Preachett or Stephen King?

Tolkin or Baum?

Objection! Stephen King isn't Fantasy, he's modern horror.

Well, Robert Silverberg put him in his anthology of fantasy short stories, and he's in the eincyclopedia of Fantasy. I'd say The Dark Tower series is definetly fantasy, and pretty good one at that

Tolkien could be considered 'Dark Fantasy' to some extent, though not in the same way as, let's say, Lovecraft.

The Silmarillion is in general pretty dark. Sure, it's about heroes who strive to accomplish great things for the cause of truth and justice, but most of them fail and die. "Akallabeth" and "The Lost Road" are pretty sinister, what with Sauron subverting the government and incinerating people who don't like him. "Narn i Chin Húrin" is as depressing than a Greek tragedy, for many of the same reasons.

I'm not sure 'Dark Fantasy' is defined precisely enough for this discussion to be meaningful.

Actually, I like both dark and light fantasy... perhaps the correct terms should be "High Fantasy" and "Fantasy Stories"?

For example, I like both Tolkien (LoTR, etc) and Asprin (Myth-Adventures), Eddings (which is kind of both) and Feist (darker, but I'm not sure it's "High Fantasy")...

Tastes do not need to be mutually exclusive.

Hear, hear, ScottN!

It all depends on moods. Sometimes I want philosophy, sometimes I want gossip. Sometimes I want M&Ms, sometimes I want a Hershey bar (for when you're serious about your chocolate!) Sometimes I want the Discovery Channel, and other times I want "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".
What? It's a good show!

One end of the spectrum is not necessarily better than the other - just different.

That being said, however, I often find "Dark" or "High" fantasy quite harrowing, not to mention daunting.

Oh, okay, put me in the "Light Fantasy" camp.

Defining the two terms--dark and light--might be a good idea. For example, I would think of light fantasy as genrally more humorous & with a happy ending. Maybe also easy reading. "Dark" fantasy would be more--haunting. Serious. Probably with a darker ending (good guys don't win, or if they do--was it worth it?).

But, then, where would you put Diana Wynne Jones' _Eight Days of Luke_? Or, even the Lord of the Rings? Perhaps the "high" fantasy distinction is what I'm after, but that, again seems different.

Jessica

Obviously we have two diffrent categories:
High Fantasy/Low fantasy and Dark/Light Fantasy

High Fantasy is a story that takes place in a fantasy setting, with fantasy characters, etc, etc, For Exanmple Tolkin, Jordan and LeGuin.

Low Fantasy is a ' regular' story with fantasy elements, for example Salman Rushdie's or Gabriel Garcia Marquez's writings.

This definitions appear, more or less, in The Encyclopedie of Fantasy. Now

Dark Fantasy, according to me, at least, are stories which are serious and dramatic, while Light Fantasy is more lightweight, comic fiction.

OK?

By those last definitions, I'd say that I like the Light parts of High Dark fantasy stories; like Sam and Gollum's rabbit stew in LotR and Loial's reaction to the idea of marrige in WoT.

How about "grey" fantasy? Where the good guys win--but the victory is hard. Like Tolkien--Frodo doesn't return "happily ever after," but he's _won_, and he has the promise of rest--just not on Middle Earth.

Or, on another note--_Eight Days of Luke_. The end question & answer is thoroughly haunting.

That's usually what I come back to, though in some moods--I just want plain old light! Never have really liked dark ("You mean everyone _died_? What's the point of that?")

Tol
kin's dark fantasy. It's serious, not comic, even if it have comic scenes.

I enjoy reading High Fantasy like Tolkein,but
I confess that my tastes are more to the lighter
type of fantasy...I mean I have all three
anthologies in the CHICKS IN CHAINMAIL series!!!!
edited btw by Edith Friesner.:)

It's a point of view thing. In The Red Book, there is a happy ending because the King has returned, the Evil is crushed forever and a new Forth age is begun. In Quenta Similarian The Of the Rings of power and the Third age, the Elves can only find happyness in Aman. All their dealings in middle earth will always end in tragedy and their story leads to their leaving of Middle Earth (Except in the Lost Road).

What would you class George RR Martins "Song of Ice and Fire" series as. I would say very down and dirty.

I'd say it's pretty dark and gritty, not least because Martin has no compulsion about killing off characters and doing everything to avoid a happy ending...

It's still amazing though.

Since nobody has brought this one up, I have to. It's dark fantasy with a touch of humour. It's a series called The Dark Jewel Trilogy, though after the orignal trilogy, there's a set of short stories and a few others now, set in the same world. It's by Anne Bishop and if you like word play and have a strong constitution, I highly suggest it.
Another series that is dark but with some humour is the Kushiel Saga by Jacqueline Carey. It's a very lush series.
And I have to agree with Scott when he says the Chicks in Chainmail series is absolutely fantastic!