Fantasy Worldbuilding – Build a Guild
B. Pine
In worldbuilding, there are many pieces that are outlined and developed before being incorporated into the big picture. Maps are drawn, nations are sectioned out, and the culture and overall…
Articles
The Villain With A Thousand Faces – Part One: Cardboard Cut-Outs
Stephen Deas
About The Author: Her Holiness the Dragon Queen Zafir, Speaker of the Nine Realms, has played both pro- and antagonist roles in her career as a fictional character. She is…
There and Back Again: A Novice Con-Goer’s Tale
Lucy Hounsom
Prologue No, I don’t live in a hole in the ground, but I do live in Devon, which bears a remarkable resemblance to the green and sheltered Shire. But even…
An Exiguous Exploration of Exposition in Expansive Epics
Faith M. Boughan
Thousand-page fantasy novels… a ten-volume series… appendices of historical detail… characters who feel the need to blow hot wind across the pages of every third chapter… what do these have…
Medical Science reveals why Gollum & Smaug lost to Hobbits…
Overlord
So, this is a strange one! A paper appeared in this month’s Christmas edition of the Medical Journal of Australia with a theory as to why, in fantasy novels, the…
Worldbuilding A Religion – Part Three: How Religion Shapes Characters
Rebekah Loper
In Part Two, we learned how religion can affect society and culture as a whole. But you can’t have either of those things without the individual people who comprise them,…
MAGIC, MONSTERS AND MAYHEM
Edward Cox
Regular readers of Fantasy-Faction will remember the review of Edward Cox’s The Relic Guild we posted a few weeks back. We labelled it ‘a formidable debut from an author with…
Le Guin to be presented Lifetime Achievement Award
The National Book Foundation, presenter of the National Book Awards, will this year have Neil Gaiman present Ursula K. Le Guin their 27th lifetime achievement award, the Medal for Distinguished…
The Slow Regard Of Silent Things Preview
If you listened to our The Slow Regard of Silent Things interview with Patrick Rothfuss last month, you will remember that Pat spoke about his nervousness and excitement in narrating…
Building A World: Basic Concepts
Geoff Matthews
If you search this site you will find a variety of articles that encourage you to think about how you are going to build your stories fantasy world. You can…
Fantasy and Science Fiction in Anime and Manga – Part One: Historical and Epic Fantasy
Aleksander Cristea
Books, movies, video games are all widely known platforms for science fiction and fantasy. Anime and manga, on the converse, are a less known medium for the genre. Japanese mangaka—manga…
ELRIC GETS NEW COMIC ADAPTATION!
Elric of Melniboné, one of the original grey characters in fantasy, is all set for an epic new comic adaptation. The hugely popular novels, written by legendary fantasy author Michael…