Monthly Short Story Winner: Urban Fantasy
Xiagan
We haven’t had a genre as our monthly theme for quite a while, so this time entrants wrote us a nice, little urban fantasy story. This means that story should…
magic
Worlds Within Worlds – Part Three: Magic Warfare
Christopher Mahon
Fallout taught fans that war…war never changes. Military historians, however, argue otherwise. Case in point: the stirrup. Before firearms dominated the battlefield, it’s generally agreed that the stirrup was the…
Magic, Mutants, and Machines: The Nifty Bits Reviews
Daniel Potter
Are you tired of reading lengthy, critical reviews that leave you even more confused about what to read next? Daniel Potter’s Nifty Bits – brief summaries of his past month’s…
Is This Normal Around Here?
Aaron Miles
So you get home to your enchanted castle, hand your coat to the golem butler who waits by the door, tut sadly at Markus; the caretaker who’s trying to fill…
Potions, Alchemy, & Apothecaries: Inspirations from the Real World
Nicola Alter
A witch hunched over a bubbling cauldron; a reclusive alchemist searching for the secret to eternal life; a hooded figure procuring a poison from a shady apothecary… While these are…
Fantasy Medicine – Part One: Healthcare, Magical and Mundane
B. Pine
Fantasy, whether epic, high, or sword-and-sorcery, would not be very exciting if the characters were as susceptible to death and disability as we are in the real world. The truth…
New Models for Magicians
Eric Christensen
In many fantasy stories, magicians often follow one or two traditional models. Many are often portrayed as guides or teachers that assist the protagonist. Often this mentor is described as…
Expecto Patronum Named Best Harry Potter Spell
Overlord
What!? You didn’t know that it was Harry Potter Book Night last night? You didn’t make it to one of the 10,500+ parties scattered across the UK? Missed out on…
iPods in Narnia
Nicole Singer
Okay, so there weren’t iPods in Narnia…but there are in ancient Egypt. Sort of. If you read Rick Riordan’s Kane Chronicles. A lot of fantasy writers find it tricky to…
Five Favourite Wizards – Guest Blog by Stephen Aryan
Stephen Aryan
Battlemage is an epic fantasy story where overt magic is front and centre, with powerful men and women able to change the very course of the war that has swept…
Fantastical Biology – Part Eight: Fantasy Diseases
Shambralyn Baker
When creating a believable fantasy world, we often focus on things like politics, religion, culture; but there’s a tiny (microscopic, in fact) detail that can flesh out a story world…
Magic In Fantasy – Part Three: Ancient Magic
Leo Elijah Cristea
This is the third article in our Magic In Fantasy series. If you missed part one or two you can read them here: Part One: Introduction Part Two: Real Magic…