728 posts tagged with fantasy.
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"There was some kind of entrapment lingering in the conversation"
"How to Bury a Gentile" is a "short vaguely historical vaguely spooky ghost story about Jews and burial rites". "There is absolutely something in the Talmud about this and I’ve just forgotten it, because I’m an idiot and I’m half asleep and there is a goy on my doorstep asking me to go out to the cemetery with him at midnight to bury a man whose name he won’t tell me." It's a bit sad and a bit funny and a bit sweet.
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make
Over six years after my previous post about it, author D. Aviva Rothschild has finally completed the second half of The Keys Stand Alone, sequel to With Strings Attached, the epic fantasy novel starring The Beatles - the whole series can be bought at Amazon or Lulu. (Previously, including links to free portions.) [more inside]
Exuberance and Irony: Recommendations are Open for the Otherwise Award
The Otherwise Award (formerly the Tiptree Award) celebrates science fiction, fantasy, and other forms of speculative narrative that expand and explore our understanding of gender. Recommendations are open for the 2024 award - the deadline is November 15. [more inside]
unusual small curses and powers
Two fantasy stories in which characters notice and respond to little spells. "That seemed like a… a manageable amount of divinity." Sarah Blackwell (Dyce) (previously) writes a fun short piece in which Jenna gets something that, deep down, she's always wanted. "The possibility of danger overrides my manners, and my hand shoots out to grab her wrist.... She notices too much, and she thinks too fast." In the suspenseful, romantic "Useful and Beautiful Things", available in text and audio, E. Saxey (previously) depicts an antiques specialist with a few secrets, and the intriguing books expert they can't get away from.
The Most Iconic Speculative Fiction Books of the 21st Century
Neither of these stories claims it's about a vampire
Two short fantasy stories, both published 2024, about taking care of family as & after they transform. Content notes on both, at top of the page. "The Wilding Year" by Jamie M. Boyd: "Erin resists the urge to ask the doctor what he changed into during his Wilding Year." Boyd says it "explores the messiness of parenthood and growing up, the loneliness and friendships we experience during those years, as well as the fear and anxiety that comes with change". "What Good Daughters Do" by Tia Tashiro: "I’m not expecting it when my mother eats the bus driver. My surprise comes mostly because I thought I’d gotten her under control." Tashiro asks: "What happens when the deterioration of your loved one is magnified by a disease as dangerous to others as it to themselves?"
"Books. Comedy. Tomfoolery. Miscellaneous other forms of chaos."
Generic Entertainment is the YouTube channel of Nathaniel Beardsley. He's best known for short genre-related comedy videos, like the Two Types series (fantasy worldbuilders, sci-fi worldbuilding, alt-history worldbuilding), making fun of specific fans (Dune fans, Wheel of Time fans, hard SF fans, Lord of the Rings fans) and one offs (If Contemporary Fiction Was Written Like Science Fiction, If Toxic Authors Made Video Essays, If Subatomic Particles Could Talk). But he also does indepth book reviews, such as Small Gods, Left Hand of Darkness, Pattern Recognition and Satyricon. But there are a lot more videos.
"And in fact, Ali’s proposal was itself quite unemotional."
