Chaos Reading discussion

Greetings Chaos Readers!

I'm doing some research on dark fantasy novels and I would love some recommendations. If the book has zombies, even better! Thank you so much for your help!

Cheers,

Sezin

Did you look at the shelf with zombie book recommendations? Chaos Reading Zombie Shelf. How do you define the difference between 'dark fantasy' and 'horror' for your research?

Thanks, Whitney! You know, I'm not entirely sure, it's that I heard the term and decided that's the genre for my third novel. But it seems like it's not as defined as other horror/fantasy sub-genres. I found this Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_fan...

And also this from The Creative Penn, http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2009/0..., which seems to do a better job of describing what "dark fantasy" is specifically.

Okay. I like the Alan Baxter link you posted, he does a good job acknowledging the ambiguity in any genre definition. Of the books in the zombie list I've read, I'd say "The Reapers Are the Angels" almost certainly qualifies as dark fantasy.

Thanks, Whitney! It's funny you mention that one because I just read it a couple weeks back. Really enjoyed it, too. I will definitely keep an eye on the Zombie thread, seems like it's easier to just read zombie books and then figure out what my brand of dark fantasy will be. Thank you so much for the help!

I'm terrible at trying to categorise books by genre... but....

I think the YA book Boneshaker might possibly fit that bill. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but the premise had great potential which I think you might appreciate.

No points for zombies (at least not that I remember), but when you say Dark Fantasy, I think Faerie Tale by Raymond E Feist.

Thanks, Ruby! I guess what I've learned is that the whole dark fantasy thing isn't so set as a genre and so I don't need to feel so constrained by its rules or tropes. It's quite liberating actually! :-)

[shameless self promotion deleted]

Cheryl wrote: "Wouldn't zombies make it Horror?"

Nooooooo! There are some wonderful zombie books out there that are so much more than genre pieces. I'm sure we have a thread with some examples somewhere..

There are Great Debates about what makes a work Dark Fantasy as opposed to Horror -- well, supernatural horror.

Unkind souls have said that it's just an upmarket term. Like calling something Heroic Fantasy rather than Sword & Sorcery.

I like Sandman Slim, the entire series is great. Kill the Dead, has zombies.

I liked The Loving Dead, Zombie-ism as STD.

Miserere: An Autumn Tale by Teresa Frohock is good. No zombies, though.