Browsing all articles by Victoria Hooper.
Tiffany Aching – Discworld Series Review
Recently, we heard the news that Wee Free Men, the first in the Tiffany Aching series of Discworld books by Sir Terry Pratchett, is going to be brought to film by the Jim Henson Company and Narrativia, Sir Terry’s production company. A lot of people are very excited about this, because Tiffany is a firm […]
Warcraft – Movie Review
Based on the video game series by Blizzard and its tie-in novels, Warcraft (alternatively titled Warcraft: The Beginning) is a fantasy film directed by Duncan Jones, released in 2016. Azeroth, a once peaceful realm, now faces war as a race of warrior orcs invades, fleeing their own dying world. Fel magic sustains a portal that […]
Mash Up edited by Gardner Dozois
Mash Up is a short story anthology edited by Gardner Dozois, in which authors take famous first lines from literature and weave completely new stories from them, all with a sci-fi or fantasy theme, often going in very unexpected directions. The anthology was originally a partnership between Audible and the SFWA, with each story recorded […]
King’s Quest: A Knight to Remember – Video Game Review
King’s Quest is an episodic adventure game, heavy on story, featuring puzzles and challenges along the way. It’s a reimagining from developer The Odd Gentlemen (published under Sierra) of the original King’s Quest series created by Roberta Williams in the 80s. While most of the game’s content is designed to fit into the gaps and […]
Plot Holes and How to Fix Them
whWhatever kind of fantasy you’re writing, sooner or later you’re going to come up against the dreaded issue that can bring your whole book to a screeching halt. That is – the plot hole. So what can you do about it? Plot holes are tricky beasts and can come in many different forms. Mostly, when […]
A Guide to Banking in Fantasyland
This article may contain mild spoilers – though not what I would consider story-breaking spoilers – for The Folding Knife by K.J. Parker, Making Money by Terry Pratchett and Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. These are tough times, and everyone needs a little help with the big decisions. Not sure which bank to choose? […]
In Defence of the Chosen One
One of fantasy’s most commonly mocked tropes is the chosen one. This makes sense; it’s also one of fantasy’s most recurring tropes, and there are a lot of very good reasons why it can feel like a clichéd or even lazy feature. However, I don’t think the chosen one narrative is always negative; in fact, […]
Genre of the Impossible
For a while now there has been an emphasis on realism in our fantasy, which has created some exciting new stories and series, including some personal favourites. However, as the trend for ever more ‘real’ fantasy grows stronger, I hope there will always be a place for the impossible and the mysterious in our genre. […]
Thinking About Food In Fantasy
Food is an essential part of life, but it’s also so much more than just sustenance – food is power and politics, culture and setting, pleasure and identity. Food will give readers clues about the society and era they are reading about, and food can draw them closer to the characters, too. Food is a […]
Top Ten Fictional Pirates
Avast, matey! Talk Like a Pirate Day be coming up, so pull up a barrel and help yerself to some grog as I be running through a list of my favourite fictional pirates! Pirates are characters that lend themselves to a fantasy setting really well. Even those pirate tales that couldn’t strictly be called fantasy […]
Fantasy Influences: Ancient Greek Mythology – Part One
When we think of typical fantasy, we tend to imagine a setting influenced by western medieval ideas, complete with knights, horses, longswords and dragons. However, there are much deeper, older roots to the magic, monsters, tropes and archetypes that dominate the fantasy genre. Classical, Celtic, and Norse mythology, among others, have all had a huge […]
The Romance of Fantasy
Romance isn’t a word that we usually think of as being inseparable from fantasy; some people enjoy love stories with their fantasy and others vehemently object to them. But romance is not simply about love as it is represented in the modern romance genre. Look up romance in the dictionary and you will find a […]
