Oh, Order of the Phoenix, longest book of the series. Perhaps annoyingly so, because it’s the first book to break the mold of school-year specific plots. Harry spends about 75% of the book whining and yelling at everyone and at
Subgenre Study: High and Low Fantasy
Today we will be looking at High and Low Fantasy and the confusion surrounding the terminology. It has nothing to do with how good the stories are (Eragon, for example, is high fantasy but most would argue not high quality)
Subgenre Study: Off-world Fantasy
Most fantasy can be divided into either real-world or off-world fantasy (sometimes called second world fantasy). The distinction is obvious: real-world fantasy takes place in the “real world” (so most urban and contemporary fantasy, as well as things like historical
Harry Potter Re-read: Goblet of Fire
When I first read Goblet of Fire, I had to stop and read the graveyard part twice. You see, I’d read the first three books about a month before GoF was released, and they’d all followed a nice formula where
Whoops (and a Fairy Tale Anthology You Might Like)
Sooo. It’s Sept 19. And I know, weeks ago, that I said that today we would discuss Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire today, but it turns out that I am not actually capable of reading a 700-page book
Subgenre Study: Sword and Sorcery
GUYS I got to touch an ALPACA. Although it was fairly bad-tempered. I may let you see when I finish photoshopping twisty evil moustaches on the pictures. Anyway, on to the topic at hand. Sword and Sorcery is perhaps the
Subgenre Study: Fantasy Romance
This one’s a bit on the edge, Squiders. One could argue that this is a subgenre of romance rather than a subgenre of fantasy (and some argue that Romantic Fantasy is the proper name). You may be confused. A lot
Subgenre Study: Urban Fantasy
Urban fantasy is so pervasive these days that I mentally divide fantasy into urban fantasy and everything else. Like the other subgenres we’ve discussed, its definition is a bit fluid. Wikipedia says it doesn’t matter what time period the story is
Harry Potter Re-read: Chamber of Secrets
I’ve always subconsciously broken the HP series up into two sections – the first three books and the last four books. The first three read like Children’s books with a mystery that is, more or less, wrapped up in the
Subgenre Study: Dark Fantasy
Oh, dark fantasy. Supposedly my husband’s favorite subgenre. But like so many other speculative fiction subgenres, one that is very hard to stick to a definite definition. Dark fantasy, in my own personal opinion, is fantasy that strives to point