The Wonderful World of Fantasy
If you ask me what my favorite genre to read is, I’ll say fantasy, hands down. I’ve always loved it, even when I was a little kid. However, I’ve also always read widely. I’ll read everything from nonfiction to fantasy to contemporary romance. Once, as a kid, I even read the dictionary because I’d read all the other books in the house over summer break and my grandma (who was watching me at the time) wouldn’t let me go to the library that day.
Since college, though, I’ve had less time to read in general, and fantasy has also taken up a smaller portion than ever of what I am reading. Recently, I started reading The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill, and it’s reminded me of everything I love and miss about reading fantasy.
World Building
Other than fantasy, sci-fi is my favorite genre. Of course, the two are so closely related that many times they’re spoken about as one genre. They both rely heavily on worldbuilding, with the only real difference being that the logic in sci-fi relies on supposed science while the logic in fantasy relies on supposed magic. (Even though much of the science in sci-fi might as well be magic.)
Even though I do love the world building in sci-fi, there’s something especially, well, magical about the world building in fantasy.
Magic
Like I said, the science in most sci-fi might as well be magic, but most of the time, the writers do try to explain what’s happening in a scientific way. Or, at least, you know that the characters are meant to understand how it works. In fantasy, there’s more room to just not know. There still has to be an internal logic and rules to what magic can or can’t do, but neither the reader nor characters need to fully understand how it works. For me, personally, that element of fantasy is something I find almost relaxing compared to sci-fi. It gives me permission to accept the world without knowing exactly how it all works, and that’s rare for me, since I’m someone who is constantly pulling up Google to figure out how things work.
New Places
I’ve been consuming more sci-fi than fantasy recently. (A large part of that has been me watching sci-fi as opposed to reading it.) I do love the world building in sci-fi, but there’s something about fantasy world building that’s just different. Sci-fi typically takes place in the distant future, which is fun, but there’s nothing quite like the escapism of entering a world entirely separate from our own. I love learning how it all works and what the rules in this particular world are.
I’ve been enjoying The Girl Who Drank the Moon so much recently because it includes all of these elements that have reminded me of what I’ve been missing while I haven’t been reading fantasy. Now more than ever, I want to make a conscious effort to read more fantasy.
Do you have any fantasy recommendations? I’d love to hear them.
