# What is your favourite characteristic of the Fantasy genre?



## Lacedaemonian (Sep 1, 2005)

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 (Sep 1, 2005)

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 (Sep 1, 2005)

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 (Sep 1, 2005)

Lacedaemonian said:
			
		

> 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 (Sep 2, 2005)

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 (Sep 2, 2005)

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 (Sep 2, 2005)

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


----------



## Scatterheart (Sep 2, 2005)

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 (Sep 2, 2005)

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 (Sep 2, 2005)

roar?


----------



## Ahdkaw (Sep 2, 2005)

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 (Sep 2, 2005)

Ahdkaw said:
			
		

> 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 (Sep 2, 2005)

Lacedaemonian said:
			
		

> 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 (Sep 2, 2005)

shandril said:
			
		

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


...sounds like happy hour.


----------



## Rosemary (Sep 2, 2005)

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 (Sep 2, 2005)

cyborg_cinema said:
			
		

> ...sounds like happy hour.


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


----------



## Rosemary (Sep 2, 2005)

shandril said:
			
		

> 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 (Sep 2, 2005)

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 (Sep 2, 2005)

shandril said:
			
		

> ...a good fight to finish the night off


...a medieval _Fight Club_.


----------



## shandril (Sep 3, 2005)

Rosemary said:
			
		

> 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 



			
				cyborg_cinema said:
			
		

> ...a medieval Fight Club


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


----------



## Culhwch (Sep 3, 2005)

Well, my life is so hectic, jet-setting and full of adventure that I like the normalcy, the nice quiet peacefulness of a good fantasy novel...

Wait. Strike that. Reverse it.

You know I've been thinking about it, and my first thought was to say, 'Escapism.' Then thirty others said it and stole my thunder, so I thought some more. Okay, escapism is part of it, and imagination and all that, but what I really come back for are the sweeping themes you just don't get in other genres. Courage, honour, duty, loyalty, valour, love, hate, life, death, sacrifice. Okay, so you get courage in _To Kill A Mockingbird_, but it's not the courage of a fantasy novel. You get love in a bodice-ripper, but it's not the love of a fantasy novel. These themes are transformed by their setting and by the imaginative gifts of their authors. They become so much bigger and - I guess this is the idealist in me coming out - are so much more than they are in most of our realities. A rousing speech before a battle will get your blood pumping. The dying words of a fallen hero will choke you up. The sacrifice of two lovers torn apart by duty will tear at your heart. That's what I love about fantasy. That's what keeps me coming back for more.

Granted it's done well, of course.


----------



## kyektulu (Sep 3, 2005)

*I enjoy the endless possibilitys fantasy has. There can never be anything truely unbelievable as the very title of the genre states it has no boundrys.
 Also, Rosemary you are right once again my dear, the escapeism it has for me personally is like no other. 
The primary things that do it for me though is the dragons and the magic. I have always beeen drawn to these two things and am completly intoxicated by both, a novel that has these two elements in it does it for me everytime. 

*


----------



## nixie (Sep 3, 2005)

Pure escapism for me,also the freedom for my imagination to run riot.I love the mythical creatures and the magic,but I've also enjoyed fantasy were there is little or no  magic or mythical creatures,so I suppose it's the world building and characterizations that really draws me into the realms of fantasy


----------



## dwndrgn (Sep 4, 2005)

Honestly, I think the biggest draw for me is the idealism.  How many fantasies don't end with a happy ending 'after all'?  Plus, add in morality - this is something that is greatly lacking in today's society that is also pretty idealistic.  People that endanger their lives, uproot themselves for the greater good...

Plus the magic, the creatures, the worlds are just so fun to explore.


----------



## GOLLUM (Sep 4, 2005)

dwndrgn said:
			
		

> Honestly, I think the biggest draw for me is the idealism.  How many fantasies don't end with a happy ending 'after all


Well actually there's a few but I agree that the majority probably still have the standard happy ending... 

