History and literary criticism of works of fantasy, chiefly of fantasies written for adults. Includes techniques for fantasy writers.

A Role-Playing Game of Swords, Sorcery, and Weird Fantasy

Like its companion volume, "The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction", this massive reference of 4,000 entries covers all aspects of fantasy, from literature to art.

On Earth, life held for him only the fate of a recluse--confined to daydreams and the lore of ancient wonders but apparently destined never to share them--until he found the formula that let him cross space to the world of the Green Star. There, appearing in the body of a fabled hero, he is to experience all that his heroid fantasies had yearned for. A princess to be saved . . . an invader to be thwarted . . . and otherworldly monsters to be faced! A thrilling adventure in the grand tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs, as only Lin Carter can tell it! This edition includes an afterword by Lin Carter.

I could do no better than use de Camp's own words from his intruction to The Spell of Seven in 1965 when he graphically described the genre with this question: "How would you like to escape to a world of wizards and warlocks, warriors and wenches - a world where gleaming cities raise their shining spires against the stars, sorcerers cast sinister spells from subterranean lairs, baleful spirits stalk through crumbling ruins, primeval monsters crash through jungle thickets, and the fate of kingdoms is balanced on the bloody blades of broadswords brandished by heroes of preternatural might and valour?"If your answer is Yes then this book should be right for you.Today there are new masters of swords and sorcery, some of whom you will find within these pages.

On Monday, 8:15 a.m., August 6, 1945, the world changed forever. In the single largest act of destruction ever initiated by humans, a bomb with the equivalent force of 20,000 tons of TNT shattered Hiroshima, killing tens of thousands of civilians, people who had become used to the American war planes flying overhead, planes that were purposely not dropping bombs on their city, to the point where the rush to the bomb shelters had become lackadaisical, and the normal activities continued with little interruption – getting the children up and off to school, opening the many small retail stores for the daily customers, perhaps stopping at a local café for morning coffee or tea, perhaps joining in on the group exercise classes. This is the precise instant we entered the postmodern world, one where the easy truths of centuries no longer applied. Speculative Fiction projects real possibilities beyond the now shattered assumptions, moving through marginalized fictional landscapes – science fiction, fantasy, horror, weird fiction, supernatural fiction, superhero comics, graphic novels, and movies, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, Cyber Punk, the New Wave, as well as related static, motion, and virtual arts, including everything from graphic novels to video games.