Your Favourite Type of Fantasy Genre

I like pretty much most kinds of fantasy though I realise that the liking seems to come in phases. I went through a phase where I devoured sword and sorcery fantasy and pretty much nothing else for months on end. That was when I first read David Gemmel and got hooked and proceeded to read every single one available.

Then for a long while it was fantasy with a quest of some sort. It did not necessarily have to be a quest for a thing or a person. It could be a quest where the characters grow and find themselves. I think I started with the Trillium trilogy and Eddings comes in here as well.

Fantasy with mythical beasts have remained in the reading pile pretty consistently though since it was a love and belief in dragons and of cats that really got me into the realm of fantasy in the first place. Add to this a love for quirky fantasy like Terry Practchett and Tom Holt and some of Piers Anthony.

At the moment I seem to be reading more urban fantasy as well as fantasy blended in with folklore, myth and fairy tales. China Nieville and Neil Gaiman would come in here along with Alice Hoffman, RA MacAvoy and Kij Johnson.
 
Culhwch said:
I like good epic fantasy, particularly that with a dynastical approach - Martin's ASoIaF a case in point. I think it was that aspect that first endeared me to Feist, though since reading more widely in the genre I can't bring myself to read him anymore.
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That's sacrilege
 
I'm not even quite certain I can answer this one. I suppose my bent is toward the classics of the genre more than the more recent. Which takes in a fair amount of territory, from the epic stories of Eddison and Tolkien to the fables of Dunsany to the ironic comedies of Cabell to the sword-and-sorcery of Howard to the sometimes horrific and sometimes satirical work of Clark Ashton Smith to the dream tales of Lovecraft. I suppose I just prefer most of the older writers because of their way of using the language, which appeals to me more than most (not all) more recent fantasy writers. And I'm not overly given to these huge tomes in series, which often seem to me to be material that could easily have been got into a book or two, but have been spun out of all proportion, leaving tremendous amounts of fat. I've no problem with long novels, or even a series of long novels, as long as the wordage that's there actually accomplishes something, whether it be to advance the plot, or to explore in a meaningful way a character's psyche; but far too much of what I see these days has the appearance of doing the latter without actually doing it. It's too stereotyped, and too flat.

As I said, this is by no means the case with all, but it's enough of a trend in both fantasy and in horror these days, that I find it often rather tedious.
 
j. d. worthington said:
I've no problem with long novels, or even a series of long novels, as long as the wordage that's there actually accomplishes something, whether it be to advance the plot, or to explore in a meaningful way a character's psyche; but far too much of what I see these days has the appearance of doing the latter without actually doing it. It's too stereotyped, and too flat.
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I'm with you on my love of older writers as you well know but humour me and check out Steven Erikson. It would be quite fascinating to know your opinion of his work considering your depth of knowledge of older writers JD. A major influence of his was Glenn Cook whom I alluded to you the other day.

EDIT: In my experience his depth of worldbuilding is arguably second to none other than Tolkien.
 
Culhwch said:
No, the 'Krondor:....' books were sacrilege. Actually, they were just crap. But that's only my opinion....
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Oh, I agree with you there. I wont go near any of the Krondor series.
However, the Conclave of Shadows & the Darkwar novels are Feist back to his best.
 
I've given it a lot of thought,and I think it depends on what frame of mind I'm in. At the moment, I'm reading a lot of historical fantasy (Takashi Matsuoka, Kij Johnson, etc), but I do like most types. I've also just started dipping my toes into epic fantasy, reading the first part of the Wheel of Time series, even if I do wonder what I'm getting myself into sometimes.
 
Talysia said:
I've given it a lot of thought,and I think it depends on what frame of mind I'm in. At the moment, I'm reading a lot of historical fantasy (Takashi Matsuoka, Kij Johnson, etc), but I do like most types. I've also just started dipping my toes into epic fantasy, reading the first part of the Wheel of Time series, even if I do wonder what I'm getting myself into sometimes.
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I gave up on Jordan after A Crown of Swords. Someone bought me A Path of Daggers but I don't think it'll every be opened. A shame really, Eye of The World was and still is, on my top ten list
 
I like a bit of all things and types really – I’m not fussy as long as I like the tale.

But my real love’s are classic – Books by Gene Wolfe, The Chronicles of Amber or Something Wicked This Way Comes, gothic – Gormenghast, lovecraft or Moorcock or a mix of fantasy/sci fi - Eric Van Lustbader, Ian Irvine or M. John Harrison as examples off the top of my head. But anything unique really, as I’m starting to hate Tolkien clones that most fantasy is starting to become, that or D&D rip-offs.
 
I forgot to mention that I do like a bit of romance in the story. It doesn't need to be explicit. Some subplots I really liked - Arwen/Aragorn, Faramir/Eowen, Phedre/Joscelin, Althea/Brashen.
 
I like old time Heroic fantasy . Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith , H P Lovecraft ,Poul Anderson Fritz Leiber , Here Kuttner , C L Moore , Karl Edward Wagner , Seabury Quinn, Abraham Merritt, William Hope Hodgson, Lord Dunsany, Jack Vance , ect .
 
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