Chat Between Chapters: is Fantasy worth Reading?

For this discussion post, we are joining the Fantasy With Friends discussion with Pages Unbound.

This week’s prompt:

Some people argue that fantasy isn’t worth reading because it’s not about real things. What’s your response?

 Julie:

Those people can go eff all the way off! Because here’s the thing: fantasy is a wonderful escape from the real world while still exploring real-world problems!

Fantasy stories merge imagination with pain, suffering, oppression, and also love, joy, and self-discovery.

Fantasy gives us a thought experiment for situations we may never see in our lives, but get to explore through the characters on the page, feeling everything they feel and building new neural pathways in our brains. Reading helps us become better humans.  Reading fantasy does the same!

Lynn:

Hah! Yeah – I agree with Julie. I’m looking to escape reality by any means.

Am I likely to survive the adventures in a fantasy novel? No. Probably not. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to live vicariously through a character’s actions. Maybe I’d be really good at sword fighting? We don’t know.

There is a lot of allegory in fantasy. Like fighting the oppressors, be it vampire, fae, or governments. Or saving the universe with your special skills.

The characters in fantasy books give us teams to root for, found families that support each other, and villains we love to hate. Which, to be honest, is a lot more interesting that dealing with coworkers.

Why would we want to deal with reality when we can escape it?

What about you?

We are also linking up our discussion posts with the 2026 Book Blog Discussion Challenge hosted by Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight and co-hosted by us!