Tag: Grimdark

Medusa’s Playhouse

“Pay me a visit,” Medusa said. “We’ll get stoned together.”

Horror Genres

Easy-to-comprehend diagram of Horror genres. Some changes I’d make: Move “Creepy Kid” under the Monster genre The genres at the bottom aren’t really genres, they’re more like themes… …with the exception of Goth, which is a legitimate genre IMO. The Supernatural subgenre under Paranormal is just wrong. I’d call it Metahuman or Mutant and class …

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Two Books about Skeletons [Review]

Unnatural Selection by Katrina van Grouw Princeton University Press, 2018 How does evolution happen? This is the behind Unnatural Selection, written by natural history curator and illustrator Katrina van Grouw. She approaches it from a direction unfashionable these days, though one that Charles Darwin received inspiration from: the selective breeding of domesticated animals. Unnatural Selection …

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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 …

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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 …

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The Lies of Locke Lamora [Review]

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch Paperback edition, Bantam, 2007 The Lies of Locke Lamora came out in 2006, but I only got around to it in 2019. I’m coming out of a long period where I did not read current science fiction or fantasy, only old favorites. It caught my attention at …

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