Download or read book A Short History of Fantasy written by Farah Mendlesohn and published by Libri Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2012-06-27 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some of the earliest books ever written, including The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Odyssey, deal with monsters, marvels, extraordinary voyages, and magic, and this genre, known as fantasy, remained an essential part of European literature through the rise of the modern realist novel. Tracing the history of fantasy from the earliest years through to the origins of modern fantasy in the 20th century, this account discusses contributions decade by decade--from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy and Lewis's Narnia books in the 1950s to J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. It also discusses and explains fantasy's continuing and growing popularity.
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature written by Edward James and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-26 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fantasy is a creation of the Enlightenment, and the recognition that excitement and wonder can be found in imagining impossible things. From the ghost stories of the Gothic to the zombies and vampires of twenty-first-century popular literature, from Mrs Radcliffe to Ms Rowling, the fantastic has been popular with readers. Since Tolkien and his many imitators, however, it has become a major publishing phenomenon. In this volume, critics and authors of fantasy look at its history since the Enlightenment, introduce readers to some of the different codes for the reading and understanding of fantasy, and examine some of the many varieties and subgenres of fantasy; from magical realism at the more literary end of the genre, to paranormal romance at the more popular end. The book is edited by the same pair who produced The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction (winner of a Hugo Award in 2005).
Download or read book The Secret History of Fantasy written by Peter S. Beagle and published by Tachyon Publications. This book was released on 2010 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tired of the same old fantasy? Here are nineteen much-needed antidotes to clichâed tales of swords and sorcery. Fantasy is back, and it's better than ever!
Download or read book The Book of Fantasy written by Jorge Luis Borges and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Rhetorics of Fantasy written by Farah Mendlesohn and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2014-01-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This sweeping study of fantasy literature offers “new and often surprising readings of works both familiar and obscure. A fine critical work” (Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts). Transcending arguments over the definition of fantasy literature, Rhetorics of Fantasy introduces a provocative new system of classification for the genre. Drawing on nearly two hundred examples of modern fantasy, author Farah Mendlesohn identifies four categories—portal-quest, immersive, intrusion, and liminal—that arise out of the relationship of the protagonist to the fantasy world. Using these sets, Mendlesohn argues that the author's stylistic decisions are then shaped by the inescapably political demands of the category in which they choose to write. Each chapter covers at least twenty books in detail, ranging from nineteenth-century fantasy and horror to some of the best works in the contemporary field. Mendlesohn discusses works by more than one hundred authors, including Lloyd Alexander, Peter Beagle, Marion Zimmer Bradley, John Crowley, Stephen R. Donaldson, Stephen King, C. S. Lewis, Gregory Maguire, Robin McKinley, China Miéville, Suniti Namjoshi, Philip Pullman, J. K. Rowling, Sheri S. Tepper, J. R. R. Tolkien, Tad Williams, and many others.
Download or read book The Keys to the Kingdom written by Jeff Shear and published by Doubleday Books. This book was released on 1994 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the giving away of American aerospace technology to Japan.
Download or read book Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers written by L. Sprague deCamp and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2014-06-30 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stories contained in this book: The Swords of Faerie Jack of all Arts: William Morris Two Men in One: Lord Dunsany Eldritch Yankee Gentleman: H. P. Lovecraft Superman in a Bowler: E. R. Eddison The Miscast Barbarian: Robert E. Howard Parallel Worlds: Fletcher Pratt Sierran Shaman: Clark Ashton Smith Merlin in Tweeds: J. R. R. Tolkien The Architect of Camelot: T. H. White Conan's Compeers
Download or read book The A to Z of Fantasy Literature written by Brian Stableford and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2009-08-13 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once upon a time all literature was fantasy, set in a mythical past when magic existed, animals talked, and the gods took an active hand in earthly affairs. As the mythical past was displaced in Western estimation by the historical past and novelists became increasingly preoccupied with the present, fantasy was temporarily marginalized until the late 20th century, when it enjoyed a spectacular resurgence in every stratum of the literary marketplace. Stableford provides an invaluable guide to this sequence of events and to the current state of the field. The chronology tracks the evolution of fantasy from the origins of literature to the 21st century. The introduction explains the nature of the impulses creating and shaping fantasy literature, the problems of its definition and the reasons for its changing historical fortunes. The dictionary includes cross-referenced entries on more than 700 authors, ranging across the entire historical spectrum, while more than 200 other entries describe the fantasy subgenres, key images in fantasy literature, technical terms used in fantasy criticism, and the intimately convoluted relationship between literary fantasies, scholarly fantasies, and lifestyle fantasies. The book concludes with an extensive bibliography that ranges from general textbooks and specialized accounts of the history and scholarship of fantasy literature, through bibliographies and accounts of the fantasy literature of different nations, to individual author studies and useful websites.
