A.L.’s Comments (group member since Dec 06, 2015)

A.L.’s comments from the Best Fantasy Books Subgenre Reading Challenge group.

Erin (Paperbackstash) wrote: "I'm so new to the straight fantasy genre, so I'm curious on all sorts."

Me too Erin, I haven't read any fantasy yet, so I'm interested in being introduced to the genre as a whole (as well as certain subgenres sounding intriguing! I didn't even know there were so many subgenres.)

I should have included Watership Down in my list too, I've always wanted to find out what made it so huge.

I'm interested mostly in prehistoric, colonial and alternate history fantasy. I love history anyway, and I've found such thought-provoking stories in alternate history that I'd be interested to see how that would be handled in the fantasy genre.

Mostly, I'm interested in becoming more familiar with fantasy books as a whole. :)

Since this is my first foray into fantasy, my opinion may be irrelevant and sound uneducated (which it is within the fantasy genre), but here goes - for a newbie fantasy reader, it can get confusing because the subgenre names aren't always defining terms - like "Fantastique" - and we have to do some research to figure out what it is. So while I get excited at the prospect of a new twist on an old genre, sometimes I discover that the difference is so slight with maybe one added element that a new subgenre isn't really warranted. I feel that way about other genres as well, when, for example, 95 percent of a story fits solidly into a particular subgenre but a tiny new thing is added and suddenly that makes it a new subgenre. Maybe my inexperience with fantasy books makes this totally off the mark, so I'd love to hear what fantasy readers think.

Tom wrote: "Can't believe I didn't say. Sorry, I've been running over 12 hour days for a week now and tired. I'm not sure of all the sub genre designations, but I like Heroic/Epic Fantasy, the type that involv..."

I know what you mean about subgenre lines being blurred, I'm finding that in other areas also, especially as we indie authors look for (and possibly create, I think) subgenres and subsubgenres to make our books stand out from the pack.

I've always loved the idea of creating new worlds in writing, and even though it's not something I've ever attempted - especially since I haven't read fantasy yet - I do often find myself creating bits of worlds, situations, and races in my mind and really enjoying it.

Tom wrote: "Hello all,

My name is Tom Fallwell, and I'm a great fan of fantasy, as well as a fantasy author. I have read quite a lot over the years, but not so much in the last several year until recently (20..."

Hi Tom,

I'm new to fantasy reading, and I'm interested to experience some of the different subgenres that I didn't even know existed! You said you have a couple of favorite subgenres, and I was wondering which ones they are and what it is you like about them?

I haven't read too much fantasy, so I was really interested to hear that there are so many subgenres and I'm looking forward to being introduced to some!