Comments on: Developing Paranormal Classifications

By: Jessi

Jessi — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 01:25:05 +0000

Rather than focus on making sure a book is in the “right” category, it makes more sense to me to be able to categorize a book with multiple categories and have more flexibility in the search mechanism. If it is time travel and medieval – put it in both!

By: NBLibGirl

NBLibGirl — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 17:12:48 +0000

I think of Dream Man as romantic suspense. It also happens to have a character with psychic abilities. But I don’t think of it as a “paranormal romance”. Interesting . . .

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 22:30:08 +0000

In my suggested taxonomy, that would be a “mild paranormal”.

By: Sandlynn

Sandlynn — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 20:10:22 +0000

I was one of those readers who had trouble figuring out what was or was not a paranormal when I was trying to recommend books for the update of the special listings section. This also dovetailed with my participation in the reading challenge when I was trying to figure out what category the book I was reading actually fell into so that I knew it fit the challenge.

That being said, I’m still confused about stories which include normal people having prophetic dreams, paranormal experiences/psychic phenomena, premonitions, or who are psychic. I wouldn’t call these characters “not quite human.” For instance, the woman in Linda Howard’s Dream Man is perfectly human. She just has ” a gift,” ESP. What do we call this type of book?

By: NBLibGirl

NBLibGirl — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 05:00:48 +0000

Fluent In Fantasy by librarian Diana Trixier Herald defined urban fantasy in 2009 this way:
“Features tales combining the contemporary urban problems of ruanaways, drugs, crime and homelessness with the world of the fairie. . .” She put Holly Black, Emma Bull, Laurell K Hamilton’s Meredith Gentry (but not Anita Blake) in this category. (Interestingly, she classifies Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse, Kim Harrison’s Dead Witch series, along with Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files as “Mysterious Fantasy” . . . )

I agree with Mark that we’re sort of stuck with the label Urban Fantasy but you can see that it came from a body of work with a much more narrow set of circumstances.

By: NBLibGirl

NBLibGirl — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 04:46:08 +0000

By publishing and/or library classification tradition, a romance has a hero and a heroine, and an HEA.

Within the romance category, we have lots of subcategories. A romance combined with a mystery or thriller plot is romantic suspense – usually a contemporary setting but not always (see Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation series as an example of a historical that also contains a mystery.

Paranormal romance is just another way of saying romance + fantasy. Urban Fantasy is a subcategory of fantasy having to do with setting: a contemporary setting as opposed to the more medieval/naturalistic or woodland settings of “classic fantasy” described above by Louise. Urban fantasy may or may not include a romantic subplot or characters. Steampunk also refers to a specific setting (sort like Regencies are a particular type of historical): an alternate history of the early Industrial Age (when steam power gained prominence) – it can be located anywhere geographically – time period and technology of the time is what is important. Once again, there might or might not be a romantic focus or subplot, and it may or may not contain elements of a fantasy (magic, supernatural creatures). So Gail Carriger’s novels are Steampunk, fantasy and romances.

In the same way that an urban setting or Steampunk time period is a plot device, so is time travel. Time travel injects elements of fantasy in a story (just like magical characters do) but perhaps for AAR’s purposes, think of it as any other plot device just like “road trip” or “tortured hero”.

By: Louise

Louise — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 00:43:11 +0000

MD, I think that a few of these categories are ripe for crossovers. For example, the idea of a Steampunk – Paranormal, where the focus is the setting typical of a Steampunk, but there are paranormal creatures. In that case, the question is which is the defining factor in the story? I think with most of the Steampunks – by its very nature, the Steampunk setting takes the focus. Much like the Time Travel – Paranormal! Where the fish out of water plot theme is more the focus than the ghosts or vamps. Does that make sense?

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 00:24:49 +0000

A while ago I suggested a taxonomy for paranormal romances that could be applied in addition to the classifications suggested here. Look for it in the Genre labels topic on the AAR WWW message board.
I tend not to come back to blog threads after a day or two, so I suggest starting a message board thread on this topic to invite more discussion.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 00:23:55 +0000

The Carriger PP books are Paranormal Steampunk.

By: MD

MD — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 21:25:49 +0000

Hmm… If magic is not supposed to be in steampunk, are otherwordly creatures allowed? The Parasol Protectorate has werewolves and vampires all over, but they are clearly steampunk as well. Then there is “Kilts and Kracken” by Cindy Spencer Pape which has all the steam-powered technology setting, but magic as well. Where would they fit under this classification?