What factors have contributed to the decline in popularity of high fantasy books in the modern age of technology and popularity?

That said, I really don’t think there is a decrease in interest in high fantasy. In fact, I think the interest in high fantasy is likely increasing alongside the increase in interest in other fantasy genres and media in general.

There are many new high fantasy books that don’t fit the narrow mold of what some readers picture when they think of “high fantasy”. Some readers imagine high fantasy as works taking place in a world similar to Tolkien’s work or “Dungeons and Dragons” with a setting loosely based on pre-medieval, medieval, and Renaissance-era Western Europe and various beings and magical powers based loosely on the mythology and folklore of those societies. While there are many works that fit this mold, not all high fantasy does, and there are an increasing number of high fantasy books that take place in settings based on other cultures and parts of the world.

Another extremely popular genre is urban fantasy, which is usually considered to be fantasy taking place in a world based on our real world. Some of these lean into the mystery genre (Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, October Daye by Seanan McGuire, Hollows by Kim Harrison) and others are more slice-of-life (everyday situations with fantasy elements mixed in, like Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree). There are also some that fall into “paranormal romance”, which is essentially “adult romance novels with fantasy elements”, such as characters who are vampires or witches (Laurell K. Hamilton’s books).

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First of all, has there been a “decline in popularity of high fantasy books in the modern age of technology and popularity”? I’d argue that high fantasy is a bigger genre than ever. If we are defining “high fantasy” in a similar way to the way TVTropes defines it, as fantasy that takes place in an imaginary world and centres around large-scale conflicts.

For instance, many series like Game of Thrones are examples of low fantasy, which is usually fantasy in a fictitious world with lower stakes and characters who are not necessarily good or evil, or at least do not have conflicts that hinge on a clear case of good and evil.

(Yes, I realize not everybody agrees with TVTropes, and people who attempt to define genres rarely agree on, really, anything, given that genres mostly exist for marketing purposes to market a book to people who’ve enjoyed similar books or for the purposes of talking about wide categories of books that share a few very general traits. That said, since TVTropes tends to look at a whole bucketload of media and acknowledges that people’s mileage may vary on certain tropes, I find their trope descriptions helpful. Here it is: High Fantasy - TV Tropes)

How did China invent gunpowder but it was the European nations that went out and “conquered the world using firearms”?

Recently, there has been a spike of interest in historical fantasy (fantasy based on a real-world historical period), and “romantasy”. “Romantasy” books are a bit different from paranormal romance in that they typically have the worldbuilding and general plot points of high or low fantasy alongside many of the tropes and conventions of the romance genre. They are usually written for readers 18 and up or, in the case of young adult “romantasy”, follow the tropes and conventions of young adult romance that focus on teen dating and are not sexually graphic.

Readers may not see certain high fantasy works as “high fantasy”, and they may not be marketed as such.

There are many other genres and sub-genres that are of interest to readers of fantasy.

