The Ultimate Guide to Epic Fantasy (why so many subgenres!?) 

Thank you for watching! Some of you are wondering why I put The Lord of the Rings in the 'coming-of-age category'. While LOTR is not a coming-of-age fantasy only, there is little doubt that Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin fit the bill!

I think your definition for Epic Fantasy is just the definition of Fantasy in general. Fantasy is about the setting of the story. If you remove the fantastical setting, you don't have a Fantasy story. I think the reason for the creation of so many subgenres is that Fantasy categorization isn't enough to tell you what you're going to find in the story. Unlike Romance or Criminal thrillers that tell you much more about what the book contains. This is a really interesting and philosophical topic. 😅

Good video, but for Grim Dark you left out the most famous and most influential one, which is A Song of Ice and Fire. Also, For steam punk, You have to list Perdido Street Station and the other China Mieville Bas-LAg books. But I enjoyed the video. Thanks!

Hi Jóhan! I would love it if you could make the same thing for all fantasy in general, or other types than epic fantasies! It was so clear and so interesting

I really love the way you categorized these different types of fantasy books. 📚 I loved it so much that I posted it on Facebook 🤗

This was extremely helpful, thank you for this! Now I know what sub genre I like most 😊

Interesting video! Happy reading to you!! 😊

Love the chart, thank you! Before discovering fantasy, I had no idea there were some many sub genres. There is something for all readers. I only started reading fantasy four years ago and looking at my bookshelf of favourites it seems I enjoy historical, epic and dark fantasy. But first, I have to enjoy the writing style, otherwise it's a no go for me. Kindle samples have been my best way of ensuring the writing style works for me before buying a book.

You were spot on when you mentioned that most of the books will fall in various categories like A Song of Ice & Fire, Stormlight Archives, Mistborn and even Faithful and the Fallen series.

Always glad to hear someone ranks The Dark Tower series as high as I do. I wasn't fond of the 5th and 6th books but loved the earlier ones and the final installment. My hope is that King will revisit the world once more in some fashion before he truly retires. Another fave is "The Talisman" which is another they are making into a movie. Flanagan is going to prioritize Dark Tower as a series after the strike, FYI.

Awesome breakdown and great recs! Thanks!

A great breakdown 😊 i get so confused where books fit sometimes 😂 I need thia chart 😂

Excellent video, thank you.

Love this breakdown!

A classic more grown up portal fantasy is The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy by Guy Gavriel Kay. I read them after Wheel of Time and its obvious Robert Jordan was inspired by this series! A really good Steampunk is Thiefs Magic series by Trudi Canavan. Its actually a mix of different genres...unique!!

Song of Achilles (audiobook for me) is in my top ten of all time and I'm pretty old. I listen to so many audiobooks that I maintain annual memberships to both Audible and Scribd. Just finished City of Brass which I really couldn't put away.

Im showing this to anyone who asks me "isnt it monotonous to just keep reading the same genre"

Love this Vid!

Great job breaking it all down!

I would add another category, historical fantasy, with Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle as an example.

Not fantasy but two great fairy tale retellings as Science Fiction are “Stitiching Snow” and “Spinning Starlight”. Love love love them.

The Last War by Mike Shackle has to be mentioned for the war / fantasy class with coming of age. Amazing trilogy well worth your time, you will love it

I, having not created a lucid chart of epic fantasy, applaud. To entice people to read my favorite sub sub genre(yes fantasy goes that deep) is something called flintlock fantasy. What is flintlock fantasy it is what you get if you mashed lord of the rings with a John Wayne film(man I am in my late twenties and I don't even know if Gen z and Alpha know of John Wayne, Gunsmoke, or The Rifleman). To explain the best way is to think the fantasy is happening in American Civil War times (Napoleon War for non Americans) you deal with gunpowder, flintlock pistols, canons and Wizard's it is all delicious goodness (some crazy scenes where a literal God of the universe is shot in the face with a cannonball is both spin tingling and laughable at the sametime.) Some epic Flintlock Fantasy: Gunslinger(in the title) The powder mage trilogy Legacy by le modest (one of the greats in fantasy, seriously this dude has written in almost of the subgenres) On stranger tides(literal inspired pirates of the Caribbean) Peter Pan And my personal favorite the lightbringer series by Brent Weeks(the God scene is in this series, be wary of googling characters the community is very spoiled happy...) Any way enjoy P.s. did a quick Google and apparently Sabriel is classified flint lock. If you want legolas with a gun read the Iron Elf series (a darkness foraged in fire)

Spinning Silver is so good!

