My Heart of Hearts

I've been thinking about high fantasy a lot lately. When I was younger, I had it pegged as my favorite genre of all time. Then I kept reading and I wasn't so sure, especially this last year since I've started blogging. I thought maybe that I didn't really have a favorite genre. Sure, I preferred some more than others but I didn't think I had a favorite anymore.

But then I read Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight last year and I picked up The Winner's Curse  and Defy a few weeks ago. Plus, I have everlasting ties to The Ranger's Apprentice series and The Lord of the Rings as well as The Sword of Shannara trilogy. These stories have something special that make them different from dystopian, contemporary, and most urban fantasy and science fiction. I'd forgotten this until recently, but there was a very big reason why high fantasy grabbed my heart as a child.

When I read the books listed above, I marvel at the worlds there. I feel transported into the story in an entirely different way. I adore those novels in a different way than I do books in the other genres. They capture my imagination on an entirely different level. The adventures are more epically cool than those I've found in other genres. The character's thoughts and personalities are wonderfully real yet so different from the real world. These novels are the type of master pieces I hope to write someday. They are the type of work I aspire to accomplish.

Don't get me wrong, I love The Lunar Chronicles (science fiction), A.G. Howard's Splintered series (urban fantasy), and The Dispossessed series (historical fiction - GARGOYLES PEOPLE). Trust me when I say, that I love them hard. And it doesn't mean that I don't think they aren't better than some high fantasy I've read.

High fantasy just happens to speak to me much more personally for some reason. I've always loved it. Always. Is there any one genre that you find steals your heart of hearts?