Historical fantasy

Celtic historical fantasy includes such works as Katharine Kerr's Deverry series, or Teresa Edgerton's Green Lion trilogy.

The separate folklore of Ireland, Wales, and Scotland has sometimes been used indiscriminately, sometimes with great effect, as in Paul Hazel's Finnbranch trilogy, Yearwood (1980), Undersea, (1982) and Winterking (1985);[10] other writers have distinguished between the three to use a single source.

[11] Notable works inspired by Irish mythology included James Stephens' The Crock of Gold (1912), Lord Dunsany's The Curse of the Wise Woman (1933), Flann O'Brien's humorous At Swim-Two-Birds (1939), Pat O'Shea's The Hounds of the Morrigan (1985) and novels by Peter Tremayne, Morgan Llywelyn and Gregory Frost.

[11] One influential retelling of this was the fantasy work of Evangeline Walton: The Island of the Mighty, The Children of Llyr, The Song of Rhiannon, and Prince of Annwn.

Richard Garnett (The Twilight of the Gods and Other Tales, 1888, revised 1903) and John Kendrick Bangs (Olympian Nights, 1902) used the Greek myths for satirical purposes.

[17] 20th-century writers who made extensive use of the subgenre included John Erksine, who continued the satirical tradition of classical fantasy in such works as The Private Life of Helen of Troy (1925) and Venus, the Lonely Goddess (1949).

[17] Guy Gavriel Kay who has made a career out of historical fantasy, set his two novels in The Sarantine Mosaic series in a parallel world heavily mirroring Justinian I's Byzantium.

Typically, gunpowder fantasy also includes elements of real-world technology such as steam power, telegraphy, and in some cases early telephones or combustion engines.

Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass is an example of a Fantasy steampunk novel, along with The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman and The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers.

Gunpowder fantasy is generally set in a world with technology roughly equivalent to Early modern Europe (16th through 18th centuries), particularly the latter era.

Notable examples of medieval fantasy games the Getty Museum has listed include the Legend of Zelda series (1986-) and Dungeons & Dragons (1974).

Prehistoric fantasy examples include the Earth's Children series by Jean M. Auel (1980-2011) and the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver.

The wǔxiá genre is a blend of the philosophy of xiá (俠, "honor code", "an ethical person", "a hero"), and China's long history in wǔshù ("kung fu" or "martial arts").