Tag: setting study
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A Deadly Education: A Case Study in Pacing
It is always pleasant to be taken by surprise with a novel, and, a few cultural missteps notwithstanding, A Deadly Education provided just that. (For the concerned reader, I do plan on delving into this in my book review, but this post is already long enough as it is.) The author, Naomi Novik, uses world-building…
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The 3 Tiers of Fantasy World-Building
Last week, I wrote a post about genre writing and it got me thinking about how to know when a book has enough world-building and if it has enough of the right kind of world building. (The post was a setting study for Monsters of Verity if you wanted to check it out.) Rather than…
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Setting Study: Monsters of Verity and the Fringes of Genre
Victoria Schwab’s Monsters of Verity duology is one that walks two tracks: it follows some unwritten rules of genre writing while carving out a completely new niche in the specific subgenre of Fantasy. In today’s post, I’m going to attempt to extrapolate what, exactly, might make a book feel more of a genre book rather…
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Setting Study: Wings of Ebony and Hidden Worlds
To many fantasy readers, there is something alluring about the idea of a magical world hidden from view, the possibility that it could be ours to use if we just know how to pierce that veil of secrecy. You see it in the likes of Harry Potter, Three Dark Crowns (although that is actually high…
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Setting Study: Scythe and Utopias
In the time since The Hunger Games, young adult literature has been mesmerized with dystopias. Neal Shusterman tries to take dystopia back to its more perfect, idealistic roots with the creation of Scythe. Of course, the nature of stories require conflict, and utopias, by definition, shouldn’t, which means that today we’re going to be looking…
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Setting Study: Mistborn’s The Final Empire
The second novel of Brandon Sanderson’s career, The Final Empire, is a high fantasy book taking place in the titular Final Empire, led by the tyrannous, immortal Lord Ruler. Rebellions of the past have always failed, but rebellions of the past never had Kelsier, Vin, or their team of Mistings and Mistborn. As usual, these…
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Setting Study: Legendborn and the Arthurian Mythos
The legend of King Arthur is one of the West’s most popular of ancient stories. Why, exactly, it has held sway for thousands of years is up for debate. I think it’s because, with Sir Thomas Malory’s additions to the narrative, there’s a little bit of something for everyone. Action, romance, magic, triumph of good…
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Making History (WoT Setting Study #4)
Well it’s been over a month since I did one of these. I think we’re due for another while I finish up Rage of Dragons. Today we’re going to inspect the history infused into Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series to see what lessons might be learned. Considering we will be discussing historical figures and…
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Building a Magic System (WoT Setting Study #2)
Wheel of Time is known for many things, and for its readers, channeling is often touted as an impressive magic system. It is expansive, detailed, and well-thought-out. For those who are interested in a more present, harder magic system, the series offers as a template three major facets that differentiate channeling from other magic systems.…
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Sidestepping Monarchy (WoT Setting Study part 1)
The Wheel of Time series is a vast and detailed world, based not on your traditional medieval European setting but rather drawing from a multitude of sources to make each country, even those most resembling the expected medieval England-esque setting, feel very much distinct. As a result, it would be impossible to do a single…
Katie Bachelder 