"Something arcane is afoot at Queen’s College Cambridge! Possibly it’s the prestigious conference, with visitors from around the country. Or it could be the 450-year-old monarch, waiting in the dim chapel for someone to listen to her. A novella-length meander into Dark Academia." writes E. Saxey of their fantasy novella "On the English Approach to the Study of History", published last year. "I like the juxtaposition: on the top, petty academic squabbles and bad conference catering; underneath, ancient things, growing monstrous." [more inside]
Faerie scholars, magical government workers, and odd-ball couples
"The cozy fantasy genre encompasses a wide range of different types of fantasy books, but there’s a surprisingly high proportion of cozy historical fantasy books among them. Maybe this is because fantasy often draws on the past to imagine what a society more reliant on magic than technology might look like. But I’m particularly interested in the fantasy books that really lean into the historical elements, creating a true melding of historical fiction and fantasy. I want the fantasy books where the time period the story is set in isn’t incidental. Give me gaslamp fantasy and Edwardian fantasy and 1920s fantasy where cars run right alongside enchantments." [more inside]
A Short, Grim Fairy Tale Of A Comic
The Bird Daughters is a short comic by Madeline McGrane about an unusual royal family's relationship to their duties. Have you even read any weird fantasy today? Now you can rectify that! Be advised: some gore. [more inside]
“a show about types of literature and the worlds they imagine”
Shelved by Genre is a podcast [Apple link and RSS feed] where Cameron Kunzelman, Michael Lutz and Austin Walker discuss science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction books (and the occasional movie), in great detail. The first season was on Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun, the second on Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea Cycle, followed by a season on Junji Itō, and they have now started on Mercedes Lackey’s Last Herald-Mage trilogy. The hosts are fans, but also discuss the works critically.
the work of hands
Two short stories about yearning, beauty, and craft. "What Tempts Our Wives" by Sarah Horner (published this year): "My wife no longer washes her hands when she comes in from the garden." "Free Art" by Meg Elison (published this year): "Breathing deeply and moving past my annoyance, I opened up the Little Free Art Gallery. Inside, there was only one piece aside from the old ugly ashtray. In that same marble again, there he stood. David." (Meg Elison, previously.)
a nested tale of gifts and repair
"I guess we were both hungry for company, what with the physical distancing and all, because she lingered and I lingered too." "The Fake Birdhouses of Springville" by Amy Johnson, published March 2024, is a short, sweet piece of fantasy fiction that starts "on a warm summer day of 2020.... a third of the way through my route delivering supplies to the elderly and other pandemic-homebound for our local mutual aid society". Worm, a woman who's "always had an affinity for small creatures", finds her kindness unexpectedly repaid.
"Still, it gave her something useful to do."
Two short speculative stories in which characters deal with medical gatekeeping. “This Week in Clinical Dance: Urgent Care at the Hastings Center” by Lauren Ring (published June 2024): "Brigitte Cole presents with lower abdominal pain, nausea, and a long-sleeved black leotard." Bitter satire that "draws upon my own experiences as a disabled woman navigating the US healthcare system." "It’s in the Blood" by Susan Kaye Quinn (published July 2024): "Full disclosure. More than you’d get in a clinical trial, which this was, only the illegal kind." A rebel activist struggles with disability and with the promise she's created.
Galaxy Gals
The queen of suspense: how Ann Radcliffe inspired Dickens and Austen – then got written out of the canon - "She was all but forgotten. Now the 18th-century author's republished novels reveal why she made such an extraordinary contribution to literature." [more inside]
a hatchery, a smelter, a DJ, and hope
Before & after the end of the world: three speculative fiction stories. "The Day Comes" by Shih-Li Kow (2023, Heartlines Spec): "When I took on the job as the singular employee of Kertih Turtle Sanctuary, the Delphi Visionary Forecast prediction for the end of the world was at forty months." Just after: "And Sneer of Cold Command" by Premee Mohamed (2017, The Sockdolager): "After it was over, the city squares began to boast statues of our conquerors—hasty, ugly things cast in brittle bronze." Further after: "The Wedding of Hope Garrison and Chevrolet Dodge Ford" by R.W.W. Greene, in text and audio (2024, Metaphorosis): "Hank would have bet his fee that she hadn’t heard anything but live music her whole life..."
"Wicked, complex, systemic… a task for the Transformative Three."
