#because tolkien believed no fantasy book should have them

[superloves4]

People say Tolkien would roll in his grave for the most random of things, what would really make him roll in his grave is my desire to say Feanor invented the lamp post and covering Valinor with it,

[inky-duchess]

Fantasy Guide to Creating Your Own Language

When writer's set out to world-build, language has a huge role in creating new cultures and lending a sense of realism to your efforts. A world and people just feel more real when language is involved. As the old Irish proverb says "tír gan teanga, tír gan anam”. A country without a language, is a country without a soul. So how can we create one?

Do Your Homework

First things off, you should start by studying languages. Nobody is asking you to get fluent but it's important to understand the basic mechanics of language. You will start to see certain tricks to language, how verbs are conjugated and how gender effects certain words. It will be easier to make up your own when you know these tricks. For example, in Irish one doesn't scold but "gives out to" - "a thabhairt amach". In German, numbers are arranged differently to the English with the smallest digit arranged before the tens for example 21 - Einsundzwanzig. By immersing yourself in an array of different languages (I recommend finding ones close to how you want your language to sound), you can gain the tools necessary for creating a believable language.

Keep it Simple

Nobody expects you to pull a Tolkien or channel the powers of David J. Peterson (hail bisa vala). You're not writing a dictionary of your con-lang. You will probably use only a handful of words in your story. Don't over complicate things. A reader will not be fluent in your con-lang and if they have to continually search for the meaning of words they will likely loose patience.

Start Small

When you're learning a language, you always start with the basics. You do the exact same when writing one. Start with introductions, the names of simple objects, simple verbs (to be, to do, to have for example) and most importantly your pronouns (you will use these more than any other word, which is why I always start with them). Simple everyday phrases should always be taken care of first. Build your foundation and work your way up, this is a marathon not a race.

Music to the Ears

If your creating a new language, you're more than likely doing it phonetically. Sound is important to language and especially a con-lang because you want to trick your reader into thinking of a real language when reading the words on the page. I suggest sitting down and actually speak your words aloud, get the feel of them on the tongue to work out the spelling. Spellings shouldn't be too complicated, as I said before the readers aren't fluent and you want to make it easier for them to try it out themselves.

Also when you're creating the con-lang, it's important to figure out how it sounds to an unsuspecting ear. If a character is walking down a street and hears a conversation in a strange language, they will likely describe to the reader what it sounds like. It might be guttural or soft, it might be bursque or flowery. It's always interesting to compare how different languages flow in the ear.

Writing in Your Language

Now that you've written your language and created some words, you will want to incoperate them into your story. The way most writers do this is by italicising them. As a reader, I generally prefer authors not to go too overboard with their con-lang. Swathes of con-lang words might intrigue a reader but it can leave them confused as well. It is better to feed con-lang to your readers bit by bit. In most published works writer's tend to use words here and there but there are few whole sentences. For example in A Game Of Thrones by George RR Martin, has actually only a handful of short sentences in Dothraki despite the language being prevalent throughout the book. Daenerys Targaryen pronounces that "Khalakka dothrae mr’anha!"/"A prince rides inside me!" and it's one of the only sentence we actually see in actual Dothraki.

There's also nothing stopping you from just saying a language has been spoken. If you're not comfortable writing out the words, then don't make yourself. A simple dialogue tag can do the trick just fine.

Know your Words

I do recommend keeping an actual record of your words. Make a dictionary if you want or a simple list of words you need. This is one of the most entertaining aspects of world building, have fun with it, go mad if you like. Also here's a short list of questions you can ask yourself about language in general which might help your juices flow.

[kindlythevoid]

It’s really beautiful how Tolkien takes the time to honor the dead. After Gandalf’s death, they take the time in Lothlorien to deal with their grief and sing their laments, but as there is no body, that’s all they can do.

But when Boromir dies, even when Aragorn has to make the decision to either pursue Frodo or Merry and Pippin, and both are rapidly growing farther from the three left, they take the time to honor their friend. They don’t leave immediately, even though efficiency would dictate otherwise. No, instead they take the time to decide how to “bury” him (quotations only because it’s not burying in the strictest sense of the word, but rather reverently dealing with Boromir’s body). And then they gather trophies of his last stand and arrange them in the boat with him, taking time to “[comb] his long dark hair and [array] it upon his shoulders.”

How many times have other adventurers dedicated valuable time to honor the bodies of fallen companions, specifically to this extent? More often than not, they have to leave them behind, or only take the time to fold their arms or close their eyes.

Occasionally, they’ll build a pyre or bury them or whatnot, but it’s always after the battle that they set aside a significant chunk of time, or they live up to the term of fantasy (which isn’t a bad thing!) and there is no time wasted in building a cairn or burial or what-have-you.

My point is that time is spent, time that could be used for more “productive” things, such as, I don’t know, pursuing Merry and Pippin whose lives are at stake. And it isn’t framed as a bad thing, because it isn’t! Each life is precious, even when only the body is left. And they take the, well, the time to acknowledge this, in a reasonable and conservative way. (And when I say conservative, I mean that they pick the burial most fitting for their running clock, balancing both their need for a grieving period as well as the haste that the hobbits will require.)

I can’t speak to the rest of the deaths in the books as I haven’t caught up and refreshed my memory, but I will touch on another death, this time in the movie, that shares the same theme.

Theodred.

While he certainly hasn’t been totally forgotten by the fandom, I believe it is fair to say that he gets less discussion. Which is fair, considering he gets almost no active dialogue that I can remember and he is unconscious for most, if not all, of his screen time (and book time) before dying shortly after.

And one could say it’s because he’s a prince, one could say it’s because he was the heir, etc., etc. But it honestly makes no sense to dedicate all that time to preparing and putting on a large funeral when Saruman is right at Rohan’s door and there are so many bigger and more impactful decisions to be making now that Theoden has his mind back.

But, again, it isn’t criticized in the movie. It isn’t treated as the wrong decision. The people, included Theoden, needed time to mourn and Theodred deserved to be honored, even in death, even as the great forces of orcs and Uruk-hai were marching across Rohan.

Time is valuable, time is precious, and it should be wasted, especially when you’re trying your hardest to make sure you and yours survive. But time is meaningless if you don’t use it to live and subsequently honor those who have lived.

[garrettwrites]

Warning: discussions of homophobia; extremely negative rant over a popular lgbt book.

Post context: I waited a decade to read a certain retelling book that focuses on the development of an lgbt couple, one which has been discussed over the centuries. I'm doing my best to censor its title and characters, so this post doesn't show up in the tags for people who genuinely love this story. The title, one I now view as overrated, is something along the lines of a song about a certain popular greek hero with long blond hair and a particularly fragile heel. I wanted to read the original, the Iliad, first. I was so excited... and finally, I read the Iliad and other classical texts, I studied ancient history, and I was finally in the mood to start, paired with good knowledge of the characters that would feature in it AND the historical context... Only to find out I shouldn't have waited. 14/15 year old me would have loved this. Current me cannot. I find most reviewers must have either been high while reading, or have taken this book as teenagers, because there is no way an adult over the age of 25 with some degree of reading experience would have not seen the glaring problems with this book.

Disclaimer, if you care - I have no problem with story alterations. I can be critical of them, sure. But even that won't stop me from enjoying something. I think Percy Jackson should have followed a more greek setup, and I don't particularly fancy some of the worldbuilding choices, but those books were and still are among my favourite fantasy stories. Even though they're for children. Even though I've read Tolkien. I'm no elitist, nor do I believe shit can't be changed to make a compelling story. What I do have a problem with is how you present information, and how you distort it.

For instance, if you wanted to write a story about Ariadne and her godly husband set in the year of 1850 for some reason, and make opium play a role? I think that's a fucking weird setting. But it could work, if you stuck true to what characterises them, their relationship, and had a story with a beggining middle and end that tries to show something.

Going back to the retelling that inspired this "rant review". I'll let others more qualified than me to talk about the sexism. What shocked me here was the gay lovestory that reads so homophobic in how cliché it is that it hurts.

This story reads as "when you're so progressive you gotta turn a gay couple made up of two masculine, warrior like, war drowned men into "the hot warrior and his healer who hates fighting" so it fits into (the already sexist/misogynistic) heterosexual couple role".

Because god forbid you have a gay couple where you actually need to deconstruct masculinity without villainizing it. God forbid you actually need to write men into a gay story. God forbid these men are not good, and you need to get into their complexity. God forbid the pov character, who is written as a love struck maiden, has a life outside his strong warrior that helps contextualise his love for him.

