What is Adult Fantasy?

Slight change of plans. I was going to wait until next week to write this topic and post my inspirations today. But this has been on my mind. What is the definition of adult fantasy? Typically what you'll see when you google it is the horrible AI overview saying something about a variety of character ages, yadda yadda, so on and so forth. People on reddit will say it features adult characters. Okay fair. And others will say it has plotlines that on a philosophical nature (not just content, we're getting slightly warmer) are just more mature.

So let's talk about how Dragonsoul is adult fantasy, but how I choose to define it.

Be warned, this topic may get spicy.

As I've gone from teenager to a 20-something to now a mid-30s man who feels like he should have gone somewhere with his writing (but didn't, my own damn fault) sooner, I've also found my tastes evolving over time. There was a time when classic fantasy with elves, dwarves, and orcs were my favorite. Then I went through my sword and sorcery phase: Conan, Red Sonja, barbarians running around half-naked swinging battleaxes. I went through my Game of Thrones phase. Ultimately, it's led to me appreciating every kind of fantasy.

But something doesn't sit well with me.

Content warning: We are going to discuss topics that may be sensitive for some readers, particularly when it comes to types of mature content. You have been warned.

Lord of the Rings is one of the epics of all time. But whether you read those arduous tomes (and yes, I do not like the written Lord of the Rings, spending 50 pages reading about Hobbits was kind of tiresome, I bounced off the trilogy so hard in my youth I haven't made the attempt since) OR you watched the movies, there's something I noticed as I got older.

It's for the most part, a sausage fest. It's mostly dudes, and the few women include one who pines after her human lover and ultimately chooses him over immortality, an ancient sorceress who basically admits she'll be evil if she has the ring, and a woman who wants to fight alongside the men. They're all cool characters, but Lord of the Rings is very obviously written by a man influenced by his religious faith, and the times in which he wrote them.

They're very clean stories. Plenty of violence. And very sexless.

Let's swing over to A Song of Ice and Fire. I love this series. They helped me get through months at work when I would crack open a tome on my break working at Walmart. I'd read a Game of Thrones or a Clash of Kings and the other books in the series, and I wouldn't stop reading. But something bothered me there. Again, plenty of violence, but sex was portrayed in this series in a light that was not very... positive. A tool used for political gain. A weapon. There were matters of sexual assault in the series, and as a general rule it just felt gross.

I love grimdark.

But it's time for adult content to be more than just dark or edgy.

It's natural that when writing an epic medieval fantasy with dragons and knights that there'd be battle. And make no mistake, while there will be some epic moments, war on the grand scale will not be celebrated, even if it is featured.

When it comes to sexual content, I don't think the choices should be "don't feature it" or "make it a negative." Too often (outside of romantasy, but that's not a topic for today) sexual content that appears in regular fantasy is either a negative, or nonexistent. There might be tension between two romantic interests, and you may even get a brief fade to black. But very often when that kind of content is explored, it's very negative.

They say you should write what you want to read.

That's why Dragonsoul will be nuanced. Will there be characters who are willing to use their bodies for not so positive means? Sure, people can be horrible. There will be healthy relationships in this story that are explored, and yes, if you can have the dance of two people locked in battle with swords, you can have two people who love each other exploring each other. So long as it is relevant to the story.

So for Dragonsoul, adult fantasy for me, will be embracing content that is adult in nature - be it the philosophical or the content. This is not a series that I will write for children. This is for adults, for adults who want a hopeful story that is also not sanitized either. It won't be grimdark by any means, nor will it shy away from the imperfections of mankind. I'm a nobody at this stage of my writing career.

But like Dragonsoul, I have hope that one day when I am finished, this story can start a conversation about the kind of content we embrace, and why we should embrace it all, without always making it dark.