At first I thought the current fashion of dark, gritty fantasy – fantasy noir – is just that, a recent shift in popularity, like the explosion of angsty teenage vampire stories. If we take the long view, it’s an established … Continue reading
Tag Archives: epic fantasy
Novels begin in many different ways, drawing their “motive energy” or “visions of ultimate coolness” from varied sources. Which is a high-falutin’ way of saying that there is no one right way in which to begin a story. It can … Continue reading
A string of fantastic (see what I did there?) books got me thinking about how much fantasy has evolved since I first started combing library shelves for it more than fifty … Continue reading
Remscela The Sequel to Tain by Gregory Frost Cu Chulainn was only a teenaged boy when he defeated the combined armies of Queen Maeve. Now, with nothing to fight, Ulster’s warrior seems cursed–by a child he never knew he had; … Continue reading
When readers have asked me about the gestation of what became Táin and Remscela, I usually say it was a project that took about eight years from start to finish—beginning the summer I bicycled across Ireland to the year when … Continue reading
Tides of Darkness Avaryan Resplendent 3 by Judith Tarr Prince Daros of Han-Gilen is an infamous rake and wastrel–and a hidden and completely untrained mage of enormous power. Caught breaking the strictest laws of the Mageguild and their magical Worldgates, … Continue reading
A Stranger to Command by Sherwood Smith [Editor’s note: This Book View Cafe book is part of the Epic Story Bundle curated by Kevin Anderson. The bundles are a “pay what you want” deal, but if you pay at least … Continue reading
For the next eleven days, there is an Epic Fantasy Storybundle on sale. You donate what you want, above five bucks, and you get a hefty pack of books, including an anthology of short stories as a fundraiser. I have … Continue reading
The Giant of Inishkerry The Books of the Painter 2 by Sheila Gilluly How do you go on when everything you love has been lost? Aengus might have become the Painter who would save his people, but that hope was … Continue reading
Arrows of the Sun Avaryan Resplendent, Volume I by Judith Tarr Drums beat, pulse-beat. Slow, slow, then swifter, rising up and up to a rattle of panic-terror. The boy ran. Sometimes as he ran he was himself: wind in his … Continue reading