Worlds can exist without stories, but fantasy stories cannot exist without a vibrant and enthralling world. But what makes a good fantasy world? Be you a top-down planner, a bottom-up pantser, or a fantasy fan experiencing the worldbuilding from the inside-out, this comprehensive guide has you covered. Adopting a "tools not rules" approach, you will discover dozens of worldbuilding strategies, including: Ineffective, effective, and inspired worldbuilding. Designing comprehensive magic systems. The four Cs of worldbuilding and how to use them. The ins and outs of immersion. Enhancing the audience experience with fantasy conceits. Also featuring: Case studies from famous worldbuilders. Map design 101. Survey results showing what audiences want. Answers to these questions and more were once scattered throughout the realms, but have finally been compiled and synthesized for fantasy fans and authors alike.

Spy. Traitor. Soldier. Savior. In a world where airships rule the skies, a fierce female antihero rises from the ashes of a divided nation. Born with the ability to create mystic blades out of thin air, Marta Childress' parents trained her to become the ultimate spy. But after being captured during the civil war that tore her country apart, she was forced to betray her family and homeland. Years later, her duplicitous brother arrives with a mission to bring her home again: escort an inventor's daughter deep into enemy territory and then assassinate him. But Marta has her own plans for the child. And for her hateful brother. Crossing the war-torn continent, Marta will have to face deadly daemons, fend off enemy airships, and dodge ghosts that kill with a touch, all while navigating political intrigue and personal betrayals. With a ragtag team of her brother's handpicked agents, including a charming mercenary armed with an enchanted lockblade and his mute companion, Marta must use her powers and wits to keep the inventor's daughter alive, uncover hidden agendas, and take control of her own fate. Will Marta be able to redeem herself and prevent another devastating civil war, or will her quest for revenge consume her? Find out in this action-packed flintlock fantasy that blurs the lines between hero and villain. Think Mark Lawrence's edgy characters mixed in with Brandon Sanderson's excellent world-building skills and you will have an exact answer to what awaits within this amazing debut. --Fantasy Book Critic

From wondrous fairy-lands to nightmarish hellscapes, the elements that make fantasy worlds come alive also invite their exploration. This first book-length study of critically acclaimed novelist Patricia A. McKillip's lyrical other-worlds analyzes her characters, environments and legends and their interplay with genre expectations. The author gives long overdue critical attention to McKillip's work and demonstrates how a broader understanding of world-building enables a deeper appreciation of her fantasies.

Mark J.P. Wolf’s study of imaginary worlds theorizes world-building within and across media, including literature, comics, film, radio, television, board games, video games, the Internet, and more. Building Imaginary Worlds departs from prior approaches to imaginary worlds that focused mainly on narrative, medium, or genre, and instead considers imaginary worlds as dynamic entities in and of themselves. Wolf argues that imaginary worlds—which are often transnarrative, transmedial, and transauthorial in nature—are compelling objects of inquiry for Media Studies. Chapters touch on: a theoretical analysis of how world-building extends beyond storytelling, the engagement of the audience, and the way worlds are conceptualized and experienced a history of imaginary worlds that follows their development over three millennia from the fictional islands of Homer’s Odyssey to the present internarrative theory examining how narratives set in the same world can interact and relate to one another an examination of transmedial growth and adaptation, and what happens when worlds make the jump between media an analysis of the transauthorial nature of imaginary worlds, the resulting concentric circles of authorship, and related topics of canonicity, participatory worlds, and subcreation’s relationship with divine Creation Building Imaginary Worlds also provides the scholar of imaginary worlds with a glossary of terms and a detailed timeline that spans three millennia and more than 1,400 imaginary worlds, listing their names, creators, and the works in which they first appeared.

From the internationally bestselling author of the Mars Trilogy and New York 2140 Before Kim Stanley Robinson terraformed Mars, he wrote three science fiction novels set in Orange County, California, where he grew up. These alternate futures—one a post-apocalypse, one an if-this-goes-on future reminiscent of Philip K. Dick, and one an ecological utopia—form a whole that illuminates, enchants, and inspires--collected here as Three Californias. What if... there was a limited nuclear war that left the United States blockaded, fragmented, the few survivors living in the ruins of a once-great nation? What if... this goes on, and technology continues to accelerate, and power continues to be consolidated into corporate culture, a developer’s dream world gone mad: an endless sprawl of condos, freeways, and malls, and designer drugs? What if... a revolution happens, and the US addresses climate change in a responsible way. Is a future green Utopia all that great when you’re young and in love? This Tor Essentials edition of Three Californias includes an introduction by Francis Spufford, bestselling author of Golden Hill and Red Plenty. “[Robinson] invites us to share his characters’ intensely personal, intensely local attachment to what they have. The result may shame you into entertaining new hope for the future.” —The New York Times on Pacific Edge At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Create rich, complex fictional settings with tips from a New York Times–bestselling author and Nebula, Hugo, and Bram Stoker Award nominee. International bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson has created many extensive fictional universes, ranging from sweeping galactic empires to complex steampunk fantasies, to humorous monster-filled cities. He has become known for his skill in worldbuilding. Now, in Worldbuilding: From Small Towns to Entire Universes, he describes the techniques he uses in creating a rich fictional setting, leading writers through the countless questions and topics one must consider. Whether it’s geography, climate, politics, economics, society, religion, science, arts, or history, all of these ingredients form the basis for a believable setting for your story to unfold—and the expertise provided in this book by a prolific master of science fiction, fantasy, and horror with over twenty million of copies in print will show you how to create universes of your own.