**Spoilers ahead. This is a discussion and evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of Deathly Hallows, with special focus on Part Two. If you haven’t seen Part Two, proceed no further. If you haven’t read the book, proceed no further. If you do anyway, well, you deserve to be spoiled.** Read more →
Category: Fantasy
Farewell to the Decade of Harry Potter
Today marks the end of an epoch, an aeon in literary history. Today the final Harry Potter film is released and the cultural and international phenomenon that has united so many and single-handedly created millions of new, enthusiastic readers, comes to an end. It is a hard day. I am both thrilled and saddened beyond measure to finally see the… Read more →
Media: Disabuse Thyself of Thy Superiority Complex
Believe it or not, there is a prejudice – a stigma – attached to fantasy these days. Particularly, it would seem, from our sneering overlord gatekeepers, the Media. A lot of controversy in the news recently about the media snubbing fantasy fiction as not even worth their attention, as though it were somehow beneath them to recognize the genre’s existence and thereby… Read more →
A Few More Pointless Protests
I’d like to continue to write about the claimed cliches of fantasy writing. This next list comes from reader’s comments, and thus represent the “in the trenches” protest of people who are sick of a certain story. “I dislike the white / light = good and black / dark = bad. Even Saruman gets stripped of “white” status after showing… Read more →
A Few Fantasy Cliches
I thought it would be fun to analyze some of the proported cliches of the fantasy genre and evaluate them. The point here is to interact with the complaints about the high fantasy genre and determine whether or not they are true cliches or just opinions. We’ll start out with this article from eHow on “How to Avoid Cliches in… Read more →