Please help determe what subgenre my book falls into

Fantasy? Others will give better help than I can, though. I'd just like to welcome you to AW.

Welcome to AW, jkinnear!

(I had no idea that so many subgenres of fantasy even existed!)

In my opinion, in terms of low and high it sounds more like high because of the gods and devil and hell... They kind of remind me of magic stuff there.

But like Mumut, I'm primarily here to say hi.

I have finished the first book and will soon be putting it out into the world to see what kind of response I can get, but I would like to find a way to convey the essence of the book to a prospective agent or publisher quickly and easily.

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Oh if you want, you can put a chapter of your book out on SYW to have people give it constructive criticism and see what they think.

Conveying the essence of the book is what your hook is for, actually. It's the short, 200 word description of the story and main character(s) that goes in the query letter.

You say it's set in an alternate reality not so different from present day in terms of technology and events, so my gut reaction is to go with Contemporary/Modern fantasy.

I also want to say Hi, but also you should post a chapter into the SciFi/Fantasy Share Your Work board so we can get a feel for what you're doing. You'd not only get useful critiques, but be closer to classifying your WIP.

Welcome to AW!

The advice I've gotten from agents in the past has been to identify the genre in the query but not a sub-genre unless it's very strongly targeted to the sub-genre (ie: Urban Fantasy).

Because sub-genres can shift and change quickly and are usually so ill-defined, it's usually better for the agent to decide what exact niche to market it in.

The others have pretty much answered your primary question. I just came to welcome you. Welcome to AW!!!!!!



~Sam

Agree -- modern fantasy. The high/low/jolly pepper question depends on the story's concerns and how you do the drama.

High Fantasy tends to be about Good 'n' Evil. There are world-spanning stakes. There's usually an unconscionable amount of travel. The main characters sometimes have to learn their heroism. High fantasy tends toward romance. It can be peaceful or violent -- or both, by turns. It's often about Growth as much as Doing the job. They tend to come in trilogies, quartologies, duodecachoketheshelfologies. They often need better editing.

Low Fantasy tends to be about survival, prosperity, vengeance or other personal stakes. It tends to be pacy, full of action and problem-solving. Low fantasy is often cynical, violent. When characters change it's often for the worse. Low Fantasy tends to be episodic. You'll often get individual books or series more than multivolume epics. They seldom need better editing, but often need better writing.

Fantasy doesn't have to fit into those categories; it's just that a lot of popular fantasy does.