Fantasy fiction
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The colors solidified to form a tiled mosaic of jewel-tone flowers, fruit, birds, and butterflies. In the center of the mosaic was an arched doorway with a heavy wood door painted blue.The blue door then slowly opened, and a very athletic man with the head of a small elephant walked through.
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I was absolutely shocked by the research I came across. Strong-willed people were not immune to brainwashing, daydreamers were. Often, those resistant to brainwashing were people no one would expect, average looking people with little to brag about. Why is this?
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Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis was truly the most horrific and deeply moving book I have read in a good way. It was C.S. Lewis’s last novel and far darker than any of them.
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I made a detailed map of Gryphendale. I am very excited about how it turned out. It may not have the polish of a computer generated map could create, but it is full of hidden places for my characters to explore in future stories.
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The Mermaid’s Apprentice is a young adult novel that follows Mabel Sinclair as she tries to rescue her brother and follows Antonio Cortez as he tries to finish his required time in the navy before opening his tailor shop. It is a fun story about mermaids and pirates that is part of Palmer’s world of…
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The Tale of Despereaux has been around awhile, I have been wanting to read it for years. It is a children’s novel and appropriate for the young chapter book readers, but the plot appealed to me even as an adult. I also have to admit that the gorgeous illustrations drew me in as well.
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Darts is a small book for those who love traditional fantasy tropes in a fun new setting. The setting I am talking about for this book is a bar game of darts (hence the name).
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Gryphendale, the first book in the Legends of Gryphendale series, was published in 2016. Since then, I have had many people try to correct the spelling of that title, which is also the name of the fairy world in my book. I have stubbornly fought back against this “correction.”
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The Last Unicorn is another one of those older fantasy fiction books that are considered classics. I have been intentionally reading through these greats of the genre to improve my own writing. This one really surprised me with the pureness and lack of many of the modern-day conventions.
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“No one knows what they really want. Only the few who have power and education can rule competently and fairly,” Lord Mao stated to the young Undine woman walking next to him. The older man with almond eyes and dark black hair had the chiseled features of a general and the mannerisms of a king.
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She found a chair and took a glass of wine from a tray. “You’re quite a dancer,” said a deep familiar voice. Cin turned to see the old charlatan wizard sitting a couple of chairs down from her. The dark-haired wizard with prominent gray streaks in his slicked back hair stared at her with emerald
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A Wizard of Earth Sea is one of those novels that always comes up when people list their all-time favorite fantasy books. This was written at a time when people were not so concerned with breaking away from the tropes of the genre, and yet it still pushed boundaries in subtle ways.
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Silver on the Tree is the last book in Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising Series. As with most of the books in this series, my review is mixed, but I still recommend it as a high-quality middle school and up book.
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Many fantasy fiction stories depict extremely unhealthy and even abusive relationships as being romantic. Why is this a problem?
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The Hobbit is a classic book for good reason. It was originally marketed for children, and it often still is, but this novel is great for any age. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is a sequel to The Hobbit and is more epic.
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Downfall by Caleb Ward is a Christian Science Fiction/Fantasy Fiction novel. I would recommend this book for adults with some background in the church and its theological debates.
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Greenwitch is the third book in The Dark is Rising Sequence. This novel brings back Simon, Jane, and Barney from Over Sea, Under Stone and also Will Stanton from The Dark is Rising. It returns to more of the feel of the first novel, which has less overtly magical elements and odd magic rules.
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Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper is the first book in The Dark is Rising Series. Some times I review a whole series at a time, but these classic young adult fantasy fiction books have been around since the 1960s and are often recommended individually, especially the first two in the series.
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People often ask me what led me to start writing. My answer is I ran away from it. Here’s how it happened.
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Separated from the world of darkness by a bottomless chasm lie the stones of light. The King has built a bridge from that world to His kingdom across the chasm to give people access once again to the stones. He has established seven cities of light and seven towers as beacons to The Darkened Land.
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The Paper Magician Series is a traditionally published young adult fantasy fiction trilogy, sort of. The Plastic Magician is part of the series and world, but not part of the trilogy.
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Etania’s Worth is a Christian young adult fantasy fiction book that checks all the boxes for the genre’s stereotypes while, at the same time, being fun with a refreshing new spin on some important issues.
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I am back reviewing some young adult fantasy fiction, this one fits the category perfectly. The Nameless Soldier by Annie Douglass Lima checks all the boxes for me as being the perfect summer book for young adults ages 12 through the young at heart adults.
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From the moment he could walk, Bowmark has trained for a fight to the death. The Disc awaits him: a giant bronze platform suspended over a river of lava. He dreads the day of proving—when he must kill or be killed—to claim the throne.
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Salvatore has become a legend in the world of fantasy fiction having 23+ books with the character Drizzt Do’Urden. Each book, including each book in this trilogy, are self-contained adventures.
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Today is the day of my execution. I, Puck Alexander Capernaum III, will die by hanging when the sun sets this evening. My former student, Maldamien, Warlock dictator of the faerie world of Gryphendale, has planned a sweet revenge to celebrate his 150th birthday.
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I usually review only one book at a time, but since I haven’t written a review of any of these books, I am going to review the whole Winternight Trilogy in this single post. First of all, before I even get to these amazing books, I have to say that I have never seen more…
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The Finding by R.E. Joyce is a young adult epic fantasy novel very much in the fashion of Tolkien. The story starts with Ariah, an adopted speaking horse who transforms into the unicorn she had always been but had not come to age yet.
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Raising Steam is one of the last books Terry Pratchett wrote and the second to last of his Discworld Series. Since I have only read his collection of short stories that he wrote as a teenager, Dragons at Crumbling Castle and Other Stories, I don’t have much to compare this book.
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Tropes. This evil word used in writing circles describes all the types of stories that are old and overdone. I honestly think that we need to stop worrying about tropes for the most part.
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Heart Song is a well-written teen science fiction novel about space colonization. The protagonist is a thirteen-year-old orphan girl who is part of a space colonization program to build the first base on a planet outside our solar system.
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All Things Now Living by Rondi Bauer Olson is a young adult science fiction novel. Amy is a sixteen-year-old girl whose father shoves her into the dome-locked world of New Lithisle with coding to stop the dome from collapsing.
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Fantasy fiction is a direct descendant of fairy tales and myths. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and George MacDonald were creators of some of the earliest fantasy fiction novels with the specific intention of creating modern fairy tales and myths.
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Even though I have a very long list of favorite writers, my inspiration usually returns to Jane Austin, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien.
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I had started reading George MacDonald’s writing because C.S. Lewis loved it so much and I love C.S. Lewis’ writing. When I sat down to read this book I expected it to be light and easy like The Princess and the Goblin. Boy, was I surprised!
