(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
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Place one million dollars in unmarked bills in a duffel bag and leave it in a locker at the bus stop . . . When we think of hostages and … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) The Campbells and the MacDonalds. The Montagues and the Capulets. The Hatfields and the McCoys. In between the small-scale violence of one individual against another and the large-scale violence of … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Watching the news, it’s easy to get the impression that we live in extremely violent times. Certainly some kinds of violence are all too characteristic of our modern society. In … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Intellectual property may seem like an odd topic for wrapping up a discussion of the literary arts, but there’s a sense in which it feeds directly out of the printing … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) What is poetry, anyway? At school you probably got taught about things like rhyme and meter (certain arrangements of stressed and unstressed beats in a line). These are frequently found … Continue reading
