Urban Fantasy
In Urban Fantasy, magic, mythical creatures, and supernatural conflicts exist hidden within the setting of modern cities[cite: 5]. The action does not take place in enchanted forests, but in subways, backyards, and office towers of our present day[cite: 5].
The genre experienced its commercial breakthrough in the early 2000s, largely shaped by Jim Butcher's "The Dresden Files"[cite: 5]. Butcher combined hard-boiled crime elements with magic and created a blueprint for countless successors with his wizard-private investigator Harry Dresden[cite: 5].
Another milestone is Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere" (1996), which established a "London Below" beneath the streets of the metropolis[cite: 5]. While Cassandra Clare successfully moved the genre into the young adult sector with "The Mortal Instruments", Ben Aaronovitch established a police-analytical view of the supernatural with his "Rivers of London" series[cite: 5].
Historical Fantasy
Historical Fantasy uses a real historical era as a foundation and enriches it with magic or myths[cite: 5]. The essential difference from pure alternative history lies in the supernatural element: historical facts are not changed by technology, but by the existence of forces that our real history did not know[cite: 5].
A masterpiece of this genre is Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" (2004), which is set in England during the Napoleonic Wars and depicts the return of magic to a society that has forgotten it[cite: 5]. Authors like Guy Gavriel Kay often use settings based on the Renaissance to combine historical authenticity with narrative freedom[cite: 5].
Particularly popular is the combination of military history and fantasy, as seen in Naomi Novik's "Temeraire" series, in which dragons act as a flying air force, decisively changing the battles of Napoleon[cite: 5].
Portal Fantasy
In Portal Fantasy, a character from our familiar world enters a foreign reality through a gateway[cite: 5]. The contrast between the world of origin and the destination world with its own laws is the central narrative principle[cite: 5].
C.S. Lewis established the basic pattern still known today with "The Chronicles of Narnia"[cite: 5]. Interestingly, Lewis and his friend Tolkien pursued fundamentally different approaches here: while Lewis sought a direct connection to the real world, Tolkien rejected portals and preferred a completely isolated secondary world without any points of contact with our reality[cite: 5].
Modern works like Lev Grossman's "The Magicians" often deconstruct this pattern today by showing that escaping to a magical world does not solve the psychological problems of the protagonists, but often even exacerbates them[cite: 5].
Steampunk / Gaslamp Fantasy
The world of Steampunk is characterized by steam engines, gears, and mechanical apparatus, embedded in an aesthetic of the 19th century[cite: 5]. Here, magic and inventiveness often exist side by side in a world that is industrial, but never digital[cite: 5].
The term was coined in 1987 by the author K.W. Jeter to find a name for the Victorian-inspired science fiction works of his time[cite: 5]. While Steampunk often focuses on mechanics, the related Gaslamp Fantasy shifts the emphasis more towards supernatural and occult elements within the same timeframe[cite: 5].
Outstanding examples are China Miéville's "Perdido Street Station", which combines industrial aesthetics with biological horror, or Gail Carriger's humorous combination of Victorian etiquette and werewolf myths[cite: 5].