Glen Cook’s The Black Company could be said to be one of the earliest works of Grimdark Fantasy (high fantasy with bleak, amoral, often criminal worlds and characters). Several works of Dark Fantasy also came out in the 80s, often as the result of horror authors such as Stephen King writing fantasy-horror blends. Bull’s War for the Oaks, set in real-world Minneapolis with supernatural characters, is one of the first novels in the sub-genre. It provided a platform for contributors like Charles de Lint and Emma Bull. Terri Windling’s Borderland series – a collection of young adult stories set in the Borderland universe – is one of the earliest examples. This decade also saw the beginnings of Urban Fantasy, sometimes also referred to as Contemporary or Paranormal Fantasy. Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, while Comic Science Fiction, likely also helped boost the popularity of humorous fantasy in the 80s. Other series, such as Terry Brooks’s Magic Kingdom of Landover and various works by Dianna Wynne Jones, also had a humorous tone. The first eight novels in Terry Pratchett’s much loved Discworld series were published, and Piers Anthony continued to release books in his Xanth series. While there are scattered examples from earlier decades, it was in the 80s that Comic Fantasy truly took off. The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn), Tad Williams, 1988 Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Castle), Diana Wynne Jones, 1986 The Black Company (The Black Company), Glen Cook, 1984 The Colour of Magic (Discworld), Terry Pratchett, 1983

The Mists of Avalon (Avalon), Marion Zimmer Bradley, 1983Īlanna: The First Adventure (The Song of the Lioness), Tamora Pierce, 1983 The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower), Stephen King, 1982 Pawn of Prophecy (Belgariad), David Eddings, 1982

Alanna the lioness series