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highly recommended

Dec
17

Some non-weird non-old books

in which I briefly suspend my vow to read only the strange and obscure
6 min read
Dec
09
Grainy photograph of an eerie stone sculpture sitting among leaf litter on the ground

Dark Flowers of the Pulp Age

reviewing every Clark Ashton Smith story, part 1
7 min read
Nov
24
book cover depicting a flimsy, bone-like castle in a cold and swampy land

The Women and the Warlords (1987)

the second half of a feminist epic
8 min read
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
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
Dec
11
Photo of the novel. Cover art features a man on a robotic fire-breathing horse being attacked by giant purple hands.

The Psychedelic Wizardry of Roger Zelazny’s "The Changing Land"

On bibliophilia, van art wizards, and integrity in fiction
7 min read