Jaemi says:

The vast majority of the books I read happen to be YA Fantasy. Any Harry Potter fan has at least been introduced to the type of book I'm talking about. Since these are my favorites, it seemed only natural to create a group for them.

#1 Posted 1 years ago

danchamp says:

I'm curious. What differentiates young adult fantasy from adult fantasy? Can you give some more examples of what you'd consider YA fantasy, and what isn't please? Ta. :-)

#2 Posted 1 years ago

cedarwaxwing says:

I'm a big fan of YA fantasy too, Jaemi. My fascination started with C. S. Lewis' Narnia and Edward Eagar's The Thyme Garden. I also loved The Green Knowe Series. These days my children (both teenagers) share my interest in fantasy novels and we fight over who gets to read the latest Rowling or Snickett books first. I still prefer YA fantasy to adult fantasy. It seems more innocent and uncomplicated.

#3 Posted 1 years ago

bluecat says:

Well if Narnia books and Harry Potter are in this genre, then I'm in. I was on the bus the other day reading The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and didn't half get some funny looks.
Partly it's re-reading books I read as a kid, such Narnia, Tolkien, partly books I wish had been around when I was a kid: Terry Pratchett and Harry Potter. It's never too late. :)
Perhaps the main difference from adult fantasy is that the main characters are often younger?
What titles would count as Adult Fantasy?

#4 Posted 1 years ago

Jaemi says:

Oops! I didn't actually think anyone would show up here yet. Sorry people! I'm used to people having no idea what I mean when I say I read YA books.

The difference. YA books are generally written for those in grades 7-12, though some people read them earlier and some, clearly, much later. Interesting quirk, I read Adult Fiction in High School in large quantities, and less YA. Now I read almost all YA.

Some stories are much lighter than an adult variant would be. (Some Adult Fantasy: Lord of the Rings, The Shannara series, the Pern books) But, this isn't always the case. British writers write some very large children's books. As everyone noticed with JK Rowling. Jonathan Stroud had an excellent trilogy (I'll copy those reviews over here for you all), and those books took me long to read than most adult novels would.

The characters will often be younger, but that's not always the case either.

Mainly it's a designation by the author or publisher. The intent of who the book was meant for. YA has been a much-overlooked class of books, so I'm glad to see there are other fans here. Now I won't worry so much about boring everyone!

For the Harry Potter fans, if you haven't, I recommend checking out the Children of the Red King, otherwise known as the Charlie Bone books. Great series. Keys to the Kingdom by Garth Nix is my other current favorite. Actually, I have a lot of favorites, I'll do another post about that.

#5 Posted 1 years ago