Listen. Feminine men are amazing. Gay feminine men are too. I have plenty of original characters that fit within these labels. What I do not do is turn two ancient greek warriors into an early 2000s seme uke yaoi dynamic where one of them is a fragile maiden war tent housewife and the other a very hot but detached strong soldier god man. This is not the story to do that. And even if you play with gender roles and have a man take a more "womanly" role, it's not enough to just genderswap - a character is still badly written regardless of wether they're male or female.

If the housewife character here was a woman, I guarantee everyone who praises this book would be losing their marbles. A woman with no personality outside her lover? Afraid of fighting, of standing up, of speaking up, and this never changes? Who becomes a healer not because she studies it, but because her fragile soul has no other option? Who is passive as all hell in the story until the author remembers she has to die in an impactful manner to trigger her male love interest? That is two dimensional and no way to write a girl, and it's not suddenly okay just because this girl has a dick and is a him.

Yet cause it's gay it's okay to write such an insipid character. Praised even. Which is made even worse, because the original version was a man who yes - indeed - was kind to others yet an absolute beast on the battlefield. Who had opinions and gave counsel. This is not even an original character - I wouldn't criticise an original character as harshly, but this author changed a fighter with incredible skill, who killed a son of a god and was a hero in his own right, into this. A character who yes, was kind and beloved. But touched by war regardless. A character who was loved by those around him, but in this book is ridiculed by these very same people.

Why do you think that is.

And no, trying to make the story more anti war is not an answer. The Iliad is anti war. The Iliad literally comments on how war corrupts what it touches, how it fucked up the lives of everyone involved. This is not a modern take on an old story, because the old story in question already talks about it.

But what can I expect, here. I could call this a work that doesn't know how to write gay men without adhering to (already dated even for straight people) gender roles... but truth is? Author doesn't know how to write women either. The moment you unironically think Helen of Troy is just a vain little hot chick you should not be allowed to write an Iliad retelling, me thinks.

Oh, and let's not get into the fact both main characters are meant to be gay. They're not bisexual. Yet this book - a GAY ROMANCE - is not shy about shoving straight sex scenes onto you. Sex scenes with really no purpose, for they're never brought up again later, and have no story impact.

I am not kidding. Character A gets D pregnant, Character P barely reacts to it, and when D gets upset at P for whatever reason THE TWO OF THEM HAVE SEX TOO. NOTHING AS GAY AS FUCKING THE WOMAN IMPREGNATED BY YOUR BOYFRIEND, UH?! And it's never brought up again! Nobody forces Character P into this yet he willingly goes? Excuse me, if you wanted these characters to have sex with women so casually, why not just make them bisexual and open to banging outside their relationship?

It reads as so disgusting, to have an author clearly lean into a soulmate trope, then just pull some of the most uncomfortable to read sex scenes ever outside that soulmate couple (I love purple prose. Purple prose is probably the only reason I didn't hate this book - the writing was beautiful. But the way the sex with Character D goes... good lord it's written in such a puke inducing way). I'm not against poly in books, what I am against is leaning into monogamous tropes for a gay couple, where you write neither of them as bisexual (which, btw, bi-erasure of the original characters) but then have them bang outside their relationship EVEN when nobody is forcing them to. Never have I read a gay book where straight sex is pushed forward so much. And it's not just even weird for the gay couple, it's also written in a really odd way for the women involved.

"Oh you just don't get the theme! It was out of pity! It was-" turn this into a straight romance and tell me, with a straight face, that this story is well written. Bad character development, bad usage of tropes, terrible pacing, and the use of sex outside the main romance purely for reader self insertion (for it contributes with nothing but shoddy erotica, in a book supposedly about AxP) should not be excused just because a book is gay.

Honestly. "Let people enjoy things" well I propose let me be a hater. I went above and beyond to block the book and character names, let's hope it's enough. But I'm against not criticising things just because they're diverse. It's 2024. There's plenty of authors writing good stories with marginalised people.

And let's talk about LGBT+ worldbuilding, shall we? In the beggining of this book - set in Ancient Greece by the way - it's stated men could take male lovers on the side. Then it's not brought up again, until later a woman tells P many married men take lovers on the side. This girl was originally a sex slave by the way, and here she gets Stockholm Syndrome and falls for P. But then another character tells P he's too old to be into men? So, which is it? It's not even a thing about ancient greek men having that thing where it was accepted for an older man to be sexually involved with a young boy, because here the problem brought up is P being too old, not his lover being too old too.

Oh, and the love interest's (A's) mother. She hates their relationship. We are told she hates their relationship because P is mortal and she doesn't want a mortal to be with her son. Yet later on she arranges a marriage between her son and a MORTAL woman. So is the problem really mortality, or homosexuality?

Why is there modern day homophobia in a story that many praise for historical accuracy?

I honestly hate how people care about representation at the cost of quality. It is mind boggling to me that a woman in this century wrote a book more homophobic and misogynistic than greeks almost 3 thousand years ago did.

[lost-and-cursed]

Autobiography, epeolatry, and book-bosomed for the book ask!

Autobiography: Who is the protagonist you most relate to?

That's very funny question to answer because to be completely honest it's a character from the book that weren't translated from Russian into like... any language. It's a fantasy where he, Roque Alva, is both highest marshall and a duke, ridiculously competent and depressed, effectively immortal (because of the curse) and also everyone around him die or betray him (because of the curse) and he thinks that the curse is he sold his soul to devil or smth (it's not). He also bisexual disaster, proponent of make problems bestowed on him other people's problem and a war criminal(also a bit OP). He was my role model since I was sixteen, helped to circumvent certain mental health patterns (i really didn't want to end up like him lmao) and was the first and only character I can claim to "kin" in popular understanding of the word. We are just on the same wavelength. And he also was a breath of fresh air in occasionally hair-tearing passages of book

The hero of the Night.

Speaking from the books someone realistically might read... Idk. I found myself really relating to Hamlet.

(maybe the secret is i feel kinship with characters that are just Haunted by their life)

Epeolatry: What is your favorite book quote?

Oh. All the questions are out to get me. For the record, I have exceptionally bad memory. Like I barely can remember words you said to me 30 seconds ago. I won't remember quote if I didn't reread it fairly recently. I constantly awed by different quotes in the books, but unfortunately I don't keep track of them. That said

'But look, you found the notice, didn't you? ' 'Yes,' said Arthur, 'yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard.

From the Hitchhiker's guide to galaxy. I both remember it (noticeable quality) and enjoy it tremendously.

Book-bosomed: what is a book you feel everyone should read?  

Depends on how you pose a question. If I had ability to force everyone read one book

... because it's amazing?

Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell. Very thoughtful, multiple perspectives, interesting wordbuilding, plays around with language, combines few different genres and eras

... because how do you stil don't know it how how I'll start chewing your shoes ?

Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien. Both The Staple and The Cradle of Fantasy. If you absolutely must read only one fantasy book. Let it be Tolkien. It has everything. Is pretty amazing. Wordbuilding out for my heart.

(but I was lately informed that a lot of people don't enjoy reading it because it's epos, and I am not really cruel and also don't really believe that anyone Must read something)

(if I was unusually cruel Silmarillion would be so funny for the book to force people to read, most of them won't even read LOTR, comedy gold)

If I was to recommend a book keeping in mind that not all people like dense books?

Probably aforementioned Hitchhiker's guide to galaxy. It's easy. It's fun. It has puns. 42.

Or wait hmmmmmmmmmmm

It's my chance to propagate amazing unpopularish stuff.

So everyone goes to read Myth Adventures cycle by Robert Asprin (first few books are really cool and then read as much as you feel like).

It has very good dialogue, and sniping and sarcasm. It's a comedy and slight parody on the genre with backwater mage student that dreams of becoming a Thief and reluctant teacher who lost his magic just now as he was summoned to this backwater town and now they need to flee from the assassins and learn magic on the road. Also teacher big and green and has sharp teeth hope this helps

[alpaca-clouds]

Why I got obsessed with Comparative Mythology

I have now gotten the question too often, so let me quickly answer it here: No, I (sadly) do not work in comparative mythology. I just so happen to be autistic and as such have my sweet little collection of hyperfixations. One of which happens to be mythology and comparative mythology.

Basically, as a kid (like kindergarten age) I started obsessing about Ancient Egypt, which very much included the mythology, too. Later on I had a brief stint with the Tolkien stuff (though that never got a hyperfixation for me - but a classmate had this specific hyperfixation) and I learned through Tolkien about philology and comparative linguistics. Which kinda got me already set in that direction. And then, as I talked before, the entire "Izanagi and Izanami kinda mirror a lot of cthonic Greek stuff" thing got me into the comparative mythology stuff.

