Browsing all articles by Jacob Topp-Mugglestone.
Between Two Extremes: Magic in Modern Fantasy
Magic, by its very definition, is unexplainable – or is it? Today, that’s changed: and the magic of mystery – the Eye of Sauron, the R’hllor of Martin’s ASOIAF – is no longer the only player in the game. There’s a new extreme in magic systems, and it’s for magic with rules. So, has fantasy’s […]
Robin Hobb Spotlight
With her latest release – The Inheritance, a volume of short stories – Robin Hobb has definitely earned her place among secondary world fantasy’s most prolific authors. Although a pseudonym, Hobb has become one of the most distinctive voices in character-driven fantasy. So if you haven’t heard of her, this should serve as a brief […]
Return of the Novella: Ebooks and the Awkwardly Sized Novel
Novelettes and novellas are two categories that, together, encompass the gap of awkward sized stories – between 7500 and 70,000 words (according to SFWA). Many classics are included under these twin umbrellas, but I’d like you to ask yourself a question: when did you last read one? For most of us, that will entail some […]
An Overview of Malazan
There might be a subgenre of epic fantasy, but few readers would dispute that the Malazan novels are among the top even in this category. Not even considering merit, pure scale alone places the Malazan Book of the Fallen as one of the most epic fantasies today. And what is this scope? In the case […]
