Category: Fantasy

The Queen of Frost and Darkness — Christine Pope

By 5t4n5

The Queen of Frost and Darkness -- Christine PopeA gender role reversal of the old fairy tale standard of defenceless princess put under evil spell until perfect, heroic prince kisses her and they live happily ever after.   This time it’s the brave, adventurous girl rescuing the enspelled boy.

So yeah, it’s about time the girls get to have an adventure and do the rescuing and young readers get to realise that boys are just as fallible to the wiles of evil doers as girls have always been portrayed to be.

I think this one is good for all ages, and certainly a great way to begin further conversations with children about historical views of gender roles when this is compared to fairy tales from the patriarchy such as Sleeping Beauty etc..

Available in the anthology, Once Upon a Curse.

Christine’s page

#fantasy #fairytale #christinepope

Fae Horse — Anthea Sharp

By 5t4n5

Fae Horse -- Anthea SharpThis one is very much on the dark side of folk-lore/fairy-tale telling, beginning in a witch hunt.   Maybe not so suitable for very young children.

That said, its very good and will certainly keep you in its grip until the end.

Available on its own (click on picture) but also included in the anthology, Once Upon a Curse, and also in the collection, Tales of Feyland and Faerie.

Anthea’s page

#fantasy #fairytale #antheasharp

Pan — Christopher Ruz

By 5t4n5

Pan -- Christopher RuzAnother Peter Pan spin off that’s rather similar to Lost Boy.

Pan was first published in January 2016 as a short story for Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine whereas Lost Boy was published in July 2017, which is curious:  was Pan the catalyst for Lost Boy?

But, whatever, glad to have them both as they’re both definite must reads for all fans of Peter Pan and things Neverland, and Pan definitely deserves a place in the “Peter Pan and Neverland” hall of fame.

Christopher’s Page

#jmbarrie #peterpan #fantasy #christopherruz

The Pied Piper of Hamelin — Robert Browning

By 5t4n5

The Pied Piper of Hamelin -- Robert BrowningA delightful, long poem telling the full story of the Pied Piper.   Great for reading out loud to children.   And much, much better than the Brothers Grimm version.

Best of all, it’s free.   So why not download and give it a read today.

Fairy Tales and Folklore Robert’s Page

#viclit #poetry #fairytale #fantasy #robertbrowning

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City — K. J. Parker

By 5t4n5

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City -- K. J. ParkerThis is another one of those books that i judged by its cover and title, and the fact that it was 99p in a Kindle deal certainly didn’t do it any harm in getting me to purchase it.   Was it worth it?   Oh yeah, very much worth every single one of those 99 pennies — and then some.

Although listed as fantasy, don’t be expecting any wizards, elves or things magical, it isn’t that kind of fantasy.   It’s the kind of fantasy of a completely different place with big walled cities that keep those in power nice and secure and those not in power kept well out of it, well away and firmly under the boot heel.   Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City is very much the story of the downtrodden of this world, a world ruled by people with dark blue skin, the Robur, where people with lighter skin are oppressed.

Telling this story is the colonel in charge of the Robur army’s engineers, Orhan, who, much to the chagrin of the Robur, just happens to be one of those light skinned “Milkface” types who only got the job through pure luck and because he’s very good at building bridges and fiddling the regimental accounts.

And this is the story of how Orhan suddenly finds himself in charge of defending a walled city against hoards of other pale skinned, Milkface savages on behalf of his Robur rulers.

From the very beginning one can’t help but really like Orhan.   He has a very amusing, sarastic world view fuelled by an intelligence fitting with being a military engineer, and is certainly one of the most enjoyable narrators of any story i can think of from recent memory.

As an ex army engineer myself i really got into Orhan’s attitude to it all: shouldn’t the real soldiers be doing all this horrible nasty fighting and killing stuff while we just fix and build things?

This was my first K. J. Parker/Tom Holt book and i’m certainly going to be reading more books from him.   Great style, great editing, great characters, great all round writing.

And i just found there’s a follow-up to this wonderful yarn: How To Rule An Empire and Get Away With It

K. J. Parker’s Page Tom Holt’s Page

#fantasy #kjparker

Through Time and Space — Julia Crane

By 5t4n5

Through Time and Space -- Julia CraneA fun, little re-make of Little Red Riding Hood with all the usual protagonists portrayed as Venusians being banished to Earth.

This is my first story from the anthology, Once Upon A Star, which, apparently, is all fairy tales re-told in sci-fi settings.   However, i would put Through Time and Space squarely in the fantasy genre as moving by magic from one planet is fantasy, not sci-fi.   One certainly wouldn’t put Raymond E Feist in the sci-fi category and he has plenty of rift gate planet hopping going on in his books.

I read this so i could add it to my Little Red Riding Hood collection, and, genre disputes aside, it’s a nice little addition to my fairy tale collection and worth a read for all fairy tale fans.

Julia’ Page

#fantasy #fairytale #juliacrane