"Low" vs. "High" fantasy in UF?

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dbfitzgerald

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Hey guys, I'm a fairly experienced writer who is brand new to the genre and am writing what I believe you might call Low fantasy UF--namely, it takes place in a modern city but there's one supernatural creature, or one that does not exist in the "real" world. The creature is basically a large human, about 9' tall, who in most respects is just like us, with a few slight differences in appearance. He comes from somewhere else (not quite sure where yet) and speaks another language, but otherwise has no fantastic powers other than size.

I want to write something that's very realistic, that would read like urban fiction in almost every respect, except for this impossible creature. There is no "magic," no vampires, werewolves, gods, etc. Just people, one of whom is clearly not human.

First, would you call this UF? The world is basically this one, with one known anomaly, this oversized creature. Perhaps we will get into where he came from and how he got here, but that's not what the story is about. It is about people relating to him and vice versa.

Second, do you know of any other novels with a similarly "low fantasy" aspect? I would like to read a few authors in the genre, especially those who may be close to the type of fiction I'm writing. Any insights would be much appreciated!
 

Max.Schultz

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I'm not an expert but for me his origins would determine if your story was UF or SF. If he came through a wormhole from another world or something like that than I would just call it Sci Fi, but if it's a magic portal then I would call it UF. Just my opinion though.
 

Polenth

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As I'm understanding it, your magic element is the appearance of the mysterious man. Except the magic happens off-screen, and the book focuses on the man rather than how he got there. I'd consider that urban fantasy, but of a sort that might end up marketed as something else. This is mainly an issue for your query though, and it sounds like you haven't written the book yet... so the book comes first.

My first thought was a children's book - Stig of the Dump (Clive King). It's about a boy finding a cave man, and is generally realistic and shows them having language issues, etc. There's a little on-screen magic near the end, but there's no explanation of how Stig got there.
 

dbfitzgerald

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Book comes first indeed

I am only a few chapters in and I realized I am writing "blind", which is often good, but I want to have some better idea of what's out there so I'm not reinventing the wheel, which genre newbies might be more prone to do.

As I'm understanding it, your magic element is the appearance of the mysterious man. Except the magic happens off-screen, and the book focuses on the man rather than how he got there. I'd consider that urban fantasy, but of a sort that might end up marketed as something else. This is mainly an issue for your query though, and it sounds like you haven't written the book yet... so the book comes first.
 

ChaosTitan

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Your post made me think immediately of "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert Heinlein. :)

Having one unusual/supernatural creature in your book isn't enough to make is urban fantasy. The genre has certain expectations. For example, world-building is often a big part of any UF book. And I've never seen it classified as "high" or "low" urban fantasy, the way that Fantasy sometimes is.

How much UF have you read recently? Reading widely in your chosen genre is the best way to get to know what's out there and what's expected by readers. There are also some good UF versus Contemporary fantasy threads here. And depending on how you write it, your story could also go in a SF direction, rather than fantasy.
 
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Sounds more like contemporary fantasy or even magical realism to me, depending on how fast and loose you want to play with genre labels. It doesn't at all strike me as Urban Fantasy, especially not as the term is used now. You could almost interpret it as general fiction, considering he could be a mutation or something not all that magical if you portrayed him that way.
 

PeteMC

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Assuming your creature doesn't have any "magic" powers, it sounds more like Science Fiction to me to be honest.
 

Carissa

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I agree. At least from what I've heard, this sounds more Sci-Fi than Urban Fantasy to me. This is just my opinion, but I feel like Urban Fantasy is blending two worlds that readers are familiar with. Our world plus a world of faeries, werewolves, vampires etc. When you only focus on completely unknown creature/s + our world, it "feels" more sci-fi to me. This could just be me.
 

Nissie

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Is there even a "high fantasy" distinction for urban fantasy novels? High fantasy involves a completely different / reimagined world where magic is often essential, and urban fantasy usually has a modern cityscape setting.
 

JMercedesD

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Is there even a "high fantasy" distinction for urban fantasy novels? High fantasy involves a completely different / reimagined world where magic is often essential, and urban fantasy usually has a modern cityscape setting.
That's what I was wondering. I always thought of the two as complete opposites in most respects, with "contemporary" and "low" fantasy covering some of the nebulous middle ground.
 

Ian Isaro

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I realize some people entirely disagree with me on this, but I think low vs high is a continuum that can be applied to UF.

Consider just the lower end. You have some UF where the supernatural is entirely subsumed in real world culture. Sometimes vampires are like a sub-ethnicity, which means the author has to create something secondary to our world. Then "hidden world" stories have something separate from the world we know. All those usually get grouped into the subgenre but are "high" to differing degrees.

I think the continuum could be extended beyond that. But I have no problem if people want to say that a certain point on the continuum becomes a different subgenre. Your label is ultimately going to be a marketing tactic, anyway, not something set in stone.
 
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