But really, what got me into high gear with the research was... writing my Urban Fantasy.

Urban Fantasy to me was always one of the genre that spoke to me the most. Partly because it really made for great escapism to imagine that indeed magic was real in our world. Partly because it was the kind of fantasy where you actually could get queer stories.

But within Urban Fantasy I was always frustrated with one thing: How Urban Fantasy would usually make use of a lot of mythological stuff... but only in the most generic way imaginable. Most Urban Fantasy never engaged with actual vampire or werewolf mythology, rather it used vampires and werewolves inspired by Schlock Horror films. And if Urban Fantasy used gods (most of the times Greek or Norse gods) it used them in the most generic way possible, sanding it down and removing all the interesting bits. Or, for that matter, really doing much with which gods showed up were (Stray Gods so far sits alone with American Gods in the category of: "Actually gives a good explanation of why European deities are hanging around in America") This got me in my early 20s to start thinking up my own Urban Fantasy universe, which I called Manmade Myths. Or M³, because I am a cheeky idiot bastard.

It should be noted: Out of my Manmade Myths stuff I got one book published in German, though by now the book is out of print and the publisher never paid me a cent for it. So, yay. Technically though I have several books within the universe written - and there are a couple of published shortstories as well as my written webseries with four seasons... Though I never fully published it, even though it is all prewritten on my computer. Mostly due to the lack of interaction and stuff.

But basically Manmade Myths is "Comparative Mythology as Urban Fantasy". Playing around with the ideas of the development of myths and the meaning of remembering mythology.

The general concept is, that it is an Urban Fantasy world working on the concept of "Clap your hands if you believe"... But a bit differently. While in this world gods get their powers out of believe and veneration (and are originally created by it), they also do not disappear as soon as people stop believing in them. Rather they hang around and slowly become corrupted. Many of them being angry with the humans who have forgotten them - though some of them also have a big issue with the Abrahamic God, who supplanted so many of them.

The world at large was very much influenced by this conflict, which tied back both to colonialisation, but also to the pegan hunts of the early Christian period. With a lot of the old gods being angry at the Christian God.

A lot of (more or less) mortal characters kinda roped into that entire conflict through the concept of "chosen ones". Basically, gods and all sorts of named characters from mythologies hanging around, would have "chosens", with whom they shared their powers, and who - whether they wanted or not - got roped into that conflict.

And there was a whole thing going on about the mythological apocalypse being close but most of the gods being too caught up in their conflict, that they did not see it or did not care.

Only some gods and heroes actually realized how the world actually worked and how a lot of stuff was linked to the development of myths.

But... yeah. Problem really is that as a no-name author you do not get to publish a multi-series urban fantasy thing that is fairly high concept and also features a majority queer cast. lol Especially not in Germany.

Which is why I have a total of six written books in this universe (four within one series, two standalones) here, out of which only one got published.

Now, I have started uploading the first few chapters of the webseries Mosaik in English on Ao3, though kinda forgot about it due to a lack of engagement. Though I absolutely could be convinced to continue uploading it. It shough be noted, however, that the entire god-conflict related stuff does only show up midway through sequence two and then only slowly gets more pronounced throughout sequence three, with the characters understanding what kinda bullshit they have gotten themselves into. xD

But yeah, it is that entire universe that really, really got me reading all those books on comparative mythology and development of myths. And it is why I love this topic so much.

[ludcake]

Sometimes it's really upsetting to me when I see a really well written piece of meta and insight into characters and the themes of ASOIAF ending with "and this is why this character will be key in the destruction of the Others and the fighting in the Battle of the Dawn". (Jaime, Jon, Dany and Brienne suffer the most of this)

The assumption at face value that the books end with a giant war to destroy the Evil People and save the Good People and that the key theme is "our struggles and politics are petty in the face of True Unending Evil And Death" always seems to miss the point to me. I'll write a longer meta sometime about my view on the Others, but... A series about the struggle of heroism, of humanizing everyone who is Othered, where the evil queen is granted sympathy and the usurping uncle is a fan favorite, a series that talks over and over about the real human consequence of war and violence (on both victim and aggressor) and that unrelentingly critiques the tropes of the fantasy genre, written by a Vietnam conscientious objector who spoke out against Tolkien because of the little orc babies in cradles... is that really the series that ends with the dramatic heroes fighting a battle and warring and destroying a group named the Others, Othered by the very name they have?

I dunno. To me, taking the idea of the battle for the dawn at face value, and particularly the idea that the ultimate solution is stabbing at the evil ice demons with magic swords, seems silly and against the theme. Much has been speculated about the Starks, Benjen and Jon in particular, and what is their ultimate fate in Winds. A lot about Coldhands, about Lord Brynden, a lot about the Night King and Mance Rayder. But to me, the Others are *The Winds of Winter*, but they talk, and they laugh, and they mock and speak. They have a tongue of their own, and smith weapons and armor. For two books, we thought the wildlings were mostly savages, but Martin showed us their humanity through Jon. For so long, we thought the Ironborn were awful because of Theon, but through Asha we saw them with other eyes. Martin has mentioned before that the Others are the "ice sidhe", and... That's not the ice demons Melisandre describes. When we see her PoV, she's beset by doubts, she lies to herself; why should we believe her apocalyptic message, and not in a story where humanity can be found in dragons, such as Viserion's love for his mother, in wolves, like Summer, in wildlings, in Ironborn, in slaves and in evil Queens?

[taveren-writing]

Ta'veren, A Writblr Intro

Hello, my name is Ta'veren or Tav or Sam, whichever you wish to call me, He/Him. I'm just starting out on this blog so this marks the start of my journey as a writer trying to get out there!

Almost everything that I like to write revolves around fantasy, especially in the vein of epic fantasy authors like Robert Jordan, Tolkien, Tad Williams, Sanderson and GRRM. I'm also absolutely in love with D&D and so most of what I'll be posting will be related to that and the world I have created for my players. Finally, I will admit that I have a soft spot for fanfiction so there will be a lot of that here as well.

I look forward to integrating into the Writblr community! I'm open to asks, tag games, anything at all because I believe writers should support writers :)

My WIPs

God War—This is a book I've been writing for my own interest and those of my close friends, a story I've been tinkering with for the past five/six years. It's follows the god Pelor who is the subject of an ominous prophecy that claims he will break the world of celestials and fiends, and in doing so will finally defeat Evil. The book itself explores the Nature of Good and Evil and is my own philosophical novel akin to Camus' The Stranger or The Fall. I probably won't post much about it but it is fun to talk about :)

The Errant Knight (New)—This is what I hope to be my first published novel. Set in the world of Sarrah, it follows a knight as they are thrust into a land strange and unknown to them. More to come!

Of Light and Shadow (Baldur's Gate 3)—I'll tell you what, nothing has kickstarted my writing other than BG3. Literally, I've tripled my writing output in the past three weeks because of this game. Tavrian is the first character I made for the game and he is the one I shall be writing about, and have written about. Most of his work will be posted here and on A03.

World of Sarrah—This is a worldbuilding project. Sarrah is where my D&D campaigns are run, and where eventually my books (save God War) will take place. I'll be churning out blog posts about it so I can have a place where all the info is stored, and so that anyone who is interested can read the lore.

Thanks for reading!

[adarkrainbow]

This topic of modern fairytales leads me to talk about a strange sub-genre that hasn’t been clearly identified or codified by any specialist, and that yet still exists and that people recognize.

“The fairytale fantasy”.

There is a lot of works that could fit the idea of a “brand new fairytale” or the “fairytale 0%” as I called them... but it is hard to pinpoint exactly when a modern fairytale begins and where a work of fantasy ends. 

“The fairytale fantasy” is a strange fantasy subgenre that, to my knowledge, can be noted through two things. 1) It is a fantasy story aimed at children. Whenever someone intends to do a great fantasy story but for a younger audience, they will be drawn by fairytale structures and conventions. It is a phenomenon that cannot be escaped and is as old as fantasy itself - when J. R. R. Tolkien wrote his Lord of the Rings, for adults, he drew from ancient British and Celtic legends, from Norse mythology, Germanic legends and the Kalevala - and yet, when he wrote the Hobbit, in the same universe but for a younger audience, suddenly you see a much stronger influence of fairytales (from the funny dwarf party to the whole idea of fighting a dragon passing by the fooling of the talkative man-eating spiders...). 2) A fantasy becomes a “fairytale fantasy” whenever it starts delving into what I would call “fae lore” or “fairy folklore”. When a work of fantasy digs into the actual legends of the fair folk, and in topics ranging from changelings to Elfland, then it will either take a strong fairytale-tone or it will reuse fairy tale elements to build itself (thanks to fairytales being tied to the “fae lore” though not always identical). 