Download or read book Write Your Own Fantasy Story written by and published by Capstone. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explains how to create fantasy fiction, from crafting believable characters to creating intense plots, with examples from successful fantasy books.
Download or read book Mogworld written by Yahtzee Croshaw and published by Dark Horse Comics. This book was released on 2018-05-29 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a world full to bursting with would-be heroes, Jim couldn't be less interested in saving the day. His fireballs fizzle. He's awfully grumpy. Plus, he's been dead for about sixty years. When a renegade necromancer wrenches him from eternal slumber and into a world gone terribly, bizarrely wrong, all Jim wants is to find a way to die properly, once and for all. On his side, he's got a few shambling corpses, an inept thief, and a powerful death wish. But he's up against tough odds: angry mobs of adventurers, a body falling apart at the seams — and a team of programmers racing a deadline to hammer out the last few bugs in their AI. *Mogworld is the debut novel from video-game icon Yahtzee Croshaw (Zero Punctuation)! With an exclusive one-chapter preview of Yahtzee Croshaw's next novel, Jam—coming to bookstores in October 2012! *Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's video review site, Zero Punctuation, receives over 2,500,000 unique hits a month, and has been licensed by G4 Television. *Yahtzee's blog receives about 150,000 hits per day. "The first legitimate breakout hit from the gaming community in recent memory." -Boing Boing
Download or read book The Space Between Worlds written by Micaiah Johnson and published by Del Rey. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • An outsider who can travel between worlds discovers a secret that threatens the very fabric of the multiverse in this stunning debut, a powerful examination of identity, privilege, and belonging. WINNER OF THE COMPTON CROOK AWARD • FINALIST FOR THE LOCUS AWARD • “Gorgeous writing, mind-bending world-building, razor-sharp social commentary, and a main character who demands your attention—and your allegiance.”—Rob Hart, author of The Warehouse ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—NPR, Library Journal, Book Riot Multiverse travel is finally possible, but there’s just one catch: No one can visit a world where their counterpart is still alive. Enter Cara, whose parallel selves happen to be exceptionally good at dying—from disease, turf wars, or vendettas they couldn’t outrun. Cara’s life has been cut short on 372 worlds in total. On this dystopian Earth, however, Cara has survived. Identified as an outlier and therefore a perfect candidate for multiverse travel, Cara is plucked from the dirt of the wastelands. Now what once made her marginalized has finally become an unexpected source of power. She has a nice apartment on the lower levels of the wealthy and walled-off Wiley City. She works—and shamelessly flirts—with her enticing yet aloof handler, Dell, as the two women collect off-world data for the Eldridge Institute. She even occasionally leaves the city to visit her family in the wastes, though she struggles to feel at home in either place. So long as she can keep her head down and avoid trouble, Cara is on a sure path to citizenship and security. But trouble finds Cara when one of her eight remaining doppelgängers dies under mysterious circumstances, plunging her into a new world with an old secret. What she discovers will connect her past and her future in ways she could have never imagined—and reveal her own role in a plot that endangers not just her world but the entire multiverse. “Clever characters, surprise twists, plenty of action, and a plot that highlights social and racial inequities in astute prose.”—Library Journal (starred review)
Download or read book The Glass Magician written by Caroline Stevermer and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reminiscent of The Golem and the Jinni, The Glass Magician by Caroline Stevermer is a magical and romantic tale set in New York’s Gilded Age. New York 1905—The Vanderbilts. The Astors. The Morgans. They are the cream of society—and they own the nation on the cusp of a new century. Thalia Cutler doesn’t have any of those family connections. What she does know is stage magic and she dazzles audiences with an act that takes your breath away. That is, until one night when a trick goes horribly awry. In surviving she discovers that she can shapeshift, and has the potential to take her place among the rich and powerful. But first, she’ll have to learn to control that power...before the real monsters descend to feast. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Download or read book The Eye of Argon written by Jim Theis and published by . This book was released on 2021-04-30 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is not a hoax. Jim Theis was a real person, who wrote The Eye of Argon in all seriousness as a teenager, and published it in a fanzine, Osfan in 1970. But the story did not pass into the oblivion that awaits most amateur fiction. Instead, a miracle happened, and transcribed and photocopied texts began to circulate in science fiction circles, gaining a wide and incredulous audience among both professionals and fans. It became the ultimate samizdat, an underground classic, and for more than thirty years it has been the subject of midnight readings at conventions, as thousands have come to appreciate the negative genius of this amazing Ed Wood of prose.
