Writing Magazine

1 min read

The University of Glasgow School of Critical Studies has launched the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic. The new venture’s inaugural event was a free Zoom lecture on 16 September by fantasy author Ellen Kushner, followed by a discussion panel on f

Writing Magazine

6 min read

Every genre has its tropes, and fantasy is no different. We’ve explored archetypes in these pages before, which refer much more to recurring characters and character types. Tropes are more general themes and motifs that occur within an area of fictio

SFX

1 min read

Words have mystical power in Jay Posey’s space opera EVERY SKY A GRAVE (out now, Harper Voyager). Set in a future where mankind has mastered the Deep Language of the universe, it centres on an adept sent to a world that’s become corrupted. The world

SFX

1 min read

Pick of the paperbacks this time: Adrian Tchaikovsky’s CAGE OF SOULS ( , out now, Head Of Zeus). Set when the sun is dying and less than 100,000 humans survive in the last city, it centres on a rebel confined on an island prison in a predator-filled

Writer's Digest

2 min read

David Burns says the reason why fantasy is such an old but thriving literary genre is that fantasy stories speak to emotional truths. “A good fantasy story is going to make you feel something and resonate about subjects such as love, family and the n

All About History

11 min read

Aladdin retrieves an oil lamp from a magic cave, only to be betrayed by the sorcerer who sent him. However, a ring given to him by the sorcerer, when rubbed, releases a genie who helps him escape. When cleaning the lamp another, more powerful genie i

SFX

1 min read

RELEASED OUT NOW! 344 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Steve Feasey Publisher Bloomsbury A magic sword, an abandoned baby of mysterious origins, and a malevolent sorcerer looking to plunge the world into chaos… Dark Blade ticks off a lot of epic fantas

The Writer

13 min read

All fiction is speculative to some extent, posing a “what-if” question, which serves as the premise and drives the plot. But for fantasy author Kij Johnson, winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Award, the specific genre of speculative fiction adds its

SFX

1 min read

MEET THE COMPLIANCE MANAGER BEHIND YA FANTASY NOVEL KINGDOM OF SOULS Tell us about your protagonist. Arrah hails from a powerful family of witchdoctors, but doesn’t have magic of her own. When the Demon King threatens her kingdom, she must trade year

PC Gamer

1 min read

Never thought I’d say it, but it’s lovely to play as a goblin. Too much time wasted in the Warhammer fantasy world means I go in expecting to be a jittering, capering villain, only interested in sticking people with sharp things. But Master of Shado

Writing Magazine

3 min read

Verily is a US web journal for women. The editorial team ‘sifts through the noise of the world to elevate what is honest, real, and beautiful for the modern woman’. Columns requiring subs are Travel with a Local about the ‘hidden gems’ in your neighb

SFX

1 min read

RELEASED 6 FEBRUARY 352 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook Author Luke Arnold Publisher Orbit Fans of Black Sails will likely find the name Luke Arnold familiar. He played John Silver in the pirate series, as well as being a mainstay on numerous other

SFX

1 min read

Miles Cameron switches from fantasy to space opera for ARTIFACT SPACE (out now, Gollancz), which centres on a vast merchant vessel. When on-the-run orphan Marca poses as a midshipman on the Greatship Athens, she gets caught up in a plot to destroy th

ImagineFX

1 min read

Author Dian Hanson Publisher Taschen Price £150 Web www.taschen.com Available Now Taschen’s Masterpieces of Fantasy Art showcases imaginative art primarily from the 20th century, in a mammoth, highly produced hardback. Yet this mouth-watering prospec

Popshot Magazine

1 min read

ISSUE 25 — FANTASY AUTUMN 2019 There are no limits on fantasy. Yet, in literature it is so heavily steeped in genre it’s impossible not to think of warring kingdoms, dragons, unicorns, witches and other supernatural tropes. Fantasy with a capital F i

Writing Magazine

6 min read

Those wanting to write fantasy short stories find themselves in a unique position. As we explored last month, there is a very lively scene of horror shorts, and the same goes for science-fiction (as we’ll come to next month). However it’s fair to say

The Advocate

1 min read

Isaac Fellman, author of The Two Doctors Górski and, under his pretransition first name, The Breath of the Sun, won the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror for the latter. An archivist at a queer historical societ

Writing Magazine

1 min read

Edited by Roban Bandojo, Pressfuls is a digital magazine which each issue publishes eight short stories in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, horror and crime/mystery. Issues are published each January, May and September, but the title is always

Writing Magazine

1 min read

US indie Stark Raven Press specialises in fantastic and speculative literature, particularly horror, science fiction, and dark fantasy. They publish novels, collections, and anthologies of fiction, and occasionally non-fiction in print and ebook. Sub

Writing Magazine

1 min read

Three Crows Magazine is a quarterly science fiction and fantasy magazine that includes short stories, book, film, and video game reviews, as well as interviews with writers and editors of science fiction, fantasy and horror. Editor-in-chief Alex Khlo

The Writer

3 min read

To join the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, a writer needs to sell a work of short fiction for at least $.08 a word – a tall order when so many magazines struggle to pay contributors. Those speculative authors hoping to become SFWA-cert

Writing Magazine

3 min read

The Common Tongue magazine publishes dark fantasy and speculative fiction online, plus fantasy anthologies. They like a multicultural mix of work and welcome subs from authors anywhere, but are particularly keen on ‘writers whose voices give better u

Writing Magazine

1 min read

Cast of Wonders is a podcast producing young adult speculative short fiction. Each week it presents short stories in the genres of ‘hard science fiction… urban fantasy, horror, steampunk, superheroes and more.’ The team want stories with ‘deep emotio

Literary Hub

2 min read

It is entirely possible that I have never had an accurate sense of what is called realism in that I do not, as a reader, discriminate between it and fantasy. My earliest reading was Greek mythology. As with my prayers, nothing was ever deleted, but

Writing Magazine

6 min read

Fantasy is a genre often seen as one that evokes the past, drawing upon distinctive historical periods in creating its unique worlds and locations. As such, it seems only suitable that it should be a genre with its own long past, which arguably still

SFX

1 min read

Neal Shusterman’s latest, GAME CHANGER (out now, Walker) centres on a teenage American football player, who’s… oh right, you’ve lost interest before I mention how he bounces into parallel worlds, right? Fair enough. Hannah Mathewson’s debut WITHERWAR

Writing Magazine

1 min read

Portal Books are launching a new imprint devoted to fantasy and science fiction. While all subgenres of speculative fiction will be considered, the editorial team of Taran Matharu (author of the multi-million selling Summoner series), Michael Miller

Literary Hub

4 min read

Today marks the release of one of the most anticipated books of the year: Marlon James’s Black Leopard, Red Wolf, a sprawling literary fantasy and the first in a projected series. James is one of our best and most interesting contemporary writers, an

All About History

1 min read

Perhaps the most famous image of a genie is Disney’s blue-skinned, wise cracking entity voiced by Robin Williams that appeared in the 1992 animated version of Aladdin. This version of a jinn, living inside a magical lamp and granting three wishes, su

SFX

1 min read

Leiber’s father (also Fritz) was a successful actor, most notably playing Franz Lizst in Universal’s Phantom Of The Opera (1943). The book was expanded from The Pale Brown Thing, first published in the Jan/Feb 1977 editions of Fantasy And Science Fic