These two points at the “bridges” that form a path between fantasy and fairytales, but also blurs the line... Where does an attempt at writing a unique unseen before fairytale begins, and where does the creation of a fantasy story inspired by fairy folklore ends? Should some work be classified as “fairytale films” or “fairytale books” ; or as “fantasy books”? 

In terms of movies, two examples come to mind: “Labyrinth” and “The Last Unicorn”. Two works that clearly draw upon fairytales, use their tropes and conventions, and yet are fantasy movies, seen and classified as such.

Neil Gaiman is also a master of this genre - his novel Stardust being actually described as a “fairytale fantasy” (though officially it is a “romance in Faerie”), even though the movie that adapts it relies more on the “fantasy” aspect than the “fairytale” one. Neil Gaiman also wrote what is often considered a “modern dark fairytale” and yet also feels like children fantasy - the celebrated “Coraline”, which occupies a very odd and strange place alongside its mirror-book, “The Thief of Always” by Clive Barker.

And this odd, strange place is the place of “children fantasy”, which by nature as I said has a fairytale feeling and yet could easily not be considered a fairytale. Some people date back this phenomenon to Alice in Wonderland, its sequels and the other children book of Lewis Carroll - but I refute this idea. Simply because (as an Alice enthusiast I can tell you that) the Alice books were never intended to be fairytales, were not inspired by fairytales - and people simply assumed that it was a fairytale thanks to it being a popular “children book” and a monument of fantasy-like children literature. Because again - when a book involves some sort of marvel or supernatural, and is a popular children work, then people had the habit of classifying it among “fairytales” - especially if Disney DID adapt it alongside other traditional fairytales. In fact I do believe the reason why works such as Alice in Wonderland or Pinocchio are considered equal to the Grimm fairytales or the Perrault ones is because Disney considered them as such. 

But Alice in Wonderland is not a fairytale - and is Pinocchio a fairytale? Not really. It does have fairytale motifs, but it is too complex, too long, too novel-like to be an actual fairytale. It is a novel for children, a children book, but not a fairytale equal to the ones of Perrault and Grimm. It would be closer to the long, complex fairytales of Andersen as exemplified by “The Snow Queen”, but even then it doesn’t fit because while being long and complex, The Snow Queen was still embracing a form of simplicity, shortness and “collection of stories” aspect typical of fairytales, where Pinocchio really is a full, complex novel with a novel-like storyline. 

Same confusions, talks and discussions could arose for many other big names of early 20th century literature. Peter Pan for example - though I do not know much about this, so I’ll rather let people with more expertise talk about this subject. 

And it doesn’t help that there are cases that blur the line EVEN MORE. I am thinking here of another subject I have some knowledge about: The Wizard of Oz. The original Wizard of Oz story, as designed, written and created by L. Frank Baum was intended to be a “modern, American fairytale” able to rival the old European ones. And it did! But... while it was conceived in spirit as a fairytale, it still had the structure and format of a novel. A children novel. Which made it feel much more like an example of “children fantasy book” rather than a fairy tale. And Oz delved fully into the “fantasy” concept when it had a sequel, then another sequel, and then became an entire franchise, losing the fairytale aspect. We can compare that to the Chronicles of Narnia - the original book similarly has a modern fairytale feel, though it is also clearly a children fantasy novel, and then delves fully into the fantasy by having sequels...

Overall, this is one complex, muddled, strange topic that can lead to endless debates but that proves one thing: classification systems are always artificial tools that can easily be broken by mere human inventivity. Works of fiction are always hard to place into boxes and genres are fluctuating things changing all the time... 

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Rereading The Fellowship of the Ring for the First Time in Fifteen Years

Ok, NGL, I was not entirely sure what to do with this chapter. Like...Tom Bombadil is cool and all, but like...this chapter literally grounds the plot to a screeching halt and while there is thematic nuance and foreshadowing here, it's...it's a weird little chapter, y'all. It would absolutely get cut from a book being published today, and frankly I can see why. But let's just jump on in and talk about "In the House of Tom Bombadil."

So one thing writers Philippa Boynes, Peter Jackson, and Fran Walsh were absolutely clear on is that their film adaptation is the story of Frodo taking the ring to Mordor. And in that context, it makes absolute sense to lose Tom Bombadil from the story. He is important (in my read) for two key reasons:

First, he is here to clearly show that there are greater powers in the world than those of Mordor, Men, Elves, and Wizards. Tom is so OP that literally none of that matters to him, and the One Ring is just...kinda there. It has zero effect on him, it doesn't factor into his life in any meaningful way, and he has zero skin in the "yeet the jewelry into the volcano" game. The fact is, he's worldbuilding and a reminder to readers that no matter how grand or life-and-death their struggles are, there are greater powers and the natural world has been here long before you and will be here long after you. It's a way to contextualize and comfort when the world seems on the brink of ending. ...I would be lying if I said I found that personally terribly comforting, because if you zoom out to that scale, literally nothing matters, but then I live in 2024 and I'm not carrying any rings around. I think there's a better balance point between "the world exists and you don't matter on that scale" and "this ring is the only thing in existence that matters" but I haven't written a three-book epic fantasy to sort it out yet, so I'm just spitballing.

Second, and this might just be a crack theory on my part, Tom is to the hobbits after their first real encounter with evil what Tetris is to soldiers trying to avoid PTSD. Tom literally hijacks the hobbits' brains, offers them comfort, and addresses any potential fears and triggers that almost getting murdered to death by a tree might spark in the hobbits. They are safe, they are secure, they have the things that make hobbits happy, and Tom literally does not give them an environment in which any fears or trauma can fester into PTSD (that's for LATER in the trilogy, I guess). He is a distraction in a safe space, and he gives them context and information that should help them navigate the next little leg of their journey.

That second reason might have been enough to keep Tom in the film adaptation if they kept Old Man Willow, but frankly something had to go and this is pretty easy to lift out, because the next thing that is overarching plot relevant is the Prancing Pony. So we have to leave Merry, Pippin, and Frodo not getting PTSD this early in the trip on the cutting room floor.

Sam was fine though. Literally he slept like a log and did not dream. No trauma for Sam "I will take this tree down with my teeth if I have to" Gamgee.

This is probably a good moment to talk about the dreams though. I find it interesting that while Frodo was the one Old Man Willow tried to drown, Merry is the one who gets the dream of drowning, not Frodo. Pippin is over here flashing back to being inside Old Man Willow. Both of these dreams absolutely suck, and I empathize with them. I also point out the sensory grounding they get before Tom's repeated words of comfort in their ears, because the body needs to feel safe before the mind will believe reassurances.

Frodo's dream though, is less a trauma dream from attempted tree homicide, and more a vision that tells us what is happening with Gandalf. This is kind of cool, so I'm just going to let Tolkien tell it:

In the dead night, Frodo lay in a dream without light. There he saw the young moon rising; under its thin light there loomed before him a black wall of rock, pierced by a dark arch like a great gate. It seemed to Frodo that he was lifted up, and passing over her say that the rock-wall was a circle of hills, and that within in was a plain, and in the midst of the plain stood a pinnacle of stone, like a vast tower but not made by hands. On its top stood the figure of a man. The moon as it rose seemed to hang for a moment above his head and glistened in his white hair as the wind stirred it. Up from the dark plain below came the crying of fell voices, and the howling of many wolves. Suddenly a shadow, like the shape of great wings, passed across the moon. The figure lifted his arm and a light flashed from the staff that he wielded. A mighty eagle swept down and bore him away.

So yeah, Frodo is having dream visions again, and he NOTABLY does not get comforted by Tom's words as Merry and Pippin do, which seems like a hell of a raw deal. Frodo literally wakes up questioning whether he will be brave enough to leave Tom's house, and I feel like a little comforting wouldn't go amiss here. But at least us readers in the know get a Gandalf update, I guess?

The chapter closes out with Tom offering some advice about crossing the Barrow Downs that feels like it should be important:

Keep to the green grass. Don't you go a-meddling with old stone or cold Wights or prying in their houses, unless you be strong folk with hearts that never falter!

