What is your favourite characteristic of the Fantasy genre?

[Lacedaemonian]

I am interested in what draws people to this genre. What I want to know is what outstanding characteristic of this genre really draws you back for more?

 

[red_temple]

I like the possibilites that it presents. A good fantasy provides a new world, rich in its own history with colorful characters and promise for high adventure. There's nothing like reading a fantasy and being pulled into a new world - escapism at its best!!! But good fantasy goes well beyond escapism - a lot of it can be very allegorical for current day events or philosophies. Depending on the mood I'm in, there's almost always a good fantasy out there to match, whether I'm up for lighthearted romps and humor, grim realism, or deep soul searching. I suppose you can say the same is true for a lot of other genres - but with fantasy, you get dragons as well!!!

 

[Los Marilos]

It's the escapism aspect of it for me. It gets me away from real life - Mundania - for awhile. There may be many "real-life" issues raised in the stories we all read, but if these stories are written well we can escape, while at the same time, still relate to the characters situations. That's what appeals to me.

 

[cyborg_cinema]

I am interested in what draws people to this genre. What I want to know is what outstanding characteristic of this genre really draws you back for more?

...fantasy—as well as sci-fi—can put the social commentary in an unusual setting. Fantasy writers can build a new world that becomes a truly unique setting for their story—a special perspective that can change the way the reader looks at their own little non-fictional world.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Fantasy stories are often fast-paced adventure stories. I like that a lot - some of my non-genre readng is a bit, well, abstract, and there's nothing like some good action to balance that out.


Fantastic fiction is capable of introducing you to new ideas, now concepts in ways realistic fiction often cannot.

The mmonsters, I tell you, the monsters!!!

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

I like fantasy (and science fiction for that matter) for its sheer creativity and scope.
Even the best 'normal' fiction books usually have to operate in this world we recognise. So we can't have flying people or humanoid robots or alien spaceships, we can only have adventure stories. You can get good stories mind you, but I like the unbrindled imagination on show in the best Fantasy & Science Fiction novels. They can create worlds populated with a variety of intelligent life, they can take you to a 'Ringworld' or an Earth 1,000 years from now. They can give you characters battling Dragons and magic. They can also experiment with the talking points of the day and take that argument to it's nth degree.
To create a world where the crusades happened in reverse and Eastern, not Western attitudes took centre stage, or a world were cloning was not only commonplace but 'truebirths' were marginalised.

Basically, the reason I love fantasy and science fiction is that the only constraints the author has is the limits of their own imagination

 

[Princess Ivy]

i love that anything is possible. the constraints of the modern world don't apply. its total freedom.

 

[Scatterheart]

I love the freedom too... but I am also very fond of the fact that you can write/read about people or animals that undergo experiences that you never will. It's like acting out ones fantasys for adventure, which would never happen in today's society. Who here would like to be Eragon? Or perhaps even the Lady Galadriel? Lief perhaps? I sure would... It beats this stinking planet, lol. The fantasy realm is in the hands of the escapists...

 

[GOLLUM]

I'd say probably the world building and society developed by an author is No .1 for me.

The chararacterizations and plot is also important and I particulalry like the magical systems some authors develop in Fantasy.

Can't say I fancy all those monsters too much though!!...

 

[Princess Ivy]

roar?

 

[Ahdkaw]

I don't read much Fantasy, I got sick of wizards and dragons a long time ago.

Nevertheless of the Fantasy novels I have read (which isn't many), I would have to say Thomas Covenent is my favourite Fantasy character. Although I didn't like the Second Chronicles.

Which reminds me, saw Black Knight on telly the other night, and as he travelled through time and space to medievel England, I was reminded of Covenents own journey through time, space, and whatever else he travelled through. My friend didn't understand when I mentioned this to him, but then he hasn't read Thomas Covenent, so it's no suprise.

 

[GOLLUM]

I don't read much Fantasy, I got sick of wizards and dragons a long time ago.

HMMM.. there's another one of those assumptions again...

There are plenty of fantasy books around that have a lot more in them than wizards and dragons. Your example of the T. Covenant series is a good example of that and YES this series is one of my favs. I enjoyed both chronicles plus the latest of the final quartet Runes Of The Earth.

Nice to see you around, you seem to be enjoying yourself......

 

[shandril]

I am interested in what draws people to this genre. What I want to know is what outstanding characteristic of this genre really draws you back for more?

for me its the total escape from reality ....its almost like tasting the woodsmoke of the fire place at that small innn the smell of beer and sweat smelly men... now i know thats not really a good example so i'll try again....
the intense fear as you run for your life....notice i said run for your life...
it drags you into its world and for that moment in time you are as much a part of the book as the characters written in it.....
what they feel you feel when they cry you cry when they shout their victory calls your heart soars ...
i know i have a tendancy for the over dramatisation but thats what reading fantsay is like for me...

 

[cyborg_cinema]

...small innn the smell of beer and sweat smelly men...

...sounds like happy hour.

 

[Rosemary]

Escapism and freedom is the major aspect. Freedom from everyday life but at the same time a freedom to write from imagination.

Escape from the daily life to a world that has the ability to entrap you. Real life is not there, when I read a great fantasy book. Dragons, elves and even The Dark Ones give me that 'escape' which I need.

A good story-line and 'believable' characters draw me into that 'fantasy world'.

 

[shandril]

...sounds like happy hour.

yep it was...loads of drinking and a good fight to finish the night off

 

[Rosemary]

yep it was...loads of drinking and a good fight to finish the night off

Sounds like some chapters in a couple of Fantasy Books I have read, shadril

 

[FelineEyes]

One word:

Magic.

In sci-fi, particularly when you're writing sci-fi, people expect you to at least try and get the math and science right, try to stay with in the bounderies of physics and chemistry, and try to make the world believeable by giving it a scientific history.
Now, if you're an English/theater major, this can be a problem. (I chose those 2 fields for a reason, and it wasn't because I was good at math.)
But with fantasy, you aren't bound by those laws anymore. Magic was meant to defy the laws of nature and so, in fantasy you don't have to get the science right. You just have to make the magic believeable.
As for reading, I couldn't tell you--I don't really favor one over the other, but I lean toward fantasy because those stories have consistently happy endings. Sci-fi...not so much.

 

[cyborg_cinema]

...a good fight to finish the night off

...a medieval Fight Club.

 

[shandril]

Sounds like some chapters in a couple of Fantasy Books I have read, shadril

*laughs*...wouldnt surprise me in the slightest .... i love my fantasy books

...a medieval Fight Club

more like a good old fashioned pub brawl...*laughing*