Fantasy Book Club – February 2013: The Black Company by Glen Cook
Lisa Taylor
February marks the first month of our new themed and subgenre based book club selections. Since we did a very different steampunk book for December and vampires in January, I…
classic SFF
Lost Worlds by Clark Ashton Smith
Nyki Blatchley
The golden age of pulp fantasy is often considered to be the years when the American magazine Weird Tales was being published (1923-1954) and particularly the decade when it was…
The Stealer of Souls by Michael Moorcock
Sword and Sorcery had its first heyday in the 1930s, with Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories and their successors – most more or less Conan clones, although C. L. Moore…
A Moratorium On The Monomyth
Ryan Howse
Of all genres, fantasy is generally closest to mining the heroic journey archetypes for its inspiration. For some authors, the intent is to uphold these ideals; others wish to subvert…
Vathek by William Beckford
During the course of the 18th century, two types of “exotic” fantasy fiction became fashionable. The “oriental” story was largely inspired by the Arabian Nights, gradually becoming available in western…
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Idlewilder
“Dear Diary, he began. On Friday I had a job, a fiancée, a home, and a life that made sense. (Well, as much as any life makes sense). Then I…
Shadow Castle by Marian Cockrell
Faith M. Boughan
Shadow Castle may be one of the best books of classic children’s fantasy that you’ve never heard of, but here’s a tip: If your mother reads fantasy, and has loved…
Witch World by Andre Norton
In a recent article, I observed that, although there isn’t complete gender equality in fantasy today, female fantasy authors are too usual to need any comment. Similarly, it’s hardly unusual…
A List of Egregious Omissions
Zachary A. Matzo
I consider myself to be a well-read human being. Sure, I’ve read a lot of books. More books than the average reader, I’d dare say. I’ve read most of The…
Perceval: The Story of the Grail by Chrétien de Troyes
So far, my series about fantasy classics has been mainly about 20th century works, occasionally straying back as far as the 19th. This time, however, I’m going right back to…
Phantastes by George MacDonald
It’s been widely argued (for example, by Lin Carter in Imaginary Worlds) that fantasy literature as we know it today began in the 1890s with William Morris’s romances, such as…
The Dying Earth by Jack Vance
Fantasy authors who want to get away from familiar contemporary or historical surroundings have various broad types of setting to choose from. They can create a fictional prehistory, as both…