(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Shops — in the sense of an actual buildings dedicated full-time to trade — are a fixture of the modern world. While we may occasionally visit farmers’ markets, get our … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Writing this essay has earwormed me. I own an album of period music by the group Sirinu, which includes the song “New Oysters Street Cries.” It’s a seventeenth-century round advertising … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) If I want to buy something, I go to a store or hit up the internet. In the science fictional future, I might 3D print many of the things I … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Whether you’re a king or an ordinary citizen with some property, you can’t take it with you. When you die, your money and your goods and your land have to … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Because fantasy and science fiction often focus on grand conflicts — problems on a societal scale, affecting many people beyond the central characters — there’s a rather high occurrence of … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Are kings and queens different from ordinary people? The answer, of course, is “no.” Outside of perhaps a narrow subset of fantasy novels, monarchs don’t stop being human when they’re … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Monarchies are everywhere in speculative fiction. In fantasy they’re by far the most common type of government — which makes sense; if you look at real history, you’ll see vastly … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Because of my involvement as both a writer and a fan for the game Legend of the Five Rings, I’ve spent a fair bit of time hanging out on their … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) If you’re wealthy, if you’re powerful, if you’re hated, if you’re famous — and especially if you’re several of those things at once — you may find yourself in the … Continue reading
New Worlds, Year Four: More Essays on the Art of Worldbuilding by Marie Brennan Escape into another world . . . Bathing and banking, animals and adultery: human culture contains a truly daunting array of elements. The fourth volume of … Continue reading
