Bella is a normal girl and falls for Edward, a vampire. The books focus on the relationship between the two characters before anything else—the rest of the story isn’t as important as the romance.
- Historical fantasy. This isn’t a hugely popular type of fantasy, but you will find it out there. Historical fantasy takes place at some point in our world’s history but with some changes. One of my favorite fantasy authors, Juliet Marillier, writes some amazing historical fantasy. Her first trilogy, The Sevenwaters Trilogy, takes place in Ireland around the time it’s first being Christianized. In the Sevenwaters world, there are monks and druids, witches and magic, and fairies of all sorts. The book uses Irish folklore and mythology, and it’s presented as semi-historical.
- Science fantasy. This is a surprisingly difficult genre to pin down. Science fantasy isn’t an official term but more of a description. The easiest way to understand it is that science fantasy uses common fantasy tropes but sets the story in space. Star Wars fits this category perfectly, with nonmaterial causality (the Force), a powerful villain (both Darth Vader and the Emperor), and politics (the Empire and the Rebel Alliance). The lack of scientific explanation in the Star Wars universe makes it a prime candidate for science fantasy. Doctor Who also fits this category, with such false scientific explanations about time as a “wibbley-wobbley ball of timey-wimey stuff”!
- Young adult fantasy. Young adult is a strange thing to talk about in the writing world. A lot of people treat young adult as a genre of its own, but that’s not actually the truth. Young adult isn’t a genre so much as an audience, a group of readers that a book is designed to impress. Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and City of Bones are all examples of young adult fantasy fiction. So is Twilight. But these books fit into other types of fantasy as well. The important thing to remember about young adult fantasy is that the main characters are generally young adults. These characters struggle with the normal things young adults struggle with—drugs, sex, social circles, relationships—and at the same time, struggle against superhuman villains. Authors who write these kinds of books are interested in exploring the problems teens and young adults face.
You’ll notice that I didn’t mention The Hunger Games as a type of fantasy novel. This isn’t an oversight on my part—it was intentional. The Hunger Games books are actually more science fiction. They’re set in a dystopian future, but almost everything has a logical or scientific explanation—including selective crossbreeding creating things like the mockingjay.
The Dragonriders of Pern series is similar. While the books contain dragons, the dragons are actually a genetic manipulation of another creature native to Pern. So we classify Dragonriders as science fiction as well.
But even though these books are more science fiction, you can still apply what you’ll be learning in this course if you want to write a book like The Hunger Games or Dragonriders of Pern. Many of the same tips and techniques we’ll be learning here apply to science fiction as well as fantasy. The line between fantasy and science fiction is pretty blurry, and a lot of authors love to intentionally blur that line further.
Here’s a good way to think about the difference between science fiction and fantasy: Science fiction is rooted in the possibilities of science, whereas fantasy is rooted in impossibilities of science.
Okay, have you had enough of fantasyland yet? I hope not! Before we wrap up this lesson, let’s see if you can match these fantasy series to their genres.