Great video! However, I'm a little confused why LotR is in the coming-of-age sub-genre. Doesn't seem to fit here. Keep up the great work though.

I'm shocked you didn't mention Warhammer 40k for the grim dark fantasy.

I literally said “sword and sorcery” before almost every category you named. I’m shocked it wasn’t a major category.

What subgenre is six of crows duology? Its one of my favorites

I think some people have already pointed out that the "epic fantasy" label here is more like "fantasy." I would be interested to know how you define epic fantasy aaas distinct from other fantasy subgenres. And do you consider "epic fantasy" synonymous with "high fantasy" or different?

The Gates of The World by K.M Mckinnley is excellent steam punk.

Overall pretty good, but I really don't understand why you categorized LOTR as "coming-of-age fantasy."

I need to read some Steampunk. Haven't read any yet but I love it in movies and games so I'd probably love it in books as well, haven't really considered it until now, thanks!

Malazan varies a lot between the books to the point book 5 has almost no military stuff and I would say the series as a whole is more just dark fantasy

For Military fantasy Powder Mage Trilogy is great, and for steampunk The Dandelion dynasty is best

Good breakdown; there are just so many genera's and subgenera's. We have come a long way from 'swords and sorcery' being the only one. I noticed that several people do not really see the coming of age in Tolkien; Consider, in The Hobbit the point is repeatedly made that he was quite young when he went on the quest to the Lonely Mountain and that he came back a very different Hobbit from the one who went away. Frodo and Sam and Pippin and Merry? %100 coming of age, they were all barely legal adults in Hobbit society when they left and they all matured significantly, for better or for worse, by the time they came back. And in the case of Merry and Pippin a LOT larger, thanks to the Ent droughts.

Pretty cool explanation. But Harry Potter is urban fantasy and ya. But for sure not a new world. Unless we never think UK is a new world. Malazan is not grimm dark by the definition of Steven Erikson himself too. Also worth mentioning that Lord of the Rings itself is mythological by default. And quest too. It is the father of all quests including WoT.

What do you mean portal fantasy is "not that popular right now"? Seriously the LitRPG sub genre is propping that more than you probably think, "He Who Fights With Monster" is a good series in that if you want to get a taste of that branch of epic fantasy not tainted to much by manga.

I’m about to start Spinning Silver with my book club

And the Will of The Many is amazing and this is coming from someone who didn’t like and didn’t finish the Shadow of What Was Lost

I really enjoyed the video but I found your comments about portal fantasy becoming less popular funny. It may be true in books but it's become very popular in recent years in anime under the genre Isekai. If you are looking for portal stories and don't mind switching formats I would highly recommend checking Isekai anime or manga out.

No sword and sorcery?

Why doesn't anyone talk about the Bone Street Rumba series by Daniel José Older???!!! It is a very good trilogy but for some reason, I have never seen anyone talk about it!

Im like half way through The song of Achilles, its cute, I love the prose, and every happy moment they manage to steal for themselves is a bitter reminder of whats to come. I have my problems with some parts like making Achilles like only boys, but its a sweet queer romance with Im all down for

I’ve never considered, lord of the rings as a coming of age story.

And yet still no mention of Feist or Kerr...

It does make sense that fantasy worlds where magic exists do not advance technologically. This video explains it for you: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lq7U2CIO81E.html

My Favourite THE WITCHER, where does it belong

I am reading stormight so far at book 2 It’s really mediocre and overt

Personally I am sick of the coming of age stories. I don’t mind secondary characters taking that role in stories

Where is Harry Potter

nothing ULTIMATE about this video

No mention of the original genre which is Sword & Sorcery?! Which probably has some of the best authors in the genre! It’s all just fantasy. All the sub’s are pointless!

Your definition begs the question. Per your own definition, it is set in a secondary world AND tells an Epic story! Epic stories have high stakes (not like swords and sorcery/heroic fantasy, where the hero is out for themselves to gain wealth or fame); rather in Epic stories, the protagonist is trying to save the world!. Since you failed to honot the "epic story" portion of your definition, almost all fantasy would fall into the definition of fantasy set in a secondary world. That make your definition meaningless.