I feel like the "unless" did more harm than good, but Tom also gives them a rescue rhyme so they can call him if they get really into trouble. As a former theatre major, I am unspeakably grateful that Tolkien skipped over the memorizing session, because I was taught how to learn a monologue by ear with a partner, and while it is DAMN effective, it's not a fast process and it is tedious as all hell. So thank you Tolkien, for just handwaving the memorization homework the hobbits got.

We're going to leave it there for now, and pick up next time with what I'm calling now is Pippin staying off the green grass, fucking around and finding out with old stone and cold Wights, and poking his nose into a barrow after being explicitly told not to.

[berenices-commas]

After the Forest - 2023 - Kell Woods

So this is a retelling of a classic fairytale – words which strike fear into the hearts of the wise. This time it’s Hansel and Gretel! And also Snow White, kind of. But this was, if not actually good, at least not painful. Woods is clearly influenced by The Bear and the Nightingale, which is a great book, and this steers her in something approaching the right direction. This is very definitely historically grounded – we’re in the aftermath of the Thirty Years War, in a backwoods village in the Black Forest, in which there just so happens to be magic going on. And so we get a split between the historical fantasy and the fairytale.

The former doesn’t quite come up to Katherine Arden’s standards, but Woods is trying! The best part of this book is its portrayal of a young peasant woman, without parents or much of an inheritance, trying to make a living for herself and her brother who has never really recovered from their shared childhood trauma. I think to a large degree this succeeds in presenting a world where people’s life choices, and their understanding of those choices, are genuinely different from our own society. For me this is the key to good historical fiction – Woods’ occasional lapses in accuracy don’t really pose a problem. (She joins the hallowed ranks of fantasy authors, going back to Tolkien himself, who don’t quite know what a pike is. But this is fine! Shelley Parker-Chan writes amazing historical fantasy, and I’m still not convinced they’ve ever actually heard of crossbows.)

There are maybe two big stumbling points. First is in the treatment of Christianity – the people of this village all go to church, they swear by Christ, etc., but you don’t get the impression that any of them really believe in God, or have much investment in the religion that structures their whole world. This rather dismissive attitude to religion then exacerbates the second problem, which is how the book places witchcraft in a social context. Because Woods takes pains to emphasise that this society has a constant, bubbling fear of witches that can boil over into murderous panics. And yet she doesn’t really explore why people think like that – for her it’s just foolish superstition. Which is very weird because in the world of this novel witches are actually real. There literally are a bunch of evil witches who live in secret and go around cursing people, and the curses can only be lifted by killing the witches. The book never squares its very reasonable condemnation of witch-burning with the fact that Greta saves the day by burning a witch! It’s odd.

The fairytale side of the book shades into urban fantasy – we get werewolves, witches with different schools of magic, etc. None of it is terribly interesting here, though it should be – a Burgundian noblewoman who becomes immortal and lives dozens of false lives across Europe! A family of werewolves created by a pagan Norse priestess who have now forgotten their ancient purpose and hire themselves out as mercenaries in the wars of religion! (The last one is also a great RPG premise.) But throughout everyone is just a little too matter-of-fact about the magic shaping their lives – it comes across neither as wondrous nor horrifying, and we don’t go nearly deep enough into the characters’ experience of it.

Overall this is not a bad book, and a good debut effort. The characterisation is never really exciting but rarely actually thin. The plotting is fine, and only gets away from the author right at the end. It’s certainly better than most in this subgenre, and manages to tell a much better feminist story for not being conceived as a Feminist Retelling. But I don’t think it ends up making the most of its premise.

[tinyletterz]

YOU SHOULD GIVE ME UR VISUAL NOVEL RECS GRABBY HANDS

OKAY OKAY OKAY thank you for indulging me i love them sm some of these descriptions might sound like theyre missing stuff i just dont wanna spoil anything. all these games are free, online, and can be found on itch.io but i also linked them here too

this also got really long because i explain too much but i wanted to make sure i added enough detail w/out spoiling but also w/out leaving basic synopsis stuff out??? the mc is customizable so your not playing as a base set person which is so nice of the writers thank you guys sm:

a tale of crowns by @/ataleofcrowns

a story that follows the mc (you) as the new crown. there are 4 love interest (all male, all female, or a mix). this one depends on romance based meaning there aren't any aromantic options (i just wanted to put that out there since you are aroace ^^) i love the lore behind it and its geared towards poc which is nice <3 this is also the very first IF i stumbled upon. this is ongoing and chapter ten was just released and theres good/bad endings of chapter ten

superstition (pc versions: s1, s2, s3) (iphone friendly versions: s1, s2, s3) by @/13leaguestories

fantasy and a few other things that follows your journey through the new world of supernaturals you found after helping a woman on the streets. its rated 18+ because of sexual references but you can avoid it 100% at the beginning in the settings, though you might not be able to romance some of the characters. there's 6 love interest in total (3 male, 3 female) but depending on the setting there might be less. you also don't have to have a romance with any of them ! s3 is still in the works

when twilight strikes by @/evertidings

modern fantasy where you work for the ioas (international organization of supernaturals) as a bounty hunter. things get complicated after failing to catch a bounty the second time but i think thats for the best. i love this game soooo much it reminds me of shadowhunters and i love shadowhunters (just the books not the show but thats a different discussion omg). there are 5 romance options (1 is male, the others you can set to female/male/nonbinary or randomize like i did) ive played through this about three times; twice for the same character and once for another but i love the character dynamics

wayfarer by @/idrellegames

i will not lie the reason why i started playing this was because it reminded me of tolkien and i love tolkien. this story has you being a wayfayer: a person incapable of magic. you go on quest, forge pacts, and try your best to survive in a world thats not so kind to you. i think theres 7 romance options but i think you can not romance anyone too?? if you want more information about them you should check out the blog for the game since we haven't met all of them yet. ive played this game 4 times because i was unsatisfied with what i did those other three times and im gonna do it again :D there's options for sexually intimacy but also asexual routes though that means no relationships with some character. two chapters are currently out !!

mirror mine by @/if-mirrormine

okayaya so you were out shopping for your sibling's birthday right and when you finally get home, you won't believe it...you've been gone for 10 years?!?! everyone's so confused, your confused, your cat's just glad to have you back honestly. so an investigation has been reopened about your disappearance on why it felt like no time passed for you but ten years for everyone else. i love mystery sci-fi genre its still releasing chapters!! i think theres 4 romance options (1 male, 2 women, 1 you can pick) nd im not sure about aromantic options yet but its amazing

speaker by @/speakergame

theres a curse on your family that the first child has the ability to see visions of the future. you and your sister are twins with her as the oldest, meaning she is the Seer. you are a Speaker which means you can understand a limited amount of her visions. i love the writing there's also a demon dog which makes everything better!! theres 5 romance options i think ?? (2 you can pick, then theres 1 nonbinary, 1 male nd 1 female) ITS SO GOOD its a fantasy mystery IF and ive played through it twice so far

scout by @/anya-dev

its an apocalyptic story about humanity surviving in small communities. one morning (i think it was the morning) you meet other people not from your community which id odd because people can't survive on their own without support. this causes a whole list of issues but without these issues there wouldnt be a story so im very happy :D there are 4 romance options (2 male, 1 female, 1 you pick) but im not sure if this will get anymore updates. the author said their life was pretty hectic so i do hope things are alright on their end. even if it doesn't get updated i think the story is still amazing and will be seated with my favorites <3

ANYWAYS THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME RANT ABOUT THESE GAMES they hold a special place in my heart i hope you play some of them and find them interesting like i do !!!!

[mermaidsirennikita]

Re romantasy and kingdom of the wicked I totally feel you. It's always annoyed me that when women write fantasy about women it is like, automatically assumed to be YA and now with TikTok we see this weird trend of YA books written for adults not kids. A very similar thing happened with Lightlark where the first book was defended by saying it was for kids, and thus wasn't supposed to be good (which...lol) but then the second one was super Horned Up in a way that obviously was not for kids. Just make it for adults from the beginning! Adult fiction isn't scary! I feel the same about NA--why are we acting as if Adult fiction can't be written with a lighter tone? And this is not to say that YA can't have sexual content. Imho it can but that content should be written with the audience in mind and many of these books simply aren't for teens despite the label. Sorry this kinda got away from your post but I wanted to echo that im seeing what you're seeing!

No I'm glad you brought this up!

