Toxic, perhaps, and firing on all cylinders.
Category: Fantasy
Worldbuilding Wednesday 7/10/19: Arabian Nights Tales II
It’s not only the translations of One Thousand and One Arabian Nights that have changed over the years; illustrations of the classic have changed as well. The oil painting Alnaschar’s Fortune, by William Ewart Lockhart, embodies a realistic, dramatic Victorian style, but starting in the 20th century, children’s book illustrators showed a move towards abstraction …
Naughty Arabian Nights
Some kinky, Aubrey Beardsley-like shenanigans are going on in this Arabian Nights illustration by early twentieth century book illustrator Kay Nielson. Not for kids.
Worldbuilding Wednesday 7/3/19: Arabian Nights Tales I
One Thousand and One Arabian Nights is a treasure trove of literature of the fantastic. I’ve randomized its pseudo-Arabic names and places here, and the titles of the stories themselves also make for an interesting randomization stew. They stick to a simple formula of “Tale of the Something” or “Something of Something” repeating elements such …
Black Queen VIII
Oliver Ledriot’s sneering Black Queen is all a Faerie villainess should be.
Gender Pronoun Tyranny
Some months ago I decided to write a short story featuring a genderqueer, nonbinary protagonist to see, in part, how it could, and should, be done to make them human and relatable. The SF book above, released in 1992, did it by creating a new pronoun for the titular character: Cry. Cry was the pimp/madam …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 6/5/19: A Land Fit for Heroes
I did not think too much of Richard K. Morgan’s fantasy novel The Cold Commands, but I do admire the care the author put into his naming systems for the trilogy. Each culture of his universe — Kiriath, Yhelteth, League, Majak — has its own naming conventions, and all are distinct from each other and …
The Cold Commands [Review]
The Cold Commands by Richard K. Morgan New York: Del Rey, 2011 The Land Fit for Heroes trilogy by Richard K. Morgan is a very odd and divisive fantasy series. Don’t let the title fool you. It is meant sarcastically. There are no real heroes in this book, or anti-heroes, really. The main characters are …
Heavy on the Symbolism
Dare to touch her, and Death smiles. (Illustration by SF artist Virgil Finlay)