#400fantasystories — Public Fediverse posts

Latest read, Christobel (1800) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge; an unfinished epic full of foreboding, Christobel discovers the mysterious Geraldine in a midnight woods. Geraldine is taken to Christobel's home where she enchants the lord of the house. And...
392 of #400FantasyStories #Poetry #Fantasy #SamuelTaylorColeridge

Latest read, Moon Mirror (1982) by Andre Norton from Hecate's Cauldron; a human-cat hybrid thief steals an amulet from a pilgrim that brings both of them toward a greater, united destiny.
From neophytic to epic in fourteen pages.
349 of #400FantasyStories #Books #ShortStory #Fantasy #AndreNorton

Latest read, What Women Do Best (1984) by Chris & Janet Morris, from Thieves World v. 6, Wings of Omen; an underground (literally) rebel is entangled with Sanctuary's many factions.
Good but mired in Too much use of the shared universe of Thieves World.
272 of #400FantasyStories
#Books #Fantasy #SwordAndSorcery #ShortStory #ThievesWorld

Latest read, Operatrix Triumphans (2021) by Susan R Matthews from Sword & Planet; fencers ceremoniously perform with optic beams & sensors in an ancient starship/citadel but a spy's fencing sequence seeks to activate the citadel's self-destruct mechanism
269 of #400FantasyStories #Boks #Fantasy #ScienceFantasy

Latest read, In the Land of Time (1906) by Lord Dunsany from In the Land of Time and Other Fantasy Tales. Karnith Zo, the king of Alatta, leads his army against the castle of Time.
Fantasy that's as poignant as poetry.
268 of #400FantasyStories #ShortStory #Books #LordDunsany

Latest read, The Truth About Owls, by Amal El-Mohtar (2014) from The Best SF & Fantasy of the Year, vol. 9, & LeVar Burton Reads; an Arabic girl moves to the United Kingdom, befriends the owl Blodeuwedd, and, finds in Welsh myth, self-discovery.
263 of #400FantasyStories #Fantasy #LeVarBurtonReads #Books #shortStory

Latest read, French Comedy of Horrors (2002) by Roberto Bolano, from Cowboy Graves; a student is recruited to join a revolution by the Clandestine Surrealist Group via a seemingly random pay phone call that he answers.

At the subterranean lair of the surrealists:
"On the walls of the room a painter, or a mongoloid child, has drawn some chalk drawings".

Smart, funny (for art academics).

255 of #400FantasyStories
#Books #Fantasy #Satire #RobertoBolano

Latest read, Sindbad the Sailor and Sindbad the Porter (the 7 Voyages of Sindbad), translated by NJ Dawood (1954), from Tales from the Thousand and One Nights; shipwrecks, an island-sized whale, the Roc, giants, winged men & more.
Classic, of course.
244 of #400FantasyStories
#Books #Fables #ClassicLit

Latest read, Lamia (1820) by John Keats; an epic poem.
Cursed into serpent form, Lamia bargains with Hermes to regain her humanity.
She loves Lycius of Corinth. Lycius & Lamia are happy 'til their ill-fated wedding feast.
Fantastic.
Painting by Waterhouse.

217 of #400FantasyStories
#Poetry #EpicPoem #JohnKeats

Latest read, Find My Name (2013) by Ramsey Campbell, from Fearie Tales. A grandmother must save her orphaned grandson, as his birthday approaches, from a monstrous dwarf in this excellent, frightening variation of Rumpelstiltskin.

186 of #400FantasyStories
#Books #ShortStory #FairyTale #DarkFantasy #horror #RamseyCampbell

Latest read, Sultana's Dream (1905) by Rokeya Hossain. An Indian woman dreams of Ladyland where women are in charge and men are kept in the zenanas to do domestic chores.
An early feminist sci-fantasy that also addresses solar and hydrogen power.
162 of #400FantasyStories
#Books #Fantasy #ScienceFiction #IndianLiterature

Latest read, The Fifth Child (1988) by Doris Lessing.
Harriet & David, against middle class convention, want a big family. But then the 5th child arrives--and he may not be human.
Great. A classic of literary horror akin to Ian McEwan's The Cement Garden
151 of #400FantasyStories #Books #Horror #DarkFantasy #DorisLessing

Latest read, The White Seal Maid (1977) by Jane Yolen, from the collection The Midnight Circus. A fisherman takes a selchie, a shape changer, for a wife and loses her, and their sons, to the sea.
Fable-like, melancholy, lyric.

133 of #400FantasyStories #Books #Fantasy #ShortStory #JaneYolen

Latest read, Union Falls (2011) by J.S. Breukelaar, from Collision. Deel, a very damaged widow, reluctantly hires Ame, an armless keyboard player for her bar's band-- a beginning of a change in Deel and the band's lives.
This story is kind of like a modern blues number. Fantasy? Only slightly, deserves comparison to Raymond Carver, Mariana Enriquez, Karen Joy Fowler, and Amparo Davila.
Terrific.
112 of #400FantasyStories #ShortStory #Books #australianwriters

Latest read, The Visible Men (2006) from The Best of Michael Moorcock. Jerry Cornelius, an English inter-dimensional traveler, rather distractedly discusses the multiverse with his duplicates.
There's a very appealing 60's pop sensibility to the Cornelius stories. I can imagine them being drawn by Peter Max.

86 of #400FantasyStories #Fantasy #Moorcock #JerryCornelius #Multiverse #Books #ShortStory #SciFi

Latest read, The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2004) by Robert Silverberg, from the anthology Flights, vol. 1. A hapless young man who has failed at most career choices, but has a knack for magic, becomes apprentice to a beautiful sorceress... and is utterly smitten with her.
Terrific.
Fantasy written with an understanding of adult experiences.
77 of #400FantasyStories #Books #Sorcery #Fantasy #RobertSilverberg #Majipoor #ShortStory

Latest read, The Gate of the Flying Knives (1979) by Poul Anderson, from the anthology Thieves' World, Book 1.
The bard Cappen Varra seeks to rescue his love from a winged demon that has spirited her, and her Lady, to another dimension.
Charming to read this very D&D-esqe, Sword and Sorcery adventure again.
Playful material, smartly written.

76 of #400FantasyStories #Fantasy #SwordAndSorcery #HeroicFantasy #Books #PoulAnderson #ThievesWorld

Latest read, The Bleak Shore (1940), The Howling Tower (1941), The Sunken Land (1942), Seven Black Priests (1953); four tales of Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser by Fritz Leiber, from Swords Against Death. Spellbound and sailing to dark shores where clawed demons hatch; lured to the tower of a haunted alchemist; discovering a land from beneath the waves; or running afoul of an earth god, they're all great.
Adventure, horror, wry humor
71-74 of #400FantasyStories #Fantasy #Horror #SwordAndSorcery #Leiber

Latest read, Even Hand (2010) by Jim Butcher, from the anthology Dark and Stormy Knights. Set in the world of Harry Dresden, this is a tale of Chicago crime boss John Marcone, who, though ruthless, has a code and finds himself protecting (alongside his Valkyrie bodyguard) a child from a monstrous Fomorian sorcerer.
The focus is entertainment; action and hard-boiled patter.
Fun.
69 of #400FantasyStories
#Fantasy #HarryDresden #JimButcher #UrbanFantasy #Books #ShortStory