Honestly, I think that much of the fantasy romance discussion is so colored by a confusion regarding the audience. For many years, a lot of publishers really thought that the only way to sell fantasy romance or romance-adjacent fantasy was to market it as YA. I think that part of this was because, prior to that, there was a real sense of fantasy being a (nerdy) man's space. Like, women enjoyed it, but they were more a bonus than the audience, in the mind of publishing. I don't think they thought of women as the people reading GRRM or Brandon Sanderson. Certainly not Tolkien.

Whereas I believe the YA boom was often attributed to teen girls--and I say that because there was a surprising lack of YA fantasy with male protagonists, at least when I was reading it. Or solo male protagonists, at least; you might have boys thrown into an ensemble, but if there was a solo POV it was usually a girl. And of course, part of this was an extension of looking down on the female audience, right? This isn't "real" fantasy, it's for kids! Despite the fact that there is of course, thoughtful and well-written YA fantasy.

Then, as it had been happening with Twilight (and everything YA, but I think with Twilight it became this very recognized deal) adult readers became a huge part of the conversation. And I say this as an adult who read YA fantasy primarily for years--I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But I do think there has been a real issue with YA in general being taken away from its original audience. Which is a big reason why things graphic sex have become more prominent in YA. The voice of the adult reader is overshadowing the voice of the teen. (And of course, adults often have more free income to spend on these books--especially as ebooks have become so dominant. A lot teens have e-readers, a lot of them can read on apps, but many of them do not have independent bank accounts they can link to these products, which means they can't buy as freely.)

And while I think it's totally fine for adults to enjoy YA, I don't think it's okay for adults to speak over the primary audience. If you're upset that the teen books aren't giving you the adult content you want, content I think is absolutely fine to want when you read... Grow the fuck up and read adult books. Like I did lmao.

The thing is, for a lot of those readers that's going to mean transitioning to romance, because romance gives them the things they want--it's commercial, it's focused on relationships, it has sex on the page. But for a while--during the YA boom at least--I feel like there were certain authors singled out as like. Above it all. Like they were doing Writing whereas romance has long been seen as... just writing. If that. And I think a lot of readers bought into that.

(So did a lot of writers, for the record. Romance writers have drama, absolutely. But Jesus lmao. The high-handedness of YA authors on Twitter can be something ELSE. Like people, you're writing commercial fiction like all the rest of us. You aren't any better and your drama is not any more impactful.)

So, yeah. I'm glad to see fantasy romance for adults becoming more of a thing, because I personally feel that many authors probably wanted to write for adults, but were pushed to age down by agents and publishers. (Understandably, for agents.) But the transition can be tricky, because I do think the automatic assumption many readers still have is "fantasy with kissing" = YA fantasy. I saw Kerri Mansicalco on Insta being like "we are trying to be very clear that these standalones are adult". To me, these Kingdom of the Wicked books read as soooo adult lol. And it almost seems like you can read the transition in real time. Which is so interesting.

[siena-sevenwits]

My April Reading Review

Bandersnatch: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and the Creative Collaboration of the Inklings by Diana Pavlac Glyer (Non-fiction, historical/literary/creativity) - 5 STARS - Like the author, I too spent my youth not only gobbling up the Inklings' works, but every non-fiction work about them I could get my hands on, and I too was was disappointed that the books all just passed around the same half dozen quotes about the group and left it at that. Informationally, this is the book I wanted when I was thirteen. Ideologically, it is more. So many excellent passages (C.S. Lewis's feedback on Tolkien's Lay of Leithian, humourously written as though he were five different overblown professors analyzing an early medieval codex, was a highlight!) Learning more about Warren Lewis was also great. I also appreciated that in this edition for popular reading, Pavlac Glyer does a lot of reflecting on the near necessity of community if creativity is to come to anything. I love the time she spends mythbusting the concept of the isolated genius, and the practical takeaways she suggests. I may have to turn to the more scholarly version, The Company They Keep, because this lady appears to be a research queen and I'd love to look at this through a more academic lens with further info.

Thick as Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner (MG/YA fantasy) - 4 1/2 STARS -This series continues brilliantly. Kamet is a unique and enjoyable narrator, and i love seeing him in duo with Costis, who has such an utterly different personality, outlook, and experience. The texture of this material is thick and rich. I've got a hold on the Return of the Thief audiobook.

"A Doll's House" by Henrik Ibsen (classic drama)- 4 STARS - Ibsen is absolutely right about what is wrong with Nora and Torvald, individually and in their marriage. Nora is almost entirely wrong about that the answer is. She's right - they can't continue as they are, and the way it's revealed he would have completely disowned her if the truth were to come to light is awful. But I don't think her walkout was wise either - certainly not in its specifics. Yes, enormous change is needed, and that change may not be possible. But in her shoes I would hope to approach it differently. That being said, I completely understand why she believed she had to do this. I think my quibble is less with the play, which would be excellent for the sake of discussion, and more what the play represents in its cultural moment. The way it was received when it premiered. The drama is compelling and intelligently written, and interesting both as a play and for its historical interest. But this is a really great tragedy with some very strong insights, and I enjoyed it.

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson (pirate fantasy) - 4 STARS - Oh, how lovely to have more Cosmere for read aloud with my brother. Not his best, but fun - definitely a similar spirit to The Princess Bride while being very much a sweet monster of its own. I will say this - Sanderson's prose was vastly improved by being written in a specific character's voice! (Hoid of all people - I would NOT have expected the book to improve by being told in his voice! I love his stories, but I would have expected a whole novel's worth would be too much - i would have been wrong.) He should always write in a specific voice from now on, if you ask me, even if he keeps it low key and doesn't reveal to the reader that's what he's doing. Wow - a non-traumatized Cosmere protagonist! Love all the piratical antics, the fact that it's basically a power-of-friendship story, and the rollicking atmosphere. I laughed a lot. This book is like the opposite of Mistborn in so many ways. That being said, there was nothing particularly hard-hitting - a nice message about how damaging the "I don't want to impose" mentality can be, but nothing deep. I mean, that's not a requirement, but I do love some themes I can chew on. Now, theoretically this book can be read as a standalone. However, the final passage. While story-structured in such a way that a Cosmere newbie could get along just fine with it plot and character-wise, the tonal shift from semi-zany to completely zany would probably be incredibly jarring if you weren't in on some of the backstory. I mean, storms, it was jarring for me, and I am up on the Cosmere (except for Wax and Wayne - too much content I don't like in those books.) I think it would be a difference if it's a fun jarring or an unpleasant one. There were a few crudeish sentences here and there which I took a black marker to, and one completely unnecessary anecdote about sewers that was gross. But overall, I had fun, and am looking forward to getting a little more Cosmere later this year.

Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott (classic children's slice of life) - 3 1/2 STARS. It's good - it really is good, and I am even interested in reading the sequel, Rose in Bloom. But I definitely had to be in the right mood for this book. When I was not, it could be a slog. See, I do enjoy plotless books that revolve around everyday highs and lows for well-developed characters. Lucy Maud Montgomery is the queen of this, and Louisa May Alcott can be brilliant at it. However, I don't feel like she achieved the heights she did in the Little Women series or An Old-Fashioned Girl in this book. The characters simply don't seem developed enough to carry the type of book it is, and it mostly comes down to Alcott's thoughts on child-rearing and the best way to approach growing up. Which I largely agree with, and can also find interesting in their historical context - what Alcott is reacting to in the attitudes of the time, etc. But while Rose and Uncle Alec are sympathetic, they are not rich characters, nor are they flat characters with a rich plot to carry them, at least at this point. Perhaps the whole thing is stronger in retrospect, in light of Rose in Bloom.

No Plot? No Problem by Chris Baty (non-fiction, writing) 3 STARS. This book was written by the founder of NaNoWriMo, and is basically a handbook of tips for prepping and making it through he well-known "thirty days of literary abandon." I believe I read an earlier, shorter edition of it back in the day when it was a free PDF on the NaNo website. I read it more to pump myself up for creativity than because I thought I needed the raw advice. That being said, it does what it sets out to do very well. And if I ever finish my novel, I am totally going to do like that one woman and wear a thumb drive with my manuscript on it round my neck for a few days, as the world's nerdiest secret writer necklace.

Muppet King Arthur (children's comic anthology) 3 STARS. Great fun while you are reading it, with lots of jokes that land and feel truly muppetish in the best way! Didn't measure up to Muppet Sherlock Holmes, though.

