New Weird, we were assured, was a real & vibrant motive force in Fantasy. But really the only connection I see between many of the authors lumped under that banner was that in interviews they'd say that Tolkien was shit.
Grimdark made a few more promises about mood, plot & ideology. 'Welcome reader, to a world without love, where the strong prey upon the frail. Dare you read this tale in which:
a man is STABBED by his FRIEND?
SEX happens?
someone has a WINE?
the quest ends in an AMBIVALENT DRAW?'
a man is STABBED by his FRIEND?
SEX happens?
someone has a WINE?
the quest ends in an AMBIVALENT DRAW?'
Urban Fantasy traduces traditional pastoral tropes of Fantasy to create new myths of metropolitan life: 'In the dingy bar, the wizard took out his mobile phone & emailed a spell. "No magic," said the barmaid with tattoos & a pierced septum, who was an elf.'
Literary Fantasy pushes the imaginative potential of the genre, by asking us to consider a world in which magic is boring & governments are staffed entirely by oboes. 'Beatrice contemplated the dark lake, watching kingfishers rise like fearful revenants, dripping liquid fire.'
With its freewheeling style & embrace of the truly original, Bizarro challenged the long-cherished Fantasy conventions of redrafting & having readers: 'Mr Horsehead fluxed between bandwidths, etheric jellyfish blooming from his arse like the ghosts of 100 lampshades.'
Neo Gothic takes the pacing of classic Gothic fiction, & adds spider-people: 'Euphrosina lifted the lid of the glass harpsichord, her hand shaking. Within lay a small macabre piece of Victoriana & a cryptic note, which she was sure would take her many months to solve.'
Here are my contenders for the Next Big Thing in Fantasy subgenres/movements:
Sexy Jeeves: Fantasy in which every character has an attractive faery butler whom they cop off with at regular intervals: '"Well, Smythkyn," said Delilah, stretching out across the silken sheets, "you can't spell 'Gentry Below' without 'entry below'." "Very good, madam."'
Moggania: a reaction to increased diversity in Fantasy, these works contain Jacob Rees-Mogg as the only character, squatting on his inherited horde doing fuck all while it expands due to a magic system called Capitalism.
Merrybaby Fantasy: this subgenre retells classic stories with the characters recast as preschool versions of themselves, a la Muppet Babies. It's really nice & affirming & always ends well.
