Old School

[danalwyn]

So, as may be surmised by previous posts, I have more books. One of them is a novel I've been thinking about buying for a while. It's got a setup I think of as almost cliche now, a group of men living in a corrupt empire are forced by different circumstances to become outlaws and flee their former lives. Endowed with magical powers and supernatural fighting skills they slowly make a name for themselves and eventually, through their skills, their trickery, and some plain old-fashioned good luck, make a name for themselves as heroes.

I'm having trouble describing it to other people. From the setting and summary alone I would normally refer to it as fantasy, but I'm not sure it really is. After all, if fantasy is old school if it pre-dates Tolkien, what do you call it when it pre-dates Shakespeare?