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Showing posts from February, 2016

Hi, February High Fantasy!

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Defining high fantasy as opposed to low fantasy has nothing at all to do with quality. High fantasy is set in an entirely other world, one full of magic, so it works differently than our own, non-magical world. (Think Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy.) Low fantasy, by comparison, is set either in our own world or a world that works like ours, only with a bit of magic breaking through.  High fantasy often features a protagonist who begins as an innocent or even a child, and is aided by a mystical figure in order to grow into a legendary hero, battling a Dark Lord and the forces of evil (usually orcs, wraiths, dragons, and whatnot). The great struggle between good and evil tends to be front and center, with the fate of the world (or perhaps only the protagonist's part of it) at stake. Because high fantasy covers a protagonist's growth into heroic stature and a sweeping epic of good versus evil, it's difficult to fit into one book - so high fantasy ends up usually bei