My vote- Dragons! Zombies are funny, and they will be around to amuse us, but the next big thing.... nay
When I was a teenager there wasn't much werewolf/vampire fantasy around and we didn't feel deprived, frankly. Maybe there will be less fantasy altogether soon, or something very different will be in fashion. Eco novels with mutants or differently evolved species, maybe?
I thought crime already outsold alternative reality by a big margin? In other words, something very different is already in fashion.
I wasn't going into other popular genres like crime because the OP was only asking what might be popular after werewolves and vampires, i.e. the question was specifically about fantasy. My point was that there was much less fantasy around 30 yrs ago, let alone fantasy of this type. Sorry if I didn't make this clear. YA fantasy novels then were mostly concerned with time travel, particularly to the past. Maybe readers will feel they've had an overdose of the Twilight-style stuff soon and fantasy novels will become completely different. A fantasy novel doesn't have to have the same old monsters, hobbits etc.
No, I'm not trying to be argumentative, but you raised the point that there might be less fantasy around, which introduces the question of what takes its place. And now introducing the subject of YA brings up the fact that there is probably an age differential. YA seems to be mainly fantasy, crime tends to be read mainly by older people. And when I was a YA, the dominant alternative reality genre was planetary exploration (which manned missions to Mars being on NASA's wish-list might reinvigorate). There's a theory that the balance between zombies and vampires depends on the US political situation. When the democrats are in the ascendant, vampire stories dominate (the democrat narrative thrives on the narrative of the blood-sucking rich). When the republicans are in the ascendant, zombie stories dominate (the republican narrative thrives on the narrative of mindless groupthink).
It would appear that recently all my little sister and her friends are talking about these days is steampunk.
Angels, absolutely. My best friend jumps on every paranormal romance bandwagon going and she's lapping up all the new YA angel books.
From what I've seen in my local book stores I'd say zombies or faeries look like the next big thing. Faeries should be damn good if done well.
I used several supernatural creatures in my book. It is a horror, so fantasy creatures are excluded. I think because of Supernatural (TV) phenomenon, some other less known supernatural creatures are getting more and more popular. These are: - ghouls - shapeshifters - all kinds of demons - Japanese creatures (headless demons, flying skeletons) - witches and so on
I don't know what is currently 'in' right now. I'm kind of out of the loop with current book trends and such. I'd like to see more written about Selkies, Mermaids, Sea Nymphs, and other mythical sea creatures become popular. But if not, then I'm all for Zombies, Artifical Intelligence, or even a freaky hybrid of both?
I'm not sure this counts, but I think post apocalypse is up and coming. It's got a ton of energy because of recent media like the resurgence of Fallout. The Road got movie and novel success. Zombies, like others have said, are usually under the pretext of post apocalypse. I'm guessing nuclear fallout gets a lot more novel love because of the North Korea and Iran paranoia.
Zombies are very cool again right now and I have a feeling that fantasy might get a rerun due to that Game of Thrones show that just came out. Everybody is pretty obsessed with it.
Zombie kill of the day. I prefer dragons, but in reality, people will love whatever the author can sell them on. We the writers provide the next sparkly bloodsucker or heroic mongrel. Write your best about the creature you love and the world will join your love too. Of course, if they can take off their shirt and have the girls swoon that might help too. Like I said I prefer dragons, but I have written about: Dragons,Necromancers, Dragons, Unicorns, dragons, Centaurs, Dragons, Dark elves, did I mention dragons?
I think it's getting popular to group different supernatural creatures together, like in circus freak shows or magical academies. I'm all for zombies, personally, because I'm not totally for monsters getting romanticized. When there starts being novels about humans falling in love with zombies, it's gone too far.
I'm writing a story with vampires but the main focus will be on demons. I prefer to refer to my story as a novel with vampires rather than a vampire novel.