Personally I prefer stories that don''t always end happily because for me they're more realistic and interesting albiet being set within a fantasy context.


----------



## A1ien (Sep 5, 2005)

Escapism is the major factor for me too, but sci-fi and fantasy both give me an equal escape.

However, I do prefer to read a good fantasy novel with magic and dragons and what-not, but im finding that a lot of fantasy books these days are quite samey (although im probably reading the wrong books) so Iv drifted towards sci fi lately, especially Iain M. Banks Culture novels because they're so different


----------



## kyektulu (Sep 6, 2005)

*I also love writing fantasy 2, being able to create a charecter who is everything I want to be and live in a world where I would that I created and envision as perfect. This for me is the ultimate escapism that fantasy provides. 
*


----------



## A1ien (Sep 6, 2005)

kyektulu said:
			
		

> *I also love writing fantasy 2, being able to create a charecter who is everything I want to be and live in a world where I would that I created and envision as perfect. This for me is the ultimate escapism that fantasy provides. *


 
That would be my ultimate escapism too but i tend to get too detailed and technical when i write and end up getting no where


----------



## Taltos (Sep 7, 2005)

Have to agree with most of the posts above - escapism is the name of the game


----------



## BAYLOR (Oct 11, 2017)

The impossible becoming possible.


----------



## DelActivisto (Oct 11, 2017)

Lacedaemonian said:


> 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?



I like a world before guns and high tech politics existed. It seems simpler... fresher, more natural. It also tends to have made up creatures, fantastic beasts, and basically anything is possible - which feels very freeing.


----------



## wintersmith (Nov 17, 2017)

The aesthetics?


----------



## Caledfwlch (Dec 9, 2017)

It always amazed me how a great author can create such a detailed and rich new world.
It's one thing that has confounded and annoyed me with China Mielville's trilogy set in the world of "Bas-Lag"
He creates far more questions than he answers about the world, its structure, its governance and so on.

My favourite series, in terms of creating a detailed, rich fantasy world and using it to tell modern stories, politics, terrorism, genocide, genetic engineering and so on, is The Witcher series of books (& now games) by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski.
A Witcher is a human being who has been genetically modified by magic, and potions to make them faster, tougher, better than a normal human, in order to fight the "supernatural" monsters. The Monsters though are generally not actually supernatural, they are either perfectly natural creatures, such as Dragons, Bloodzuigs - there are things called Drowners which have something to do with people who drowned in rivers. But other things such as Ghouls are not part of Nature in the Witchers world, but neither are they supernatural - they enter the world from another dimension.

The Hero of the series, is the Witcher, Geralt of Rivia, and he comes to realise that just because something looks monstrous, does not mean it IS a monster, whilst some of the greatest monsters he has ever met, have been Men.
There is a trailer on Youtube for the 3rd Game, "Killing Monsters" which wonderfully and briefly explains how Geralt now views the world, and how he acts as a Witcher to protect the world from Monsters.

An important difference in AS's work, is unlike for example Lord of the Rings, the world is not stark black and white, good and evil, it is grey, blurred.
At 1 point in the 2nd game you have to chose which out of 2 characters you are going to go off with, which radically changes how the game then plays out.
Your choices are the human Vernon Roche, who has done many bad things in his job, protecting the Kingdom of Temeria from threats.
The other is Iorweth, an Elf, Commander of a Scoia'tel unit (Elf & Dwarven resistance fighting for non human rights, and to protect their peoples from Genocide, very much a good example of resistance fighter vs terrorist) but Iorveth too, has done bad things. He has almost certainly attacked and burnt human villages, with civilian populations.


----------



## elvet (Feb 21, 2018)

Escaping to another world where other possibilities exist is the main reason. Having said that, I particularly like the type of story where a person from our world is transported elsewhere, either in time or to another world. Then I can take the journey of discovery with the character. I started a book list at Goodreads for this subgenre. For those of you who are members, the link is here:
Modern day character meets fantasyland (114 books)


----------

