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[callisto8413]

I understand this term was born only last year?  But I am kind of wondering.  I have been reading a lot of books that were said to be cozy fantasy.  Some are and some are not.  But I can't help but think that, surely, The Hobbit was cozy fantasy?  Or the Redwall books?  Or even Howl's Moving Castle?  Why has it become so popular and yet nobody seems to be able to pin it down.  Outside of Legends & Lattes.  Any thoughts?  IS there such a thing as Cozy fantasy or cozy sci-fi?  Has it been around forever or is it a new thing?

[Magmacube_tr]

Perhaps the term "cozy fantasy" is the only new thing here. Wish-fullfillment in storytelling has existed as long as storytelling itself has existed, so yeah. New words, old ideas.

[Frumple]

I'm... not sure how actually new that is, but it's immediately obvious it sprung up in relation to "cozy mystery", which is mystery fiction generally typified by being fairly low-intensity, non-suspense writing. Local flower arranging club solves (usually minor) crime type deals. Slice of life adjacent (or just slice of life outright), basically.

Hobbit, redwall, howl's -- none of that would count. There's all a great deal of peril going on there, and while they can have some cozy portions (redwall and basically everything related to food, ferex), they're very much typical high adventure fiction otherwise. You want lower to the ground, more chill stuff, not grand adventure or great quests.

The most recent thing I've read that's more or less dead on is probably Demon World Boba Shop, but there's piles of the stuff out there, these days, and it's very much not new. It's largely just another term for slice of life fantasy, and that's been fairly popular for... I'unno how long. Ever since the webnovel/light novel ecosystem sprung up at the latest.

[Nordlicht]

Never heard it before - but it made me google cozy sci-fi, because The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet had to be in this genre - and it really is. There is also the rise of popularity in cozy games. Maybe we are in a kind of Biedermeier-esque retreat into the cozy and cottage core phase

Urban fantasy, while being around for quite a long time now, also exploded in the last two years - given my local library now has its own section for it.

[Frumple]

Eh... I don't think there's some kind of retreat going on -- the stuff's getting more popular (or, well, more published), but it's still second/third/etc. fiddle to non-cozy stuff.

If I had to blame anything, it'd be the rise of easier and self publishing venues. I suspect pretty heavily the intrest was always there (cozy mystery exploded when people started actually printing the things, there's a good pile of christian/inspirational stuff that's been beating more or less the same drum for decades, it's been a fairly common inclination in fanfiction and self-published stuff basically forever, etc., etc., etc.), but the major publishing venues (no longer quite so intensely) driving the shape of the literary world (incorrectly) didn't think they'd sell. Even now, despite selling plenty well a lot of the cozy fiction is coming out of smaller publishers instead of big names, which suggests industry dysfunction more than lack of consumer intrest, heh.

There's several genres that have been kinda' flourishing lately that look a lot like they're following that kind of pattern, really.