Tom's Midnight Garden by Edith, based on the novel by Philippa Pearce (Children's historical fantasy, graphic novel adaptation) 4 STARS. Beautiful, faithful adaptation of a favourite novel from my childhood. The art did not impress me at first, but I came to appreciate it. The spirit of the novel is so well preserved here, and I ended up shedding a tear or two, though it was probably just nostalgia misting in my eyes. I did share it with my dad, who has never read the original book, and he enjoyed it so much he asked for me to lend him the novel.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer (YA sci-fi fairytale retelling) 3 1/2 STARS. Finally finished it! I always enjoyed listening to it when it occurred to me to do so, but didn't have a lot of impetus to move forward. That being said, I am continuing on to Scarlet, so I guess I enjoyed it sufficiently! I will say that Meyer is doing everything she needs to to bring to life the kind of story she is telling, and I admire that.

[stingrayextraordinaire]

Romanticized Asks Challenge

Thank you, anonymous friend, for your kind words and for sending me this challenge! I apologize that it’s taken me so long to get it done, but I wanted to be thorough and I haven’t had too much time recently to work on it :) These are such beautiful concepts, and I had a blast thinking through them!

I’m going to tag a few people who I know also enjoy fantasy (@valiantarcher, @moonlightandstarshimmer​, @effulgentpoet​, @amiablesummer​, @velizaray​), but please don’t feel pressured to do it since it’s such a massive challenge. If anyone else sees this and would like to participate as well, please feel free! :)

1. if you were to have Hanahaki disease, what flowers would you cough up?

Probably either cherry blossoms or tiger lilies!

2. if someone were to catch Hanahaki disease for you, what flowers would they cough up?

As a reversal, either orange blossoms or white lilies!

3. if you were any historic trope, what would you be? (i.e., the knight, the town baker, the witch of the forest, etd.)

I think I would be the village scribe or librarian. Anything where I’m reading or writing mysteriously :D But if I could be a fantasy-style character, I’d be a faerie in the forest, living behind a waterfall and enchanting travelers with a siren voice!

4. tell us about your ideal battle outfit.

Mandalorian armor, but decorated with some light blue painted designs and some excellent Star Wars style weapons!

5. what would you be a goddess of and what would people sacrifice to you?

I would be a sea goddess, with seashells braided into my hair and a voice that could still a storm. My sacrifices would be whatever people lost into the sea.

6. name five iconic quotes that make you feel things.

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” — The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien

“Years have gone, but the pain is the same. I have passed my days by the sound of your name. Well, they say that you're gone and that I should move on. I wonder, how do they know? Well, they don’t.” — “In the Wind,” Lord Huron

“I did not know, until then, that you could disappear into someone's gaze, that bone and heart and breath could melt like shadow into light, until only light was left.”  — Winter Rose, Patricia A. McKillip

“I’ll never burn as brilliantly as you. It’s only fair that I should be the one to chase you across ten, twenty-five, a hundred lifetimes, until I find the one where you’ll return to me.” — “25 Lives,” Tongari

“I spent my entire life waiting for you, and I didn't even know it until you arrived. Being burned was the best thing that ever happened to me because it brought you. I wanted to die, but you filled me with so much love that it overflowed, and I couldn't help but love you back. It happened before I even knew it, and now I can't imagine not loving you. You have said that it takes so much for me to believe anything, but I do believe. I believe in your love for me. I believe in my love for you. I believe that every remaining beat of my heart belongs to you, and I believe that when I finally leave this world, my last breath will carry your name. I believe that my final word — Marianne — will be all I need to know that my life was good and full and worthy, and I believe that our love will last forever.” — The Gargoyle, Andrew Davidson

7. scythe, battle axe, broad sword, spear, or trident?

Trident!

8. what combination of natural scents would you use as perfume?

Vanilla, honeysuckle, and sea salt!

9. ancient scrolls or leather-bound books?

Leather-bound books!

10. describe yourself as if you were a storm.

“A deep murmur of thunder billowed across the horizon, blanketed by the warm spring air and the canopy of willow trees that were whipped into a frenzy. The power of the storm — the kind that sends an anticipatory chill down a person’s spine — promised unforgiving winds, fierce streaks of light, a blessed cool downpour that would bring life as easily as it would take.”

11. what type of flower (other than a rose) would you offer someone you were trying to court?

Either a camellia or a bouquet of peonies!

12. honey in milk or cinnamon in tea?

Cinnamon in tea (or milk)!

13. cabin in the woods, apartment in the city, or mansion in the suburbs?

Cabin in the woods! Though it really would be more of a cottage.

14. curtains of beads or lace?

Curtains of lace!

15. vocal or instrumental music?

Depends on what mood I’m in because I love both, but I listen to vocal music most often!

16. describe your ideal fantasy outfit.

A light blue and white peasant dress, an embroidered apron, a navy blue cloak, sturdy hiking boots, and white flowers braided into my hair.

17. of all the fantasy races to ever exist, which one would you be?

I think I would be a mermaid, but being an elf sounds lovely, too!

18. hard candy, fruit preserves, or spice cake?

Fruit preserves, preferably cherry or strawberry!

19. show us a picture of your ideal crown.

20. tying your hair up using ribbon, yay or nay?

YAY! A white or dark blue velvet ribbon, if we’re getting specific.

21. an evening in the forest with elves, a night in the caves with vampires, or a morning in the garden with fae?

An evening in the forest with elves!

22. tell us, in detail, about a curse a witch would put on you.

I think I would be cursed with something I would fear the most, like eternal isolation, losing my true love, or being cut off from all knowledge. As such, I think the curse would involve putting me in some kind of eternal, empty, isolated prison (like Rapunzel’s tower or an impenetrable labyrinth) from which there was no escape. That would cut me off from any hope of finding my true love or any friendships, and I would be completely cut off from any form of learning. If the witch really wanted to ruin me, she would curse me to have my mind destroyed by insanity or forgetfulness, which would be like a living death.

23. talking with sylphs or singing with nymphs?

Singing with nymphs!

24. mint, rosemary, basil, or sage?

Rosemary or basil! I use both every time I cook pasta :)

25. favorite childhood story? (doesn’t have to be a fairy tale)

“The Wild Swans” was my favorite fairytale, but the legends of “Lohengrin the Swan Knight” and “The Lady of Shalott” were fascinating to me. Favorite ballet was “Swan Lake.” Favorite short story was “The Lady or the Tiger,” which haunts me to this day. Favorite not-fairytale was “The Ugly Duckling” (not the Hans Christian Andersen story, but the uproariously funny play by A.A. Milne).

26. tell us about an experience you’ve had that seemed unreal or supernatural. (doesn’t have to be scary)

When I was younger, I worked at a historical museum and saw a ghostly 19th-century woman looking at me from the window of the old house (which was completely locked up and off-limits to anyone). My sister and I both saw her, so I know it wasn’t just my imagination.

Furthermore, the upstairs of my family’s house all through my childhood and teen years was and is undoubtedly haunted, so I have plenty of scary experiences from that.

27. would you rather have poison or healing ointment in your traveling pack?

It really would depend on who I was traveling with... but I would probably take the healing ointment since you never know when you might need to heal yourself or someone you meet. If you need to hurt someone, poison is just one option. Ointment may be the only option to save your life.

28. tell us three sayings that you live by.

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

“If you run with the dogs, you’re bound to get fleas.”

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

29. vials or mason jars?

Mason jars! But I have seen some absolutely lovely vials, so I could make an exception.

30. describe your ideal masquerade ball outfit (mask included).

A midnight blue ball gown with cap sleeves, a sweetheart neckline, and a full skirt. The entire dress is embroidered with tiny silver stars and diamonds, making it look like I’m wearing the night sky. I would have my hair swept up with a silver tiara and silver star accessories, and I would wear opera-length black silk gloves, star-inspired jewelry, and midnight blue dancing slippers. My mask would be deep blue to match my dress, but instead of stars, it would be trimmed with black lace and tiny silver diamonds.

31. splashing around in a river with mermaids or flying through the sky with harpies?

Splashing in a river with mermaids!

32. what would you end up in the dungeon for?

A forbidden romance with a member of the royal family... or possibly stealing a book from the king’s library...

33. if you were a fairy, what color would your wings be?

An iridescent blend of royal blue, gold, black, and silver!

34. if you could have any magical item, what would it be?

I would love to have a magical globe that would let me see what I needed to see, anywhere in the past, present, or future.

35. what song would the bards sing about you when you passed by?

A song about a girl who could spin magic by storytelling, painting pictures in the sky with her words and breathing life into ink on paper.

36. would you rather be a pirate or a king/queen?

