Tag Archives: fantasy

Elizabeth Bear’s All the Windwracked Stars

Take an event that we know from mythology, although it might have really happened. Let’s call it Ragnarok, just to give ourselves a point of reference, the final war when the Children of Light fought their brothers and sisters, the … Continue reading

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Storm Constantine’s Wraeththu

The Apocalypse has come. The world of humanity draws to its end, sometimes violently, but for the most part, in the words of the poet, “not with a bang, but a whimper”: In a northern city a mutant is born, … Continue reading

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Peter S. Beagle’s The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche and Other Odd Acquaintances

Peter S. Beagle lives and writes in a universe where anything can happen, and probably will. He is also one of those writers whose books should carry a warning label. However, I can’t tell you what the warning label should … Continue reading

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China Miéville’s The City & The City

China Miéville calls himself a writer of “weird fiction,” in the tradition of Lovecraft, and that works for me, since he seems to otherwise defy easy categorization. Dark contemporary fantasy/steampunk/mystery/horror is how I’ve described Perdido Street Station to friends in … Continue reading

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Kage Baker’s Dark Mondays

Most people know Kage Baker from her novels and stories of the Company, those wonderful folks who discovered time travel and put it to their own uses. Sadly to say, I only recently encountered the Company. Then her newest story … Continue reading

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Sam Raimi’s Oz the Great and Powerful

Creating a prequel to anything can be, as they say, fraught. Such an undertaking requires care, sensitivity to the original, and a thorough understanding of where this project is headed. Prequels by the creators of the original works are on … Continue reading

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Yuhki Kamatani and Kunihisa Sugishima’s Nabari

The anime series Nabari is based on the manga series Nabari no Ou by Yuhki Kamatani. It’s one of those series with a lot of comedy and very serious undertones. In broad outline, the story is rather simple: Rokujo Miharu … Continue reading

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Shawn Piller and Lee Rose’s Haven, Seasons 1-4

I should point out right off the bat that I don’t watch regular TV. Among other reasons, I’m a binge-watcher, and I can’t stand to wait a week for the next episode of anything – somehow, a single thirty- or … Continue reading

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Glen Cook’s An Empire Unacquainted with Defeat: A Chronicle of the Dread Empire

“Before the Instrumentalities of the Night, before the Black Company, there was the Dread Empire. . . .” So declares the jacket flap on this collection of Glen Cook’s short fiction, all set in the universe of Shinshan, Kavelin, Itaskia, … Continue reading

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Glen Cook’s Second Dread Empire Trilogy

Reap the East Wind An Ill Fate Marshalling A Path to Coldness of Heart Somehow, and I’m not sure how it happened, I managed not to read Glen Cook’s second Dread Empire Trilogy back in the day. I did read … Continue reading

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