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fantasy

Oct
14
book cover depicting a dragon perched on a crumbling stone arch that overlooks a distant city.

The Wordsmiths and the Warguild (1987)

teenage fantasy protagonist but make him act like an actual teenage boy
7 min read
Aug
02
book cover depicting a silver needle-shaped spaceship on a verdant alien landscape

Paradise and Hell: “The Gardens of Delight” by Ian Watson

with some thoughts on the value of modesty in fiction
6 min read
Apr
09
Title page of a very old book with a stamped image of a fish coiling around an anchor.

Phantasmion: The First Fantasy Novel

Love and grief at the dawn of fantasy literature
7 min read
Mar
25
Cover depicting an Aboriginal figure reaching from the sky to a white silhouette or shadow on a desert landscape

Rage and Revenge in Aboriginal Australia’s First Fantasy Novel

"The Kadaitcha Sung" asks whether the crimes of colonisation can ever be set right
11 min read
Jan
29
an old map of the North Sea depicting both real and fictional islands

The First Secondary World

independent fictional worlds were invented more recently than the steam train
13 min read
Nov
04
A man in medieval clothes clutches a bloody blade. Behind him is a pile of skulls and an emerald serpent.

Go Directly To Hell: Michael Shea’s “Nifft the Lean”

A face-melting feast
8 min read
Aug
14
Book cover featuring a fantasy castle, a river of lava and mushroom-shaped mountains

"The Wizards and the Warriors": A Lost Treasure of 80s Fantasy

At first glance, Hugh Cook’s The Wizards and the Warriors (1986) presents a very unpromising prospect. There is the
8 min read
Jun
17
Cover depicting a crying blue-skinned woman in front of a celestial door in front of an exploding planet

Eden Among the Stars: Pauline Gedge’s “Stargate”

An obscure science-fantasy explores the bounds of Tolkien's legacy
9 min read
Apr
16
Book cover depicting a trollish figure, white rats, and a ring hanging from a string

Liminal Labyrinth

Magic and modernity in Margaret St. Clair's "Sign of the Labrys"
10 min read
Jan
16
Book cover featuring a chess board in front of a fantasy-looking lake and mountains

Chess, Sex and Death: Ian Watson's "Queenmagic, Kingmagic"

On sacrificial kings and cold wars
8 min read