I would be a pirate as long as it didn’t involve killing and robbing innocent people, but since that’s what pirates do, I would choose to be a queen.

37. would you spend more time in the field of flowers, the tavern, the docks, or the marketplace?

I would be evenly split between the field of flowers and the docks!

38. would you have a painting of yourself?

I might have a painting of myself if I were doing something I enjoyed or if I were with someone I loved.

39. what skill are you famous for?

People are always surprised to learn that I speak Scottish Gaelic, have done ballet all my life, and know a lot of random trivia.

40. if you could live any fairy tale, which one would you?

“Beauty and the Beast” would be my first choice, but “The Wild Swans,” “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” and “East of the Sun, West of the Moon” are high on the list.

41. stained glass windows or fairy lights?

Fairy lights!

42. what kind of snow globe would you live inside?

A cozy cottage with a brick chimney, a painted wooden door, and window boxes full of flowers. The cottage would be surrounded by a garden of flowers and plants in every color, paved with a cobblestone path and leading to a wishing well crystal-clear water and trimmed with roses.

43. what animal would you be reincarnated as?

Either a fish or a songbird! Though quite possibly a garden snake or a wild cat.

44. lost at sea or lost in space?

Lost in space! I adore the sea, but I don’t want to get lost in it.

45. if you could have a scar in any shape, what would it be?

In the shape of a swan!

46. what celestial body would you write a hymn to?

Certainly the moon, which I have always loved to study and look at!

47. describe a potion you would brew, complete with ingredients and desired effect.

I would brew a potion that would allow me to produce light and warmth. My ingredients would be warm goat milk, forest mushrooms, melted candle wax, three eyelashes from a lamplighter, ten strands of wool, powdered sunstone, and a spoonful of cinnamon.

48. flying ship or underwater home?

Underwater home!

49. if you were a nature spirit, what season would you dwell in?

Autumn! Though I think I would enjoy any season, really.

50. if you could haunt any place as a ghost, what would it be?

I think I would haunt the seashore at twilight, appearing on the edge of the sea foam and at the mouth of sea caves, waving at sailors and swimmers before vanishing with the last ray of the sun.

[g2gamermatters]

10 Best Fantasy Shows to Watch on Prime Video 2023

If you have lots of spare time, there's no better escape than watching fantasy shows while all tucked in on your bed. Luckily for you, Amazon Prime Video has a vast selection of must-watch fantasy shows that you don't want to miss. No matter whether you like the sound of swords clanging or magical things that don't exist in our world, Prime Video's fantasy shows are here to whisk you away on extraordinary adventures. But, choosing which shows to watch on this streaming platform is a hard decision, right? Well, I'm sure you will want to try watching the fantasy shows below that I've collected for you. Grab your popcorn!

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022-ongoing)

I'm sure that you must have come across The Lord of the Rings but somehow you decided to overlook it. This might be a sign for you to watch it. The Rings of Power takes place a thousand years before the events of J.R.R Tolkien's trilogy, during Middle-earth's Second Age to be exact. If you're a fan of the series, you will surely notice some familiar characters when watching this show. Just like the movie, The Rings of Power also features political conflicts that keep you wondering "What are their motivations to do such things?". While guessing who are the "bad guys", your eyes will be spoiled by its jaw-dropping visuals and cinematography. 

2. Invincible (2021-ongoing)

Source: Ubisoft News

Next time you're in the mood for cartoon-ish shows, check out Invincible. This animated series revolves around Mark Grayson, a seemingly ordinary boy whose father is the world's most powerful superhero. But when he turns 17, his entire life begins to change. During this stage, During his metamorphosis, Mark is torn between his personal life and his heroic duties, where he will be pushed to prove that he is capable of becoming the hero that his father is. Despite the fact that this show has a very comic-animated style, you cannot watch this with underage kids due to mature and violent content.

3. The Boys (2019-ongoing)

Source: IMDb

The Boys is not a typical superhero shows we've grown to expect. Instead of making their superhero main characters aspirational, the show presents them as unstable, selfish, corrupt, and threathening to the public, which makes for devastating satire. Imagine a world where caped crusaders are owned by a massive corporation and can get away with almost anything. That's the dark and twisted reality our heroes (or should I say, "The Boys") are up against. Very much the opposite of what superheroes supposed to be. So, if you're tired of the same old superhero stories and want something edgier, The Boys is what you need.

4. Good Omens (2019-ongoing)

Source: Amazon.com

Can you imagine how funny it would be when the immortals being sassy? That's what you're going to see in Good Omens. The story follows two characters named Aziraphale and Crowley, both of them are angel and demon respectively. They've grown rather fond of our world and, believe it or not, have developed a friendship. Their dynamic is like a heavenly and hellish odd couple trying to save humanity. One thing that makes this show is worthy to watch is its absurd humor and clever satire. You'll find yourself laughing out loud at the absurdity of it all, from a misguided witch-hunter to a group of biker angels.

5. The Wheel of Time (2021-ongoing)

Source: Amazon.com

Anyone who loves immersive fantasy should watch The Wheel of Time at least once in their lives. Based on the fantasy book series by Robert Jordan, this show centers on the journey of a group of kids who are trying to save the world from the Dark One. Magic is the main theme of this show, and it's portrayed in ways that will leave you amazed. The strong sorceress (known as an Aes Sedai) is assigned to track down the Dragon – a Chosen One destined to destroy the embodiment of evil and save their world from catastrophe. I can say that the plot is quite fresh because at some point, it draws on the both Asian and European mythology.

6. Britannia (2017-ongoing)

Source: Amazon.com

Most of fantasy series are usually fictional, but what if you mix it with real history? That's what Britannia does. The show creates its own version of the Roman occupation of Great Britain. If you're into epic battles, mystical druids, and wild adventures, this one should be on your watch list. Set in the time of the Roman Empire's conquest of Britain, Britannia follows the clash of two very different worlds. On one side, you have the disciplined and powerful Roman soldiers, led by General Aulus Plautius, played by David Morrissey. On the other side, there are the fierce and mystical Celtic tribes, including the defiant Kerra, portrayed by Kelly Reilly.

7. Grimm (2011-2017)

Source: Amazon

Do you find it exciting when a character finds out that they're a descendant of something extremely powerful? This is what happened with Nick Burkhardt in Grimm. He just realizes that he's a descendant of the well-known Grimm family, whose destined to protect humanity not only from criminals, but also from evil creatures determined to cause chaos. The characters in Grimm are relatable and grow throughout the series. You'll see Nick evolve from a regular cop to a formidable Grimm. His relationships with his partner, Hank, and the reformed Blutbad, Monroe, are both heartwarming and hilarious.

8. Carnival Row (2019-2023)

Source: The New York Times

Carnival Row is one of the most ambitious Amazon Original series in recent years for fantasy with a noir aspect. The enigmatic and captivating story of Carnival Row takes place in a universe where mythological creatures are persecuted refugees trying to survive on a planet ruled by humans. The hardships that immigrant communities have when they move to a new country are directly portrayed in the show. Yup, Carnival Row is one of those shows that hooks you from the starts and you just can't let go until you reach the end.

9. American Gods (2017-2021)

Source: Screen Rant

American Gods is a novel by Neil Gaiman that explores how we collectively place our belief in beings that exist outside the parameters of religion and investigates the boundaries of human faith. The series adaptation of American Gods is basically the same, but its characters have a freedom to make their own choices. The way Gaiman handles old Norse mythology in American Gods is extremely wonderful. He expertly combines it with modern religions and poses the hypothetical question, "What if they were real?" What might they be doing right now? Such a good show for those who love to questing anything.

10. Shadow and Bone (2021-2023)

Source: Ready Steady Cut

Shadow and Bone transports you to Ravka, a nation with influences from 19th-century Russia and based on Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse series. Ravka is divided in two by a sea of darkness known as the Fold, and it is purportedly only the mythical Sun Summoner who has the power to banish it. Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), a cartographer, is forced into the mystical Grisha's court after she learns that she possesses the Sun Summoner's abilities and meets their mysterious king, the Darkling (Ben Barnes).

That's all! Before watching those shows, the first thing you need to do is subscribe to Prime Video. Getting started with Prime Video is a straightforward process. All you need is an Amazon account, and if you're already an Amazon Prime member, you automatically have access to Prime Video as part of your membership. If you're not a Prime member, don't worry; you can subscribe to Prime Video separately. What about the payment? I recommend you to use Amazon gift cards which are available on the G2G platform. It's a flexible way to enjoy Prime Video without the need for credit cards or personal banking information.