Reasons To Love Fantasy

As I’m a fantasy fan I thought I’d list my reasons to love fantasy.

1. It’s Escapism And Fun!

You get to visit different worlds filled with various different races, creatures, locations and history/lore. In a fantasy book you never know who or what you are likely to encounter in the story, whether you’re the Hero, Villain or an Anti-hero, its an adventure waiting to happen that could take and lead you both any and everywhere!

Even if you only get the chance to read a couple of pages in a day, a fantasy book allows you to escape.

2. It’s A Different World.

I know, what a shocker! Let’s be honest, we live in reality, we are surrounded by it twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for 365 days of the year, no one can begrudge us a little jaunt into a fantasy land. There’s enough misery in the real world, if we’re going to read about it then it may as well be in a fantastical made up world.

But also, being in a made up world we get to read about all the history and lore that comes with the creation of a different setting, its interesting and when we live in the real world why shouldn’t we lose ourselves and escape into a fantasy world.

3. Monsters/Mythical Creatures!

No explanation needed, Monsters are just plain cool! Dragons, Demons, Wyverns, Wyrms, Wraiths, Ghouls, Draigs, Cyclops, Chimera, Giants, Jotun, Ice Giants, Trolls, Frost Trolls, Griffins, Giant Spiders, Harpies, Banshees, Gorgons, Ents, Sylphs, Ferals, Cannibals, Kobolds, Vampires, Werewolves, Direwolves, Wolven, Treants, Ursks, Rasks, Boglins, Owlbears, Boggarts, Basilisks, Alghouls, Hags, Harpies, Centaurs, Satyrs, Ettins, Nymphs, Orcs, Dwarves, Golems, Hellhounds, Elves, Witches, Goblins and many, many, many more!

4. Magic.

Unfortunately magic isn’t real but how awesome would it be if it was?? You would get to wield and use magical powers, abilities and even magically imbued weapons, well, in fantasy books you can and it is! Huzzah!

5. The Journey / Saving The World / The Battle Between Good vs Evil.

A fantasy book, be it singular, a trilogy or a series is a journey thwart with peril, adversities, trials and tribulations to overcome. We follow the characters from the very first pages through to the culmination at the end, finding out if they succeeded or failed. It might be a monumental battle between the forces of good vs evil. It might be a daring raid to retrieve a lost ancient relic or magical artifact. It could be a quest to save the world. No matter the end game, what happens in a fantasy book is an unforgettable journey of epic proportions.

6. You Get To Live Vicariously Through The Characters.

I know this applies to any book genre. For you crime and thriller fans, you get to put yourselves in the shoes of the main protagonist, following the clues and trying to unravel the mystery before finally stopping the killer. For you Y-A fans you get to do whatever fluffy and bright things go on in your books, reliving high-school memories, cuddling puppies, kittens and snuggle bears on a soft pillowy cloud against the backdrop of a rainbow maybe?? 🙂 For you historical fiction fans you get to be the historical figure and relive history. And finally, for you romance fans, you get to be romantic, you get to be the girl getting the guy, falling in love and living happily ever after, no tosser in tinfoil like in reality but a bona fide gallant Knight in shining armour.

But living vicariously through the character is perhaps at its most prevalent within fantasy as you get to do things and be people who you simply can’t in real-life.

You get to be Kings, Queens, Warriors, Mages, Assassins, Clerics, Knights, Mercenaries, Monster Hunters, Tyrants, Villains, Heroes and even the fifty shades of grey type Anti-hero.

Male or female, young or old who hasn’t at least once wanted to be the hero, heroine, bad guy, bad girl or anti-hero in a book??

You get to fight visceral battles, face-off against marauding hordes, armies, undead legions, fight monsters, save the maiden, deflower and take the maidens maidenhood, rescue the Princess or the Prince – we don;t discriminate! 😉 Save kingdoms, rule kingdoms, save the world, enact blood-soaked revenge on those who have wronged us and we also get to kill people – yeah, psycho killer alert but before you call the police I’ll explain, let’s face it, for example, Joffrey in GoT and Regal in the Farseer trilogy are both horrendously annoying vile twerps, if we met them in real-life obviously we would have to put up with them, we couldn’t legally do anything (apart from offer sarcastic vitriol and haughty derision to them, Joff, you don’t look much like your Dad, you know, you look an awful lot like your uncle, who looks very similar to your Mum, hhhmm…….seems to me like there’s been a little bit of keeping it in the family going on) but in a fantasy book we can happily imagine a myriad assortment of bountiful ways for them to get what they deserve, that also goes for any other annoying person we know……sorry, characters that we meet, it’s fantasy, anything goes and it’s tantamount to getting away with murder!

7. Anything Can Happen.

Simply put there are limitless possibilities, in a fantasy book there are no rules and no laws, nothing is governed or defined by that dreaded and vile word reality. The only thing limiting what is possible is the authors imagination. No explanations are needed for events, who cares if its implausible, it’s not reality, it’s fantasy and anything can happen!

8. It’s Awesome.

No philosophising, no gladiatorial battles to determine the outcome, no debating! No Ifs, No Buts, No Coconuts! Quite simply put fantasy is pure awesome!

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So there are my reasons to love fantasy, do you agree with them?? Disagree?? Have I missed any??

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