Fantasy

Blog Posts

The Disquieting Guest — Horror in/and Fantasy

/

A few weeks back, Shaun quipped to me that horror is “fantasy with scary bits.” Even further back, a discussion went around on Twitter as to whether horror and epic or high fantasy could coexist. A few remarks this week (which I will get to in due course) had me thinking about this issue again. As I’ve argued previously, horror is too polymorphous to be considered a genre — any attempt to define it as such winds up with exclusions and inclusions so remarkable as to invalidate the definition. For example:  an insistence that there must be an element of the supernatural excludes the likes of Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and so on. On the other hand, horror’s symbiotic/parasitic nature allows it

Blog Posts

Worldbuilding: Why It Ain’t So Easy

/

So, I appeared at an event at the San Marcos Library on Sunday where I’d been asked to give a talk about research. During the question and answer section, someone asked me why I would go to all the trouble of setting a fantasy in the real world? “Why do that when you can just make stuff up? That’s easier, after all. It’s a short cut!”  Yeah. Um. Not so much. First, writing isn’t easy, nor is making up stuff. Worldbuilding is hard work — very difficult, detailed work. If you’re not thinking about the worldbuilding aspects of your story that much, then what you’re doing is probably derivative, and that’s not good. It’s far easier to work with environments with which the reader is already familiar than it is to make up a foreign world and make it plausible. There are certain cues

Blog Posts

Geekomancer Under Glass: Beyond the Capes (Part Two)

/

Hello! This is S&F’s own Geekomancer, Mike Underwood, back again to talk about more comics outside the supers genre. Today, I’m going to talk about one classic and a couple of more recent up-and-coming comics. Hinterkind One of the new offerings from Vertigo following the departure of long-time executive editor Karen Berger, Hinterkind (Writer: Ian Edginton, Artist: Franceso Trifogli) is pitched as The Inverse Fables.  In this world, Faerie creatures have returned and overthrown humanity, who now live in small enclaves hidden away, like Angus and Prosper’s group, which has ironically holed up in Central Park. When their closest human neighbors in Albany

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

176. Sam Sykes at Worldcon (An Interview of Sorts)

/

http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode176SamSykesAtWorldcon/SandF%20–%20Episode%20176%20–%20Sam%20Sykes%20at%20Worldcon.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSGrimmy darky, monstrous spiders, and sexy Chewbaccas, oh my!  Sam Sykes joins Shaun and Jen at Worldcon to talk about the rigidity of fantasy, grimdark, bucking trends, conventions, his work, and much more! We hope you enjoy the episode! Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 176 — Download (MP3) Show Notes Sam’s Website Sam’s Twitter You can also support this podcast by signing up for a one month free trial at Audible.  Doing so helps us, gives you a change to try out Audible’s service, and brings joy to everyone. Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks!  Thanks for listening.  See you next week.

Blog Posts

MINING THE GENRE ASTEROID: Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson

/

Holger Carlsen is an Allied covert operative in the Low Countries, fighting the Nazis in World War II. After an accident, he finds himself in a fantasy version of Europe. The West is held by Humanity, the East is held by Faerie, and the two are locked in a cold war that is looking to run hot. Not his fight, though, right? Holger needs to get home and fight the Nazis.  But why did he wind up being transported to a spot where a horse suited for him, and battle armor customized to fit him just happened to be? Who is Holger Carlsen, really, and what is the meaning of his coat of arms? And can he survive in a world where a world war like the one he left may be in the wings, but with dragons and giants instead of bombers and tanks? Three Hearts and Three Lions is one of many of the classic novels of Poul Anderson. Lighter than some of his more Scandinavian fantasy (e.g. the excellent The Broken Sword), Three Hearts and Three Lions (1961) introduced a lot of ideas into fantasy and gave them form. The division of the fantasy world into Law and Chaos. Trolls and Giants, creatures not often seen in fantasy in this point,  take the stage. And Anderson’s trolls are far more indicative of what most people think of trolls than the Cockney rhyming trolls of Tolkien’s The Hobbit.  Oh and did I mention there is a shapeshifting druid (complete with animal companion), a magical sword of ancient power (Cortana!), and the fact that you probably could stat up Holger in this fantasy realm as a Paladin and be not far from the mark?

Blog Posts

This Katamari Feels Scientifashionable!

/

(That’s probably because you’ve rolled up some weird outfits!) It seems Fashion is on the old SFnal brain lately, and I enjoy a good sartorial debate as much as … well, as much as the average person, at least. Which is to say, not enough to follow Project Runway, but enough to relish a well-rounded and amusing critique of pageantry at least. And what can be more fun than the meeting of SF and couture? Angry Trousers: So, Tansy Rayner Roberts won best fan writer at the Hugo Awards this year, and it’s pretty much because she’s awesome. I love her blog because she’s intelligent and passionate about genre, and she posts things like this list of 25 awesome urban fantasies, AKA The Angry Trousers Treatise. I love the idea of women in angry trousers as a catch all term for a certain subset of urban fantasy. Even before I read the treatise, I

Scroll to Top