Browsing all articles tagged with fairy tales.
Once Upon A Time: Fairy Tales and Fantasy
Once upon a time… Just about anyone familiar with the Western literary canon knows that phrase. It opens familiar fairy tales we’ve grown up with, like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, along with more obscure ones, like Katie Crackernuts. It appears in modern fiction, too, albeit slightly translated. After all, what else could “A long time […]
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Spinning Silver is Naomi Novik’s second book that retells and elevates classic folklore and fairy tale elements, spinning and weaving them into something deeper, richer, and original. Spinning Silver isn’t a sequel to 2015’s Uprooted, but it could take place in a neighboring kingdom. It begins as a riff on the Rumpelstiltskin tale but ends […]
Over The Garden Wall – TV Series Review
“Leave if you wish, but remember: the beast haunts these woods, ever singing its mournful melody…” When I was young, I loved the fantasy section of the library. Not content with just the typical My Teacher Is A Werewolf! or Vampires in Space titles, I’d comb both the kids and adult sections alike for books […]
The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
Katherine Arden’s debut novel, The Bear and the Nightingale, was as charming and magical a debut novel as you could hope to find in 2016. Drawing comparisons to Neil Gaiman, Naomi Novik, and Robin Hobb, Arden’s debut became a bestseller, but more importantly, it marked the introduction of an incredible new voice, one that repackaged […]
Monthly Short Story Winner: Dragons
This month we decided to give you a treat. Something grand. Something terrifying. Creatures you complained about being not depicted as they should be. This month our entrants wrote about dragons! Absolve yourself and picture them as the menacing, intelligent, magical, godlike terrors they are. Or not. You never know what our writers are going […]
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
Recently, it seemed that no matter where I turned on the internet, someone was mentioning—and praising—Angela Carter. Maybe it was because of the recent biography, or maybe it was just the universe’s way of pointing me to a new writer and a crucial text I somehow hadn’t read yet. And after a little digging, I […]
New African Folklore Inspired Fantasy Snapped Up By Angry Robot Books
Some exciting news from the folk over at Angry Robot Books today! They’ve signed an author named Micah Yongo who has written a fantasy novel set in a world inspired by Africa. It’s called Lost Gods and is the story of a teenage assassin hunted by his own Brotherhood, as he seeks to uncover a […]
Lost Boy by Christina Henry – Cover Reveal & Extract!
If you’ve been keeping up with the recent retellings of Alice in Wonderland by Christina Henry, you will surely be excited to hear that she is set to release a new version of Peter Pan. For those who haven’t picked up Alice or its sequel The Red Queen yet, much of the story matches the […]
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
As a fantasy reader who makes his living in marketing and communications, I am perhaps more jaded than most when it comes to books that are compared to some of the greatest in the genre prior to their release date. How many times have we seen books touted as “the next Lord of the Rings,” […]
Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente
Simply put, I loved Six-Gun Snow White. Although many have adapted fairy tales across a variety of media, very few have done it this well. This isn’t a simple retelling or putting an old tale in new set dressing; Catherynne M. Valente transforms the story of Snow White and tells it beautifully, painfully well. She […]
Roses and Rot by Kat Howard
Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers. Please read with caution if you’ve yet to finish the book. This is the thing about fairy tales: You have to live through them, before you get to happily ever after. That ever after has to be earned, and not everyone makes it that far. There are stories […]
HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
“This is all it takes for people to plunge into insanity: one night alone with themselves and what they fear most.” Witches have a long history running through folklore, myth and fable, through the fairy tale and into modern fantasy and horror. As such they tap into a deep and primal well of our fears […]
