Pretend, for a moment, that you are an avid reader as many around you are. You’ve just finished the last 14000 word steampunk novella you’ve been reading for a week, and your stock of fresh DiscWorld books is slowly going dry. “Where?” you sob, clutching a pillow. “Oh, where will I find my next piece of Gothic literature with a healthy dose of dark humour?”

Well, fear not, dear reader, for I might have the answer to your oddly specific request: Lemony Snicket’s ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’. Continue reading Olaf Is Near, for Unfortunate Events are here →

Imagining worlds different to the one we live in has been a favourite pastime of humanity for longer than the first written languages even came to be. In the meanwhile, the section of fiction known as “fantasy”, with its trademark magic and dragons and elves (oh my!) has become one of the most popular genres in modern society. There are few children who haven’t read or watched the Harry Potter series, and an even smaller fraction who’ve never even heard of the bespectacled wizard.

Of course, the fantasy genre is far from exclusive to children’s books, as we can see all around us. One of the most popular TV shows on air today is HBO’s Game of Thrones, adapted from George R. R. Martin’s acclaimed A Song of Ice and Fire book series, and it’s no secret that with all the violence, murder, sex, and profanity the show has to offer, it’s not a Saturday morning favourite.

Martin’s books, along with Neil Gaiman’s Stardust and a healthy chunk of J. R. R. Tolkien’s entire bibliography, are examples of “high fantasy”, in contrast to “low fantasy”, examples of which are J. K. Rowling’s aforementioned Harry Potter series and Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series. Continue reading A Song of High and Low Fantasy →