I'm trying not to worry much about genre as I write my fantasy trilogy, but I've always found the concept of subgenres interesting, and a question occurred to me:
Does it make sense for the different parts of a trilogy to belong to different subgenres, or for a story to evolve from one subgenre to another over the course of the trilogy?
Obviously some mixes are more compatible than others- a change from grimdark to Bangsian would probably be quite disorienting, but sliding between medieval, heroic, sword & sorcery and more wouldn't necessarily cause any roughness. But what about less obvious transformations?
For example, how perilous would you consider transitioning from low fantasy (no magic or fantastic creatures, and focused on characters' smaller journies/quests rather than a grand save-the-world plot) to something more like traditional high fantasy?(it turns out the world does need saving, and while things don't turn magical all of a sudden, the world gets "bigger" as more of it is revealed as part of the more expansive plot). This looks like where my WIP is headed, but I'd appreciate hearing some real examples if this is actually a thing.
Or does this sound like poor planning for a trilogy, which instead likely requires more unity and common elements interwoven throughout?
Does it make sense for the different parts of a trilogy to belong to different subgenres, or for a story to evolve from one subgenre to another over the course of the trilogy?
Obviously some mixes are more compatible than others- a change from grimdark to Bangsian would probably be quite disorienting, but sliding between medieval, heroic, sword & sorcery and more wouldn't necessarily cause any roughness. But what about less obvious transformations?
For example, how perilous would you consider transitioning from low fantasy (no magic or fantastic creatures, and focused on characters' smaller journies/quests rather than a grand save-the-world plot) to something more like traditional high fantasy?(it turns out the world does need saving, and while things don't turn magical all of a sudden, the world gets "bigger" as more of it is revealed as part of the more expansive plot). This looks like where my WIP is headed, but I'd appreciate hearing some real examples if this is actually a thing.
Or does this sound like poor planning for a trilogy, which instead likely requires more unity and common elements interwoven throughout?
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I don't see any reason why this should not be a go, sounds good to me.
