The Dying Earth subgenre is very similar to the apocalyptic fiction subgenre we explored earlier. The key difference between the two is that apocalyptic fiction tends to deal with some major catastrophe that is threatening all life, whereas in Dying
My Nanowrimo Challenge
I’ve been swept up in this November insanity for a long time now. This is my ninth year participating. When I first started, I was a junior in college, double majoring in two different engineering degrees, and I would fit
Harry Potter Re-read: Half-Blood Prince
Happy Halloween, Squiders! If we look at the entire Harry Potter series as a whole, where Order of the Phoenix is the Dark Moment and Deathly Hallows is the climax, then Half-Blood Prince is the lead-up. Sure, it has some
Subgenre Study: Superhero Fiction
Up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…well, it’s a Sky Shark, but we will ignore it for the time being and pretend it’s Superman to go along with today’s entry. Superhero fiction is somewhat unique among
Subgenre Study: Fairy Tale Fantasy
Once upon a time, there was a writer who wrote a writing/reading/scifi/fantasy blog, and she and her pet Landsquid and the Landsquid’s nemesis the Alpaca all decided to go to a coffee shop to get some peppermint mochas. All seemed
Harry Potter Re-read: Order of the Phoenix
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)
Hooray, October!
It’s October, Squiders! Best month of the year. Bold claim, I know, but how can you resist? The leaves are turning on the trees, the heat of summer is burning off, and then there’s Halloween and my birthday and Nano-planning,
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
