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Bartimaeus
trilogy point the way ahead for future fantasy novels. As long as reality does not 
regain balance, religious and ethical novels will continue to contribute a higher-than-average 
share of the genre than as in more peaceful times.
As already stated in the outline of the study, definitions are becoming elusive as the 
genre opens up for new
stimuli. Not only are styles and forms influenced by hybridity but also 
the target groups. In the course of the mixing and merging of the latter, age suggestions for 
fantasy novels may one day become superfluous. As we have seen, this new phenomenon is 
aptly labelled allalderslitteratur and describes the move towards only one big group of 
readers. One can claim that fantasy literature for children shows distinct tendencies for a 
possible fusion with adult fantasy literature.
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Time will tell whether this merging will be 
complete or remain partial. Given radical social changes, this development may be reversed. 
Yet at present, such an incident is unlikely. Should literature for children and literature for 
adults indeed fully merge one day, with the mutual consent of both children and adults, then 
the development will have come full circle; the difference being that this time the unity will 
not be due to ignorance, but to conviction.
We have seen that in current publications of fantasy novels for children traditional 
concepts underlie the structure, the elements of plot as well as the constellation of characters. 
Upon such stable foundations modern structures are erected; be it the splitting of one 
supernatural hero into two or three more natural main characters, the contemporary colouring 
by the implementation of topical issues and problems, but also of progress, above all the role 
of the new media. Contrary to the wide-spread prejudice of being out-of-touch, current British 
fantasy literature for children is up-to-date. The overall globalisation influences the modern 
fantasy heroes as well as the worlds they move in. As everything becomes interlinked, be it 
fairyland or hell, fantasy is moving away from micro- towards macrocosm. This widening of 
the horizon entails implications for the quest. Instead of being the difficult task for a single 
hero within a limited or even isolated world, the quest increasingly requires more 
responsibility. Through the splitting of one hero into several, the latter can be distributed onto 
more shoulders. What is more, there is much at stake. No longer an isolated part of a world is 
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Manlove emphasises the market-orientation of current publications of children’s fantasy. (p.181) Whereas it 
cannot be denied that authors observe market parameters by gearing the elements of their texts towards reader 
expectations, Manlove’s claim that children’s fantasy is a simplifying literature which does not reflect 
postmodern changes such as changing social realities or the plurality and interconnectedness of texts could be 
disproved in the present study. Compare Manlove, The Fantasy Literature of England, pp.181f., 184. 

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threatened, but everything; be it the entire world, planet or even universe. In this battle over 
everything or
nothing, special emphasis is given to ecological issues. 
A further current trend of British children’s fantasy novels must not be 
underestimated, either. On the tide of an increasing blending of forms and genres, hybrid 
forms
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will constitute a large share of the market until one or more new forms establish 
themselves. As much as experiments are needed in times of social as well as literary 
instability, in the end more stable forms will prevail again. In the wake of such a 
reconsolidation of matters, one or even more new forms of literary art may emerge. Just as the 
genre undergoes changes, so do its traditional definitions. The latter are disintegrating at 
present and will continue to remain vague until their future reconsolidation. Due to this 
current phase of transition, the preliminariness
of the introductory working definitions given 
at the beginning of this study was expressly stressed. In time one will have to reconsider the 
parameters for a definition of “British” itself; whether in decades to come “British” will then 
mean the multi-ethnic background, the geographical setting, the philosophy of life or 
something else. At first glance, this vagueness may seem a major drawback. However, it also 
offers new approaches and points of view adapted to the social, cultural and political needs 
and demands of generations to come. As we have seen, the current change with its 
innovations holds a large potential for the genre. Its opening towards external influences 
permits it to incorporate new elements and impressions, thus actively rejuvenating itself.
With English as the global language of communication and the media it is not 
surprising that English books dominate for instance the German market. Fantasy for children 
has always been very Britain-oriented, as many classics were written by English authors in the 
Golden Age of children’s literature and spread all over the world. An imbalance can be seen 
to emerge as the respective markets import English literature for children, yet the non-English 
exports into the English-speaking area
are rare. One of these exceptions of a non-English 
import into British children’s literature is the German author Funke, who, over the last few 
years, has established herself as a serious contributor to the fantasy genre. The Thief Lord and