Genres
Greetings. Since my new book is coming out on July 15, I thought I would do another one of these. When trying to decide what genre it fell into, I realized that it was rather difficult to categorize. With my first book, Trapped in a Curse, it was primarily fantasy, and could be considered high fantasy or swords and sorcery. It does have some very minor sci-fi elements. I actually consider it to be swords and sorcery, but in setting up of the book I didn't see swords and sorcery in the list as a genre.
High fantasy and swords and sorcery are very similar, but they do have some differences. The first one, as I see it, is that swords and sorcery usually has one or a very small group of main characters, where high fantasy often has a large group of main characters. Furthermore the main characters in high fantasy may often have their own storyline that doesn't necessarily seem to overlap with other characters. The motivation of the characters is different as well. In swords and sorcery it's often personal, where in high fantasy it's often more nebulous. High fantasy characters tend to be motivated by things like duty and power.
Another major difference is magic. In swords and sorcery magic tends to be balanced with more martial characters. In high fantasy it tends to be out of balance. With it either being substantially more powerful, or substantially weaker.
Usually in swords and sorcery the outcome will have little effect on the world as a whole. In high fantasy it often changes the world in a significant way. Talida's quest in Trapped in a Curse has little effect on the world and is a very personal adventure. Whether she frees herself from her curse or not, will make virtually no difference to the world as a whole.
My new book, Good Doctor Poor Mage, was a whole lot harder to figure out what its genre is. It has elements of space opera, starships and space stations, but no space battles. Elements of cyberpunk, since there are cyborgs and cybernetics are fairly common. Elements of bio punk, since bioengineering is also rather common. It could be accused of being a harem fantasy, since the main character has a number of girlfriends. It also turns into a more fantasy story towards the end. Although the main character considers magic to be primarily some sort of strange psychic phenomena. I suspect that someone reading it might be able to find even more genres scattered through it. I think it's a really exciting story and that it's better than Trapped in a Curse, since the main character gets into less fights. This is in spite of the fact that he is working with organized crime, and at least for some of the book is a criminal. Well sort of a criminal, since in his world if a crime isn't caught on camera, it didn't happen as far as security is concerned.
In both my books I focus more on the story than on the genre. Therefore I quite often mix genres, giving fantasy characters in what resembles a high fantasy world, motorcycles. You can find some of her story on my website in the blog (I update the blog about twice a month). Or adding magic to sci-fi (of course any technology sufficiently advanced will appear as magic to the uninitiated). Likewise psychic powers often appear as magic, since they have very similar effects. My books tend to focus on one character, although I do write in the third person. I have no desire to be one of my characters. Their worlds, although interesting, I'm not a place I would want to live.
Both my books take place in the same universe, and they even overlap. Strangely enough Good Doctor Poor Mage is a prequel to Trapped in a Curse, but you don't need to read Trapped in a Curse to enjoy Good Doctor Poor Mage. They're both very exciting and I try to make all my books readable as standalones stories.
I always try to write books that I would want to read, and I assume that there are other people who are similar to me and will enjoy reading them as well. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to advertise my books, and so they haven't found their audience, yet.
High fantasy and swords and sorcery are very similar, but they do have some differences. The first one, as I see it, is that swords and sorcery usually has one or a very small group of main characters, where high fantasy often has a large group of main characters. Furthermore the main characters in high fantasy may often have their own storyline that doesn't necessarily seem to overlap with other characters. The motivation of the characters is different as well. In swords and sorcery it's often personal, where in high fantasy it's often more nebulous. High fantasy characters tend to be motivated by things like duty and power.
Another major difference is magic. In swords and sorcery magic tends to be balanced with more martial characters. In high fantasy it tends to be out of balance. With it either being substantially more powerful, or substantially weaker.
Usually in swords and sorcery the outcome will have little effect on the world as a whole. In high fantasy it often changes the world in a significant way. Talida's quest in Trapped in a Curse has little effect on the world and is a very personal adventure. Whether she frees herself from her curse or not, will make virtually no difference to the world as a whole.
My new book, Good Doctor Poor Mage, was a whole lot harder to figure out what its genre is. It has elements of space opera, starships and space stations, but no space battles. Elements of cyberpunk, since there are cyborgs and cybernetics are fairly common. Elements of bio punk, since bioengineering is also rather common. It could be accused of being a harem fantasy, since the main character has a number of girlfriends. It also turns into a more fantasy story towards the end. Although the main character considers magic to be primarily some sort of strange psychic phenomena. I suspect that someone reading it might be able to find even more genres scattered through it. I think it's a really exciting story and that it's better than Trapped in a Curse, since the main character gets into less fights. This is in spite of the fact that he is working with organized crime, and at least for some of the book is a criminal. Well sort of a criminal, since in his world if a crime isn't caught on camera, it didn't happen as far as security is concerned.
In both my books I focus more on the story than on the genre. Therefore I quite often mix genres, giving fantasy characters in what resembles a high fantasy world, motorcycles. You can find some of her story on my website in the blog (I update the blog about twice a month). Or adding magic to sci-fi (of course any technology sufficiently advanced will appear as magic to the uninitiated). Likewise psychic powers often appear as magic, since they have very similar effects. My books tend to focus on one character, although I do write in the third person. I have no desire to be one of my characters. Their worlds, although interesting, I'm not a place I would want to live.
Both my books take place in the same universe, and they even overlap. Strangely enough Good Doctor Poor Mage is a prequel to Trapped in a Curse, but you don't need to read Trapped in a Curse to enjoy Good Doctor Poor Mage. They're both very exciting and I try to make all my books readable as standalones stories.
I always try to write books that I would want to read, and I assume that there are other people who are similar to me and will enjoy reading them as well. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to advertise my books, and so they haven't found their audience, yet.
No comments have been added yet.
