Dark Fantasy and what it is?

As some others have said, I would look at H.P. Lovecraft as the daddy of Dark Fantasy. It is about mood, but there are also creatures that help with that crushing dark feeling. I think the main thing is about having that feeling of dread and fear. There are often hits of hopelessness and horror in there, sometimes combined with a few flakes of grimdark.

Check out Gun Metal Gods. It is really good, self-pub and a self-professed Dark Fantasy. Really good intro into where the genre is going now. Several Steven Kings fit into the Dark Fantasy genre relatively well. Check out Prince of Thorns also. More grim dark, but still worth a look.

Hi Theodore.

Good stuff from everyone here. I'm quite a fan of H P Lovecraft. He started a world-come-universe filled with awful gods referred to as 'The Old Ones', though they were never called gods but did exert such powers.

Anyway, other writers also wrote stories/books/even series' within this world, especially Augut Derleth (Check out the clolour from outer space - way before its time).

Other writers have also had their 'worlds' copied or utilised, usually with permission. A good example is ISaac Asimov's I Robot series.

But to get back to the point, yes most certainly go and have a look through some books in your local library or book shop if either still exists near you.

Good luck and keep on doing. And please post an example up here.

PabloJ.

I think the "dark" in dark fantasy isn't so much about the creatures as about the atmosphere. You can surely use vampires and whatnot beings that balance on the border with horror, but you're just as free to have plain old magicians, dragons, fairies and dwarfs. As long as you make it less than perfect, as long as it's a in the kind of world that makes the reader go "holy, this is a place where I wouldn't last a moment, but so exciting to read about!" rather than "how beautiful and better than my own world, take me there now despite the troubles in it!", as long as you give it the sense of realism in how characters act and show a bit of a darker side to personalities as well, you're well on the territory of dark fantasy.

That's just my two cents~