Two speculative stories about the "nothing about us without us" nuances of international disaster relief and economic development work. From November 2023, by Cory Doctorow: "The Canadian Miracle". Reactor's summary: "A contentious election and radicalized locals interfere with Canadian recovery workers’ efforts at the site of a catastrophic flood in near-future Mississippi." (Audio: Part 1, 2.) And: July 2024, by Auke Pols, a researcher in responsible innovation and sustainable tech: the novelette "The Transformative Three and the Clean Cooking Revolution (grant no. 437-775)", in The Future Fire. [more inside]
WE'RE SO THORSBACK
Øyvind Thorsby, that creator of gloriously weird and weirdly glorious comics full of strange species, decidedly specific spells and gizmos, and lots and lots of farce (previously, previouslier), has begun his seventh comic, My Other Brain is an Idiot (front page currently shows the first of ten pages so far; navigate with the arrow icons). His sixth comic and an updated link to another of his projects are below. [more inside]
"I can feel the pinch. Something pointed that should be round."
Two very different short stories about romantic relationships and change. "The Manifesto" by Ilse Eskelsen, published in Lunch Ticket Summer/Fall 2024: "Elizabeth sucked her bottom lip. She sprinkled cheese over another pizza. Eventually, she asked, 'How do you make guys think you’re smart?'" A girl reads The Communist Manifesto to impress a boy; it works, at first. "Transmogrification" by R.M. Pérez-Padilla, fantasy, published in July 2024 in The Future Fire: "It speaks to how freaked out I am that I told her about it at all." A trans person starts to notice changes in how other people look, especially when they're transphobic. (Content note: transphobic language/behavior, bodyhorror.) Interview with the author and the illustrator.
three-part song as inheritance
"Still, she was enjoying the class, and it was probably why she’d dreamed of a Jvichoru song, even if she couldn’t figure out how her brain had produced it." "Maghda's Song" is a short fantasy story by Eleanor Glewwe, published in 2022 in Anathema: Spec from the Margins. Glewwe is a linguist and musician, and notes, "There is also a cat, if you need that in your life." I was born in the US to Indian immigrant parents (now dead) who spoke Kannada, which I only speak a tiny bit of myself, so the linguistic position Maghda's in felt familiar to me -- diasporic alienation both from the familial tongue, and from the dominant language(s) spoken by people in/from the family's home country. And this story made me cry with wish-fulfillment.
Labyrinths, a dragon, and rescues
A few short, brisk fantasy stories, published this year, involving peril and rescue. "The Dragon Shepherd" by George S. Walker, in Electric Spec: a young girl challenges complacent dragonslayers. "The Doomsday Book of Labyrinths" by LM Zaerr, in Uncharted Magazine: a tax assessor (who doesn't care to look too closely at his own emotions) needs to figure out why a scared kid is running a shop. "Labyrinths for Wayward Teens", also by Zaerr (and, like "Doomsday Book", ending abruptly), in Electric Spec: an exploited hero-for-hire, paid to rescue thrillseeking customers from magical escape rooms, faces (mostly gratuitous) danger when his own daughter gets trapped.
teachers who need to rest and recover
Two short fantasy stories about teaching and burnout. "This Mentor Lives" by J.R. Dawson & John Wiswell, published July 2024 in Haven Speculative: "We're not sure how your lungs are still working. You can't run around in this state. You're not 900 anymore." (Wiswell previously.) "By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars" by Premee Mohamed, published June 2024 in Strange Horizons: "She didn’t want another apprentice. She wanted peace and quiet." (Mohamed previously.)
new short stories by Kelly Robson and Marissa Lingen
Two short fantasy stories about journeys, meant to provide care, that go in unexpected directions. "Median" by Kelly Robson (published March 2024 in Reactor (formerly Tor.com)): a horror story in which "a professional caregiver’s commute takes an unsettling detour when car trouble forces her to pull over on the highway, where she begins receiving distressing phone calls from strangers…" (Via Jason Sanford who said it "left me completely unsettled.") And "A Pilgrimage to the God of High Places" by Marissa Lingen (published May 2024 in Beneath Ceaseless Skies): "When I had taken leave from the Archives to go on this pilgrimage, no one had expected that a pilgrimage to the god of high places would cure me. Friends expressed shock that I would even try."
time travel, soup, and a badly-kept secret
"Since when did Angelique Lancaster even look at this table, much less schlep over and sit at it?" A wish-fulfillment story fragment, inspired by the prompt "A loving, married couple wake up one day to find that they have returned to their high school days, when they were the most popular student and the class geek." Do mind the content notes at the start.
