I am not sure if this is new, but the idea is it is a heroic fantasy that takes place in a primitive world where the hero is a Barbarian or an anthromorphic beast warrior who fights savages and monsters. It has something do with sword fights and claw fights. Also kind of like Sword and Sandels. What do you think?
Maybe he shouldn't be called a Barbarian then. Well if you first heard a fantasy subgenre called Sword and Claw, what would you think it is?
Other than the anthropomorphic beast part I don't think it's distinctive enough to establish itself as its own genre as we already have swords and sorcery which is as damn near as possible to what you have already described
@MilesTro You'd definitely be right to call Sword and Claw "a sub-genre of Sword + Sandal based on anthropomorphized-animal characters" as opposed to "a genre based on..." Do you have any story ideas yet that would use this?
I have an anthropomorphic story about a lone wolf warrior helping a cheetah priestress get her stolen sacred magic relic back from an evil gorilla warmonger. It is basically like a sword and sorcery with little magic.
It would be interesting to see someone possibly proclaim their genre as 'Sword & Claw'. I don't think fans of the genre would be opposed to it. It'll be easier for them to find books their interested in. What about His Dark Materials? It's not 'Sword & Sandal', but it's fantasy and I wonder if this would fall under your sub-genre.
Tailchaser Song is a fantasy novel wherein all characters are cats. It's not a sub-genre but I think it would be cool if there was a sub-genre of animal characters only. There's so much interesting stuff you can do with animals as MCs.
I don't think it's ever been popular enough of an element to warrant its own categorization. Who knows, maybe your book will change that.
If this genre idea only has anthropomorphic animal characters, it might be consider as an anthropomorphic fantasy story, or a furry story. But it is a gamble.
I've got one which is set in feudal Japan and focuses on anthropomorphic mice. (As in, not like NIMH, I mean human-sized and proportioned with tail and adorable face.)
I think they call it Fantasy. Metal has enough sub-genres to make up where others lack. (56 and that doesn't take into account the new ones that keep cropping up) Cited though it was the easiest to actually count them all up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_metal_genres
I think Sword and Claw would be too limiting a subgenre. Now a subgenre where animals or anthropomorphic animals/beasts could become a subgenre, but limiting it to also have to include swords would be a bit silly, in my opinion. I mean, there are those who like modern or futuristic urban-based anthropomorphic fantasy (think: Zootopia). What I'd love to see is a subgenre where at least one dragon is a central character (not every book with a dragon would be included in this; just ones with a central character dragon), or there at least be some easy way to find such books. Unfortunately, I don't think there's enough supply or demand for such a thing.
I'm reminded of the Redwall books. Sounds like you want to write Redwall for adults, except instead of mice and badgers they're large predators. In that regard, no, it's definitely not new. But there is a market for such things, so I say write it and worry about classification later.
I don't really think the species of your characters warrant a subgenre. Plenty of novels have the elements of swords and claws. Claws could be demons, beasts, aliens, mutants, avians, reptiles, or whatever. If you have magical elements too would it be Swords, Claws, & Sorcery? Swords, Axes, Bows, Spells, Cauldrons, Talons, Fangs, Pincers, Claws? No real need to narrow a single story into a subgenre when there are plenty of similar stories with slightly different components.