Hi everybody! I have been looking at posts on narcs and narc abuse on here and if has really helped me out a lot. I am currently struggling with my situation and need some advice/support. I met a narc last year, everything seemed to good to be true. Love bombing, always texting calling and taking me on dates. Everything changed when someone warned me about him out in public in front of him and who he is. This caused a conflict with us and the love bombing seized. he would tell me that everything is okay and i can come and talk. He would set a time limit on me and kick me out after that. he would then text me like everything was fine and we hung out again and after that he completely ghosted me for one week. He came back and texted me a week later laughing about the ghosting and acting like nothing had happened. he continued to text me ( not like in the beginning) make plans with me, then on the day of the plans he would just ghost me. One day he would act interested the next silence. i contacted him a month later and he acted like nothing happened. He was on a vacation and sent me a picture of another woman ( someone he allegedly met on the trip) to strike a reaction but i never gave him one. After the trip he came to my place and was extremely rude, accusing me of going on dates with a bunch of men. The next day he accused me of being an alcoholic and that he wanted nothing to do with me but said well maybe we can be "friends" then ghosted me i assumed at this point it was over and i would never hear from him again. He contacted me on the holiday a month later acting like everything was great. We ended up hanging out a month or so later and when we hung out it went well, i thought things were going in the right direction. after we hung out.. silence. I would try to text him and if he replied it would be very short then he just stopped replying. He ghosted me for almost three months. I thought he was done this time and of course he popped up again like nothing happened. At this point i was getting sick of if so i questioned him as to why he dissapeared and always does this. Of course he had some sob story about a injury and family member dying of cancer. I felt pity for him and he gave me an apology.. so i took him back stupidly. things seemed to be going smooth for a couple months, of course until his family member died and his injury got better he never contacted me and was distant. Menawhile, i was there for him during the difficult time for him. He lied to me about the funeral and never wanted to chat. I was chasing him and he would always claim nothing was wrong but when i said i thought he used me when he was down he could not handle it and would always tell me he didnt care and to go away. I would get so upset i would try texting him to work it out he would barelt respond and if he did he would not be nice about it. we did hang out a couple times after that, he would ignore me after. One day i was like hey i think you are seeing someone else, and i was like well ixam seeing someone so no problem if you are he said " buy bye good luck with your new guy stop contacting me" i was devastated and tried to get into contact with him for weeks then i just gave up and accepted it was over. He ended up contacting me a month later acting like everything was fine. He wanted to go out and have drinks i told him i would. He and i both seemed to have a great time. He ends up ignoring me again. I kept texting him trying to figure out what was wrong. He kept saying everything was fine and i said ok can we hang out again? He said maybe i was like why? He just kept saying maybe … our last conversation we had… i said what is wrong ? He said nothing is wrong everything is fine. I asked him why he keeps saying maybe. He said " maybe but i dont want to see you right now" i said why? He saix " im just not feeling it, if i wanted to date i would" i said why did you contact me less then a week ago wanting to go out? He said i didnt.. even though he did. So i said should i just move on or what? He said whatever you want to do. So i said that he was really confusing me and asked him if he had anything more to say before i move on? My messages were turning green so i panicked he blocked me and reacted irrationally. I said " omg did you block me? My messages are not going through. Even texted him on my work phone asking what was up. And called him twice ( please dont judge me i know it is pathetic i never was this type of girl before him) so he replied and said " Ok I'll block you now" then immedietly blocked me. He has never blocked me before since I have met him he will just ghost. Is this ths final discard aka " grand finale? Did i just push him too far? this has upset me so much its hard to even function.

But with these types of questions, I tend to give my take on it assuming the premise is correct. Though I believe interest in fantasy in general is increasing, there may be less interest in high fantasy compared to other genres, or a decrease in some people liking high fantasy and an increase in others liking high fantasy. I don’t have statistics on this, and I’m not even sure if those sorts of statistics exist, since “high fantasy” is not really a sales category to my knowledge. Many of the large publishing houses—Random House, Tor, DAW Books, etc.—sell a variety of titles in different subgenres and do not necessarily treat “high fantasy” as a separate category from other books. Some urban fantasy, typically that which overlaps heavily with romance and mystery (i.e. series like Dresden Files, Mercy Thompson, or Hollows that go on for 10+ books and follow a standard formula despite having somewhat of an overarching plot), might be published by a particular department or imprint of a publisher, but there is plenty of urban fantasy that doesn’t fit that particular “box” and is sold alongside high fantasy, low fantasy, historical fantasy, etc.

There is a lot of overlap between interest in fantasy and interest in genres such as science fiction, horror, and historical fiction. All of them are speculative genres which have had an overarching fanbase for a long time. Science fiction and fantasy often overlap in “science fantasy” works such as some superhero media, or in genres like steampunk that often incorporate fantasy elements alongside alternate history and science fiction elements. Fantasy and horror tend to overlap in dark fantasy, which is a very hard genre to properly pinpoint but, in my limited experience, tends to refer to fantasy stories with eerie and creepy themes, that are not as viscerally horrifying as fiction marketed as “horror”. Historical fiction is not speculative like science fiction, fantasy, and horror, which have a lot of natural overlap, but since many fantasy novels are at least partly based on historical periods, a lot of fantasy readers are interested in realistic historical novels as well.

The fantasy genre as a whole is broader and more diverse than ever. While a great deal of older fantasy works followed a model similar to Tolkien’s work, which is one of the most well-known and iconic high fantasy works I can think of, the fantasy genre has expanded in so many different directions that modern readers have more choices than ever. Tolkien, though not the first “fantasy author” as he pulled some inspiration from Lord Dunsany and other earlier authors, inspired numerous fantasy authors the way that the Beatles have influenced nearly every modern popular musician. However, so many other genres of fantasy have developed.

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Assuming there is, somewhere, a decrease in interest in high fantasy, here are some reasons that might be happening: