Fantasy Fiction

Presents articles on the horror and fantasy genres of fiction, including authors, themes, significant works, and awards.

Fantasy is one of the most visible genres in popular culture - we see the creation of magical and imagined worlds and characters in every type of media, with very strong fan bases in tow. This latest guide in the successful Bloomsbury Must-Read series covers work from a wide range of authors: Tolkien, Philip Pullman, Terry Pratchett, Michael Moorcock, Rudyard Kipling and C.S Lewis to very contemporary writers such as Garth Nix and Steven Erikson. If you want to expand your range of reading or deepen your understanding of this genre, this is the best place to start.

This book explores the power of the map in fiction and its centrality to meaning, from Treasure Island to Winnie-the-Pooh.

Literary works have often engaged political issues, and many political writings give close attention to literary concerns. This encyclopedia explores the complex relationship between literature and politics through detailed entries written by expert contributors on authors, historical figures, major literary and political works, national literatures, and literary movements, covering specific themes, concepts, and genres related to literature and politics from the 20th century to the present. The work covers cover authors that include Margaret Atwood, James Baldwin, Philip K. Dick, W.E.B. Du Bois, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Jack London, Toni Morrison, George Orwell, John Steinbeck, and Virginia Woolf, just to mention a few. International in scope, Literature and Politics Today: The Political Nature of Modern Fiction, Poetry, and Drama covers writing ranging from the beginning of the 20th century to the present, with special emphasis on works written in English. The content of the some 150 alphabetically arranged entries is ideal for high school students working on assignments involving literature to explore such current yet historically ongoing social issues as censorship and propaganda. This book is appropriate for public libraries where it will serve to support student research and to help general readers learn more about enduring political concerns through literary works. Academic libraries will find this reference a valuable guide for undergraduates studying literature, history, political science, law, and other disciplines.

A fiction-writing text by a well-known sci-fi author, editor and professor.

The most trusted guide to getting published! Want to get published and paid for your writing? Let the 2015 Writer's Market guide you through the process with thousands of publishing opportunities for writers, including listings for book publishers, consumer and trade magazines, contests and awards, and literary agents. These listings include contact and submission information to help writers get their work published. Beyond the listings, you'll find all-new editorial material devoted to the business and promotion of writing, including advice on pitching to agents and editors, managing your freelance business, and building a readership. This edition also includes the ever popular--and updated--pay-rate chart, plus dozens of articles and essays like these: • Kate Meadows, freelance writer and editor, shares seven habits of financially savvy writers. • Carol Tice, professional writer, teaches you how to build your writing career with social media. • Dana W. Todd, public relations professional, explains how to successfully pitch you and your work like a PR pro. You also gain access to: • Lists of professional writing organizations • Sample query letters • A free digital download of Writer's Yearbook featuring the 100 Best Markets Finally, NEW TO THIS YEAR'S EDITION is an exclusive webinar "How to Find More Success Freelancing," taught by Robert Lee Brewer, editor of Writer's Market. It takes a lot more than flawless writing to be a freelance writer. This hour-long webinar will help you to increase your chances of success. You'll learn the current freelance landscape, how to find freelance opportunities, how to secure assignments, negotiating strategies, and more. Whether the goal is to publish a book, write a magazine article, or freelance for local businesses, this webinar is for writers looking to find more success with their freelancing and ultimately make more money. "Every writer needs a toolbox filled with craft, a drop of talent, and hope. Successful writers know they must add the Writer's Market. You should too." -Barbara O'Neal, author of The All You Can Dream Buffet, 7-time RITA award-winner, and RWA Hall of Fame member "The business of writing is unnecessarily intimidating. Editors want good writing, so why can it be so hard to get published. Writer's Market helps make sense of that big question, offering the kind of straight-shooting advice writers needs. I bought my first copy over a decade ago and still feel grateful that I was able to send my first submissions without embarrassing myself. Writer's Market is an invaluable tool that I find myself recommending again and again." -Erica Wright, author of the novel The Red Chameleon and poetry collection Instructions for Killing the Jackal, as well as Senior Editor for Guernica Magazine

Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject English - Literature, Works, Karlsruhe University of Education, language: English, abstract: The following essay aims to find answers to the question of how the combination of several different genres contributes to the fascination of the Harry Potter novels. This will, due to space restrictions, be achieved through an exemplary analysis of the three genres that were amongst the most frequently mentioned in connection with the Harry Potter books: Fantasy, the folktale, and the school story. Before taking a closer look at the three major genres of Harry Potter, the following chapter will first of all briefly define the concept of genre in general, give a short explanation of how genres can be used in terms of marketing strategies and of how they can influence the reader. The main emphasis of the essay will be on the following three chapters that are more or less constructed equally and contain in each case one of the above-mentioned genres. In the first part of each chapter, the genre will be defined and examined according to its origins, followed by an analysis of the main characteristics that constitute each genre. Subsequently, the characteristics of each genre will be analysed within Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, to show that Rowling’s book series actually incorporates the different genres. Finally, it will be illustrated, how the three different genres affect the reader, leading to the fascination of the novels. As the fantasy genre influences all the others, this genre will be presented first and the most extensive, followed by the folktale and ultimately the school story.

“Nature, thou art my goddess”—Edmund’s bold assertion in King Lear could easily inspire and, at the same time, function as a lamentation of the inadequate respect of nature in culture. In this volume, international experts provide multidisciplinary exploration of the insubordinate representations of nature in modern and contemporary literature and art. The work foregrounds the need to reassess how nature is already, and has been for a while, striking back against human domination. From the perspective of literary studies, art, history, media studies, ethics and philosophy, and ethnology and anthropology, Avenging Nature highlights the need of assessing insurgent discourses that—converging with counter-discourses of race, gender or class—realize the empowerment of nature from its subaltern position. Acknowledging the argument that cultural representations of nature establish a relationship of domination and exploitation of human discourse over nonhuman reality and that, in consequence, our regard for nature as humanist critics is instrumental and anthropocentric, the present volume advocates for the view that the time has come to finally perceive nature’s vengeance and to critically probe into nature’s ongoing revenge against the exploitation of culture.

J. R. R. Tolkien is arguably the most influential fantasy writer of all time--his world building and epic mythology have changed Western audiences' imaginations and the entire fantasy genre. This book is the first wide-ranging Christian Platonic reading on Tolkien's fiction. This analysis, written for scholars and general Tolkien enthusiasts alike, discusses how his fiction is constructed on levels of language, myth and textuality that have a background in the Greek philosopher Plato's texts and early Christian philosophy influenced by Plato. It discusses the concepts of ideal and real, creation and existence, and fall and struggle as central elements of Tolkien's fiction, focusing on The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and The History of Middle-earth. Reading Tolkien's fiction as a depiction of ideal and real, from the vision of creation to the process of realization, illuminates a part of Tolkien's aesthetics and mythology that previous studies have overlooked.

The fate of New Orleans rests in the hands of a wayward grifter in this novel of gods, games, and monsters. Jude Dubuisson knows things he shouldn’t. He has the supernatural ability to find lost things, a gift passed down to him by the father he has never known—a father who was more than human. But so much was lost during Hurricane Katrina that it played havoc with Jude’s magic, leaving him overwhelmed and cursed. Jude has been lying low since the waters receded, hiding from his own power, his divine former employer, and a debt owed to the fortune god of New Orleans. When the fortune god is murdered, Jude is drawn back into a world full of magic, monsters, and miracles—and a deep conspiracy that threatens the city’s soul. As Jude investigates the fortune god’s death before the killer can strike again, he discovers what his talent for lost things has always been trying to show him: what it means to be his father’s son.

A prolific author, Isaac Asimov is most admired for his science fiction, including his collection of short stories I, Robot and his Robot, Empire and Foundation series novels. While each of these narratives takes place in a different fictional universe, Asimov asserted at the end of his career that he had, with his last Robot and Foundation novels, unified them into one coherent metaseries. This reference work identifies and describes all of the characters, locales, artifacts, concepts and institutions in Asimov's metaseries. Mimicking the style of The Encyclopedia Galactica, the fictional compendium of all human knowledge that features prominently in the Foundation series, this encyclopedia is an invaluable companion to Asimov's science fiction oeuvre.

H. Beam Piper is one of science fiction's most enigmatic writers. In 1946 Piper appeared seemingly from out of nowhere, already at the top of his form. He published a number of memorable short stories in the premier science fiction magazine of the time, Astounding Science Fiction, under legendary editor John W. Campbell. Piper quickly became friends with many of the top writers of the day, including Lester Del Rey, Fletcher Pratt, Robert Heinlein and L. Sprague de Camp. Piper also successfully made the turn from promising short story writer to major novelist, authoring Four-Day Planet, Cosmic Computer, Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen and Little Fuzzy, which was nominated for a Hugo award. Even those who counted Piper among their friends knew very little about the man or his life as a railroad yard bull in Altoona, Pennsylvania. This biography illuminates H. Beam Piper, both the writer and the man, and answers lingering questions about his death. Appendices include a number of Piper's personal papers, a complete bibliography of Piper's works, and an essay on Piper's Terro-Human Future History series.