Download or read book The Routledge Concise History of Science Fiction written by Mark Bould and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2011-02-23 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Concise History of Science Fiction provides students with an accessible overview of the genre that explores how it emerged through competing, multifarious versions and the struggle to define its limits. Discussing the place of key works and looking forward to the future of the genre, this book is the ideal starting point for students and all those seeking a better understanding of science fiction.
Download or read book Year s Best Fantasy 2 written by David G. Hartwell and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Undreamed-Of Wonders From The Farthest Reaches Of Imagination In this second volume of the previous year's finest short fantastic fiction, acclaimed editor and anthologist David G. Hartwell showcases new works by stellar literary artists -- acknowledged masters of the genre and exceptionally talented newcomers alike. Astonishing worlds come alive in these pages -- realms of strange creatures and remarkable sorceries, as well as twisted shadow versions of our inhabited earthly plain. A bold and breathtaking compendium of tales -- including a new Earthsea story from the incomparable Ursula K. Le Guin -- Years's Best Fantasy 2 is the state-of-the-art of a unique and winning genre, offering unforgettable excursions into new realities wondrous, bizarre, enchanting...and terrifying.
Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Fantasy Literature written by Brian M. Stableford and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This Historical Dictionary of Fantasy Literature provides an invaluable guide to the current state of the field. The chronology tracks fantasy's evolution from the origins of literature until the 21st century. The introduction explains the nature of the impulse to create and shape fantasy literature, the problems in defining what it is, and the reasons for its changing historical fortunes. The dictionary includes more than 700 entries on authors, both contemporary and historical, and more than 200 entries on fantasy subgenres, key images in fantasy literature, technical terms used in fantasy criticism, and the intimately convoluted relationship between literary fantasies, scholarly fantasies, and lifestyle fantasies.
Download or read book Fantasy written by Adam C. Roberts and published by Bloomsbury Academic. This book was released on 2025-04-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most popular genres of modern times, fantasy literature has as rich a cultural and literary heritage as the magical worlds that so enrapture its readers. In this book, a concise history of the genre, Adam Roberts traces the central forms and influences on fantasy through the centuries to arrive at our understanding of the fantastic today. Pinning the evolution of fantasy on three key moments - the 19th-century resurgence of interest in Arthurian legend, the rise of Christian allegory, and a post-Ossian, post-Grimm emergence of a Norse, Germanic and Old English mythic identity – Roberts explores how the logic of 'the fantastical' feeds through into the sets and trappings of modern fantasy. Tracking the creation of heroic and high fantasy subgenres through antiquarian tradition, through C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien and into the post-Tolkien boom in genre fantasy writing, the book brings the manifestation of the fantastic beyond literature into art, music, film and TV, video games and other mediums of cultural production such as fandoms. From Tennyson and Wagner, through Robert Graves, David Jones, Samuel Delany, Dungeons and Dragons, Terry Pratchett and Robin Hobb to the Game of Thrones, Skyrim, The Witcher and The Lord of the Rings media franchises, the book digs into the global dissemination and diversity of 21st-century fantasy written out of African, South Asian, East Asian perspectives amongst others. Accessible and dynamic, wide-ranging but comprehensive, this is a crash-course in context for the most imaginative form of storytelling.