The Hugo Awards for 2024 and Worldcon site selection for 2026
2024's Hugo Award winners have been announced. Complete voting statistics and a report from the Hugo administrators are available as PDFs. The video of the award ceremony is currently online without a live feed, so the ceremony begins at around -01:52:00 and a short presentation by John Scalzi begins at -01:48:00. Also this weekend, Los Angeles was selected to be the site of Worldcon in 2026. Meanwhile, Glasgow 2024's programme guide is currently still online, showing some kinds of things that happen at Worldcon, while Seattle 2025 continues gathering panel suggestions.
"Vexation is uncommon, in a creature as old as I am."
"I have always considered myself a cut above the rest. Where they must rely on trickery, I achieve my goals through tact and intellect." [NSFW] June Martin's short fantasy story "Of a Devil, of a Deal" (self-published June 6, 2024 on her Patreon) is a Not Safe For Work fable (no graphics, only text) about a particularly hard-to-fulfill bargain. Can this devil elegantly grant a wish that intertwines two kinds of desire?
The Ring
A totally serious reading of erotica cannot sustain itself for long
In these novels, when white women’s sexual practices contravene bourgeois ideals, the characters are often re-racialized, described as non-white. So if Russia-themed erotica tends to be about sexual slavery and sexual freedom, then — as in the construction of race itself — it’s always in reference to others: other white women, middle eastern women, Black women. As a novel in this messy canon, Ariane is about all of these figures, about the history of racialization across the globe. Erotica is world history written onto the two hemispheres of a woman’s butt. from Ice queens, sex machines by Fiona Bell [The European Review of Books; ungated] [NSFW text]
“I want an actual creature"
When I first told friends about the latest turn my reading had taken, I got a lot of blank stares at first but soon fell into a delightful text exchange with a friend who has a Ph.D. and who also read Morning Glory Milking Farm. She sent me a link to Hermione Granger–Draco Malfoy fanfic that she said had taught her a lot about BDSM. I started to realize that, though many of us may be out here walking around with the latest literary fiction from Riverhead or Pantheon in our tote bags, our phones runneth over with stories of men with tails and two dicks. from Falling for a Minotaur [The Cut; ungated] [Text is probably NSFW] [more inside]
Basically the fetish equivalent of proclaiming “I love vanilla lattes”
Could my desire to be rag-dolled by a big, strong man be a symptom of some sort of patriarchal Disney brain virus contracted during childhood? Do I want to be romantically rescued by a man? Saved by love? Yeah, unfortunately. Like honestly, that sounds fucking great. Is that gross? Sure. Okay, let’s sit with that for a minute. It’s not like I want to be a trad wife or anything, but there’s a reason a bunch 20-something TikTokers are singing the virtues of baking all day. Life is hard. Jobs are hard. I could never give up my sense of self-worth for the trade-off of being a large adult dependent, but maybe that’s what the fantasy is really about — having a brief moment where someone else is responsible for me again. from Pick Me Up by Lauren Bans [The Cut; ungated] [via The Morning News]
For when "Crusader Kings" is a bit much
Sort the Court is a charmingly addictive "kingdombuilder" of sorts that's perfect for a lazy Saturday. Designed and written by Graeme Borland in just 72 hours for Ludum Dare 34, the game casts you as a new monarch who must judiciously grow your realm's wealth, population, and happiness with an eye toward joining the illustrious Council of Crowns... all by giving flat yes-or-no answers to an endless parade of requests from dozens of whimsical subjects. It's possible to lose, and the more common asks can get a bit repetitive, but with hundreds of scenarios and a number of longer-term storylines, the game can be won in an hour or two while remaining funny and fresh.
