To go in a slightly different direction, this week we’ll be looking at aspects of fantasy that tend to get flak from readers. Unlike science fiction, of course, fantasy doesn’t need to conform to modern-day scientific knowledge, but that can
Looking Again at Genre (A Rebuttal to Root Beer)
Early on in this blog’s life, I wrote a post about how genre is like root beer. Long story short, it seems like every story has some element that stuffs it into a genre, no matter what else is included
Too Many Books?
My husband and I will soon have a free shelf. You see, it’s currently occupied by a wooden ship model that I inherited from my grandfather, but the ship will soon be moving to a new room that has a
Why TPKs Suck
It’s Friday night D&D again, and we’re well on our way to all having our butts handed to us hardcore by some treants, which are essentially the D&D version of the Ents from LOTR. Our DM, a few sessions ago, decided he was annoyed
A Well of Inspiration
Every now and again, I feel a bit dried up, like I have squeezed every interesting idea from my head and that nothing more will come. I think we all feel that way sometimes, for whatever reason, whether we’ve pushed
Familiarity Breeds Like (and Eventually Hate)
You know when you hear a song on the radio and it’s not really amazing, but you listen to it anyway because it’s too much work to change the station? And as time goes on, you hear it more and
An Excuse to Learn
One of the best things about books is that you learn new things. This is true both whether you are reading them or writing them. New places, new cultures, new mythology…oh, it is grand. One of my favorite things about
Disconnect between Fantasy Books and Gaming?
To go along with Wednesday’s post, there seems to be a bit of disconnect between modern fantasy novels and stories and modern games. As we speak, I happen to be gathered around the dining room table playing a session of
Generational Fantasy
A friend recently loaned me a fantasy trilogy. (I am on the second book.) I started reading and was struck by how…80s…it read. I mean, this trilogy is from the 80s, but even if I hadn’t checked the publication date
Christmas: Fantasy?
Instead of our normal Friday subgenre study, I thought we’d take a look at Christmas stories and debate their genre. Christmas stories tend to involve angels, ghosts, flying reindeer, elves, and an immortal who has the power to visit every
