As a fantasy reader, I am well familiar with book series. And although I’m just as fascinated by standalone fantasy and the rise of the duology (specifically for their tight narratives), I will never complain at stumbling across a book I really love and finding out that it is the first in four, or seven, … More Extended Book Series and the Fallibility of the Human Memory
Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle was one of those formative fantasy series that really began my obsession for the genre. I remember seeing that blue dragon on the cover way back in middle school, and it drew me in the same way that the bow and arrow drew me in for Kristin Cashore’s work. Like Cashore’s … More Book Review: To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
In a genre that likes to play with monarchy, it’s no surprise that several fantasy stories have a big toolbox when it comes to throne-related tropes. For a genre, too, that frequently attempts to set its protagonist apart from everyone else, transforming them from something “common” to something “special,” it is perhaps also unsurprising that … More Let’s Talk Tropes: The Lost Heir
There exists in fantasy a trope that doesn’t quite feel like a trope until it comes to your attention that it appears quite frequently. It is the adventurer’s best friend and most subtle deus ex machina. It is, in essence, the “ancient language” trope, in which there exists two languages in a fantasy setting: the … More A Matter of Language and Culture
Reading and writing are two completely different beasts. When writing a novel, every element feels like it needs to fall into place accordingly. Everything from the big stuff, like plot points, to the smaller things, like a character’s name. However, the things we focus on as writers tend not to be the things people focus … More Power in a Name
Katie Bachelder 