Black Butler I & II / Kuroshitsuji – Anime Review
Rebekah Loper
Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji) can be a somewhat confusing franchise for those new to the material. First, it was a manga, written and drawn by Yana Toboso. The manga was then…
fantasy
The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
Jonathan Thornton
“There’s never going to be an end to suffering if ‘he deserves it’ is all the justification people need for inflicting pain.” Ken Liu is known in the SFF community…
In The Mix: Fantasy and Other Genres
Leo Elijah Cristea
Fantasy is a genre that assimilates elements of other genres, whilst still remaining, for the most part, a genre not often thought of as having a great number of “crossovers”…
Fantastic and Forgotten Christmas Stories
Eric Christensen
The holidays are always a time for stories of magic and miracles. Whether the stories are told at a place of worship, at home in front of the fireplace, or…
The Thief Who Knocked On Sorrow’s Gate by Michael McClung
Richard Bray
When did I go from being a thief to some sort of hero? When exactly did that happen, and how could I possibly not have noticed? I was introduced to…
Elements of Fantasy: Brownies
Janie Bill
Hidden in the forgotten rooms of a house and in cluttered corners are little supernatural children who perform chores in exchange for food and treats. Even though they are personable…
The Shores of Spain by J. Kathleen Cheney
Jo Niederhoff
J. Kathleen Cheney’s trilogy about an alternate Portugal secretly populated by sereia (better known as sirens), selkies, and otter people comes to a conclusion in The Shores of Spain. The…
The Ciftci Case: Is Gollum Good or Evil?
Almost 80 years after Gollum appeared in The Hobbit, and 60 years after Frodo first suggests that it may have been better if Bilbo had killed Gollum when he first…
Unquenchable Fire by Rachel Pollack
“By its own reality, ecstasy makes people see that suffering is real. And without purpose. Ecstasy is a light that illuminates pain.” In Unquenchable Fire (1988), Rachel Pollack imagines an…
The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman
Lucy Hounsom
I loved Cogman’s first novel, which introduced us to the Library, a vast repository of books collected from multiple alternate worlds. Irene is one of its agents, posted to a…
In Defence of the Chosen One
Victoria Hooper
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…
The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher
Stephen Rhodes
The Aeronaut’s Windlass is the latest offering from the talented Jim Butcher. I have been a fan of Butcher’s work for a long time, as I’m sure many of you…