Category Archives: fantasy

The Future of the Past: F&SF, January 1963

Posted on April 22, 2025 by JE

In my ceaseless quest to avoid useful work, I recently opened up an old magazine from my double-stacked shelves of old sf/f zines, this one being the January 1963 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. “This is … Continue reading →

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Swords Against Silence

Posted on April 5, 2025 by JE

It’s been sometimes sad, sometimes joyous, but always a pleasure to hang out with people at Windy City Pulp and Paper and celebrate the life and work of Howard Andrew Jones. Too many stories were shared for me to scribble … Continue reading →

Posted in books, fantasy, Heroic Fiction League, Myth & Legend, sff, sword-and-sorcery, writing | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Rats Live on No Evil Star: Leiber’s THE SWORDS OF LANKHMAR

Posted on March 27, 2025 by JE

In summary: The Swords of Lankhmar has a slow start. In fact, it has two slow starts. But once the beat drops, as it were, the story swings into action and lots of weird things happen at an increasingly rapid … Continue reading →

Posted in art, books, fantasy, fantasy art, magic, review or meta-review, Roman history, Rome, sff, sword-and-sorcery | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Mountains and Monsters: Leiber’s SWORDS AGAINST WIZARDRY

Posted on March 16, 2025 by JE

A couple years ago I set out to review all of Fritz Leiber’s books about Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser—foundational texts for sword-and-sorcery and for my personal imagination. I knocked off the first three (or four, depending on how you … Continue reading →

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Endless Glove?

Posted on March 8, 2025 by JE

I reread more than I read. This has certain bad effects; e.g., the towering stacks of TBR books that constantly threaten to topple over and crush me, which are always growing taller, more numerous, and (if I’m not misreading their … Continue reading →

Posted in academia, art, books, dream, fantasy, fantasy art, language, Morlock, Myth & Legend, sword-and-sorcery, words | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Pseudoplumes, Nom de Nyms, Birds, & Oooze

Posted on February 28, 2025 by JE

I’m not a big fan of literary criticism in any field (although I have committed some), but one of my big books from my late teens onward was Le Guin’s The Language of the Night (1979), especially for the essays … Continue reading →

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Nerves in a bundle? Fall into a morðcrundel!

Posted on February 22, 2025 by JE

I’m rereading Beowulf, preparatory to teaching it in a couple weeks to my Norse Myth class. This kind of thing always involves falling into the dictionary and getting swept away by a tide of weird words. This afternoon’s discovery is … Continue reading →

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No Maps of Hell

Posted on February 19, 2025 by JE

Saw the article below on Bluesky and felt the irritation that almost always accrues when scrolling through social media. But this irritation was really specific. Demanding a historically accurate version of a myth is like trying to find the zip … Continue reading →

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What Are the Óðs?

Posted on February 19, 2025 by JE

I was thinking the other day about Hengist and Horsa, the two Saxon chieftains/gangsters who show up to assist and then overpower the usurper Vortigern in the run-up to King Arthur’s origin story. Horsa (Horsus in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Latin) … Continue reading →

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Call Him Poul (if you can pronounce it)

Posted on February 18, 2025 by JE

A judicious review by Paul Weimer of a great NESFA volume linked below. I liked this book a lot, but for me the most distinctive feature of this series is the one that I like least: the stories are a … Continue reading →

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