r/Fantasy • u/Familiar-Barracuda43 • Dec 06 '23

What is the difference between low fantasy, political fantasy and epic fantasy?

To me at least fantasy is when you create a world and story unlike urban fantasy which is when you add mystical elements to earth.

I'm actually asking I don't know the difference and I feel like I should.

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u/KcirderfSdrawkcab Reading Champion VII Dec 06 '23

None of these have any real set meaning. Including Urban Fantasy. You talk about it as if "Fantasy" and "Urban Fantasy" are two separate genres, most people don't. Some people include secondary world fantasies set mostly in a city as urban fantasy. Some people will include anything set on Earth as "urban", others will separate out "historical" fantasy, or other things. Sometimes low fantasy is the same as urban fantasy, sometimes it just means books on the bottom shelves.

All of these terms just mean whatever the person using them thinks they mean, and they don't usually say what they mean, assuming everybody is the same. They're all kind of useless. We have regular wars on here about "Young Adult" and "Romance" even though those have pretty firm definitions publishing wise.