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: 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
Subgenre Study: Military Science Fiction
A fairly major subgenre of science fiction is military science fiction. I bet you can name at least one book or movie in this subgenre off the top of your head. Starship Troopers. Ender’s Game. The Forever War. Military SF,
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
Subgenre Study: Dystopia/Apocalyptic Fiction
This week on Subgenre Study, we will be looking at the seemingly-increasingly popular subgenre of Dystopia, or Apocalyptic Fiction. This is a subgenre of science fiction that takes place anywhere from the near to far future which portrays a bleak
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
