Humans tend to be central to fantasy stories. It is unusual for the point of view character to be of a different race. There are notable...

“Double, d mething wicked this way comes.” This line, stated by the three witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, is possibly the most famous...

Warfare is a constant of human history. Rarely, if ever, has there not been some armed conflict going on somewhere in the world. Most of...

It seems like just about everything has a warning label on it these days. Here’s an example from a shipping bag. Warning: To avoid danger...

Fantasy tales, especially those aimed at children, have often been designed to teach life lessons. They show the worst possible outcome...

T.S. Elliot famously said “Good writers borrow, great writers steal.” Elliot was not condoning plagiarism in the least. What he was...

Fairies, in modern-day stories, have more in common with Tinkerbell from Walt Disney’s Peter Pan than anything else. They’re portrayed as...

Two weeks ago, we started with an overview of what the blog would be about. Last week we looked at the historical cost of books. This...

Take a moment to think about the science fiction and fantasy media you have access to. It probably took longer than only a moment,