THE ULTIMATE QUESTION! High Fantasy or Low Fantasy? *Dramatic music playing in the background*.
I'm going to be honest here: As a fantasy lover, I really read way more low fantasy books than high fantasy books. There are two reasons for that: Firstly, I love when the protagonist discovers who they are in low fantasies (and of course there's the hate love relationship). Secondly, they are way more popular. And that is because it is always easier to mix fantasy and real worlds together when doing world building, not to add on the fact that low fantasies stories are often as good as high fantasies, if not better.
Here's the thing with High fantasies though; they are either really popular, or are just not. Your books are either The Song of Ice and Fire or just another fantasy book on the block. But when they really do get popular, they dominate the reading world for decades. I swear even today I turn my head and I can't not not see a Throne of Glass book suggestion when I'm looking for a next book to read.
Low fantasies, on the other hand, has a LOT of mediocre and bad ones. Even the normal High Fantasies tends to be more well-viewed than low fantasies. Many of the self-published and self proclaim professional authors publishes in this area here. Why? Because like I said before, it's so much easier. World building is way easier with low fantasies, because you're not building an actual world like high fantasies (duh). You don't need to make this whole dimension/universe. It's also because of this, low fantasy books rarely dominates the popularity charts in the reading community like high fantasies does because (whether you're willing to admit or not), they are always more seemed as entertainment than actual literature. You read low fantasies because the blurb interested you, and you liked the romance. But rarely does it go to the point where you're like, WOW. And how often do you expect a low fantasy you come across on your kindle to be your next favorite series? And rarely does it get as popular as high fantasies books does. The idea and impression of low fantasies also dragged down some of the actual good ones out there with it's slightly lower expectations and impressions. Just think the high fantasies like a 'High Community' and low fantasies as a 'Low Community. The hierarchy is real.
But like everything, it has exceptions. Harry Potter is a low fantasy series, and it is the most sold series in history. There are also plenty more popular series that can rival extremely high popular series, City of Bones and Twilight is just a nib of them. And by this point I can literally imagine people spitting at me and saying stuff like 'what the actual f**k are you talking about?' and 'there are tons of popular low fantasies'.
I can understand if what I'm saying is not accurate at all. But three points I will make it solid clear that I'm 100% it's right (and don't you fricking dare to try and deny it):
High fantasy is way harder to write than low fantasy.
Because it's easier, low fantasy has a whole lot more bad/mediocre self-published books (not saying high fantasy doesn't have any, just low fantasy has a lot more).
Because low fantasy has more bad books, our subconscious viewed it more as an 'entertainment' than high fantasy. In other words, we will always expect less with a low fantasy book.
Please understand I perfectly understand if you disagree. But this is just my personal opinion that I wrote within 15 minutes because I suddenly had an idea for this post. I may re-read it one day and take it down or change it, but its a quick piece of work. Either way, both are great, this is just my opinion. Don't underestimate low fantasies though. They are easier to write, but it can also be better than high fantasies. They can be really bad, but at the same time they can become the best series you have and will ever read.