See the forum or the wiki for help, enjoy the original art of Amy "amymja" Gerardy and the soundtrack by Bogdan Rybak, or check out some other fantasy decisionmaking games in this vein: Borland's spiritual prequel A Crown of My Own - the somewhat darker card-based REIGNS - the more expansive and story-driven pixel drama Yes, Your Grace (reviews), which has a sequel due out this year
"half-remembered and half-created, neither real nor ideal"
Andrew was convinced the writer had been trans. By this point his friends were tired of hearing about it, but he had no one else to tell besides the internet, and he was too smart for that. That would be asking for it. B. Pladek's new short fantasy story "The Spindle of Necessity" (published in the May 20th, 2024 issue of Strange Horizons) is a captivating, closely-observed story of longing, literary connection, insecurity, queer community, and how we make use of the past. I think this will resonate with a lot of readers who wrestle with questions about representation and what used to be called #OwnVoices in fiction, and mixed feelings about art we love. [more inside]
It Is Known
What Game of Thrones means to today’s television-makers, 5 years after the finale - includes writers from Shogun, Wheel of Time, BSG (and DS9) and more.
"Animals speak their own language... it’s a lot simpler to figure out."
When I think of genre awards
10 Major Awards for Fantasy Literature (2018) hits the SFF high points. There is, however, a long list of contenders for awards of varying sizes (2019). Another perspective (2016), from around the time of the last major Hugos fracas. If you haven't heard of them, maybe check out the Ignyte Awards, the Lambda Literary Award for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror (or see the overall database of Lambda winners), or the Prix Jacques Brossard. For more information, visit the Science Fiction Awards Database. [more inside]
Finalists for the 59th Nebula Awards
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association has announced the finalists for the Nebula Awards. [more inside]
Here at the edge of things.
(The child has opened the book again)Evan Dahm just finished the first passage of his latest web comic, 3rd Voice. In his words: 3rd Voice is a long-format fantasy graphic novel updating with one scene or so a week. It concerns an invented world in a state of apocalyptic crisis, and the precarious lives of many people therein. [more inside]
INDISS: Hark. (Closing the book with one enormous hand, scattering the dried flowers) Look not too closely, girl.
CHILD: I want to hear the voice, Indiss!
INDISS: (holding the book) I’m sorry. It isn’t fair. But we live beyond the end of such things. In the shadow of a great catastrophe. Or within its bleaching light.
The Lost Universe: NASA's First TTRPG Adventure
The Lost Universe (science.nasa.gov, 03/04/2024): "A dark mystery has settled over the city of Aldastron on the rogue planet of Exlaris. Researchers dedicated to studying the cosmos have disappeared, and the Hubble Space Telescope has vanished from Earth's timeline. Only an ambitious crew of adventurers can uncover what was lost. Are you up to the challenge? This adventure is designed for a party of 4-7 level 7-10 characters and is easily adaptable for your preferred tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) system." Adventure design by Christina Mitchell. Graphic design by Michelle Belleville.
Ten there were, dusty chronicles of forgotten lore…
A genre of swords and soulmates
"Romantasy 'allows women to have it all', says Christina Clark-Brown, who shares book recommendations on the Instagram page ninas_nook. 'There is no damsel who needs saving but rather women are allowed to be powerful, go on epic quests, and find love with a partner who is an equal to them in every way.'" The Guardian has some exciting news for you [Archive] about romantasy. Is what's described, though, a never-before-seen phenomenon? (Of course not.) [more inside]
She wrote Lives of the Monster Dogs and then, silence.
Proof that the Hugo Awards were censored
The 2023 Hugo Awards: A Report on Censorship and Exclusion by Jason Sanford and Chris M. Barkley. The latter received from Diane Lacey copies of e-mails that were exchanged between her and Kat Jones and Dave McCarty, fellow volunteer administrators of the 2023 Hugo Awards at the Chengdu Worldcon, showing that the three of them made dossiers of Hugo Award nominees deemed to be potentially troubling to local business interests and authorities. Jones, the 2024 Hugo Administrator, has resigned from her position, after releasing a statement. Diane Lacey has apologized for her part. There have been many responses to these revelations, including by Cora Buhlert, Camestros Felapton and MeFi's Own John Scalzi.
