Saturday, July 1, 2023

Mythological Fantasy

It occurred to me recently that I forgot a Fantasy sub-genre in my Types of Fantasy page. So without further ado:

Mythological Fantasy: An incredibly popular sub-genre with two versions that hug Contemporary and Historical Fantasy respectively, Mythological Fantasy typically features the gods and heroes of our own World Mythology or have HEAVY mytho-historical elements. I say two versions because the settings of books of this sub-genre are either the ancient world or the modern one, an example of the former (sometimes called Celtic or Arthurian Fantasy) being The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley as it takes place in the court of King Arthur, and the latter being the world-renowned Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan in which the Greek Gods interact with the modern world. My own experience with this genre is limited since I prefer completely made-up world, yet those of this type I have read I count among my favorites, these being The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series by Michael Scott and The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper.

Other examples of this sub-genre include The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh (Korean myths), The Children of the Lamp by P. B. Kerr (Arabian myths), and The Sea of Trolls trilogy by Nancy Farmer (Celtic and Norse myths).

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