30 of the best fantasy novels of all time
"Yet the value of returning to the fantasy genre in later life cannot be understated. Mystical novels filled with world-building brilliance at once allow us to explore both the trials and tribulations of otherworldly creatures and of very human characters with preternatural destinies. In both cases, nevertheless, magic and mystery boil down to very simple universal truths and lessons. Indeed, it was Lewis Carroll in his beloved Alice in Wonderland who wrote, “Everything’s got a moral, if only you can find it”." [more inside]
The British Library Fantasy Exhibition
The British Library is running an exhibition entitled Fantasy: Realms of the Imagination. Featured items include everything from Earthseaa drafts to Buffy clips to a playable Fallen London mini-game. The associated talks that are being streamed online look like something special, including Susanna Clarke and Alan Moore in conversation tomorrow (11 January at 19.30), and more yet to come, including Queer Fantasy, Black to the Future, and Goblin Market and Other Poems, among others.
Gordon lives again!!!
“A lone spaceship crash-lands on Mongo - - three humans on a mission of peace. An athlete, a traveler and a mad, desperate scientist. Alone against an empire.” - Flash Gordon returns in style with a new daily comic strip. Creator interview with Dan Schkade.
He saw a whole new genre to populate
Lester del Rey was a strange Minnesota farm kid with a wild imagination and a knack for business. He intuited that what millions wanted from a publishing industry urgently optimizing to keep up with capitalism was to escape the modern age into a world where capitalism and industry had never happened. There is magic in that. from The Man Who Invented Fantasy
Overstuffed and Increasingly Ornery
When you think about food too much, it becomes grotesque: meat in pools of its own juices, tangled spaghetti with clams like small scabs. I hadn’t felt hunger in weeks, but it was my obligation to eat. I felt heavy moving between kitchen and table as the guests got drunker and drunker, as they slumped in their seats but egged each other on to finish the crémeux. I watched Maria lowering a fat chunk of glistening steak into the dog’s mouth. The dog barely even registered the meat, just ate it dutifully. He was inured to it; every night he was pumped full of veal and velouté. Of course, the guests were also worried about the constant indulgence. They liked to look horrified as I brought out each new course, but really they were enthralled. They were paying for pleasure. They didn’t need to finish their plates or worry about what failing to do might signal to the kitchen. from La Dolce Vita
"I found it interesting and rewarding"
Jim Ray riffs on the satirical 2021 tweet about "Don't Create The Torment Nexus" with a short fiction story told as a thread on Mastodon starting: "Like seemingly everyone on this app I have plenty of opinions about the launch of The Torment Nexus, the opening of the Xthonic Gateway, and release of the arch-demon Tzaunh MAY HIS REIGN BE DARK AND ETERNAL, who has begun his foretold 10,000 years of suffering and torment. I figure now is a good time to open up a bit about my experience at the company." The skewerings in the 17 following posts call to my mind The Bug by Ellen Ullman or the Knives Out films. Ray noted, "The Call of PMthulu writes itself". [more inside]
A Mystery That Should Not Exist
Sarah Elizabeth, author of the upcoming book The Art of Fantasy, posted in May that she'd been searching for years for the name of the artist who painted the cover for the 1976 Dell Laurel Leaf edition of Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. Four months of dead ends from various internet sleuths later, the folks at WBUR's Endless Thread podcast have announced the mystery is solved and described how they did it. (Full transcript available at the link.)
“What did you mean, ‘Not again?’”
A new wrinkle on the old story of three wishes, set after the end of the world. "As Good As New", by Charlie Jane Anders, published on Tor.com in 2014. "The door to the panic room wouldn’t actually open when Marisol finally decided it had been a couple months since the last quake and it was time to go the hell out there. She had to kick the door a few dozen times, until she dislodged enough of the debris blocking it to stagger out into the wasteland." A short fantasy story with no villain, where two people work together to make stuff. It’s a hopeful story -- with creativity and love and working together and systematic thought, we can turn things around.