High fantasy, or epic fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy defined by the epic nature of its setting or by the epic stature of its characters, themes, or plot. High fantasy is set in an alternative, fictional ("secondary") world, rather than the "real" or "primary" world. This secondary world is usually internally consistent, but its rules differ from those of the primary world. By contrast, low fantasy is characterized by being set on Earth, the primary or real world, or a rational and familiar fictional world with the inclusion of magical elements.
Pulp magazines were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazines printed on higher-quality paper were called "glossies" or "slicks". The typical pulp magazine had 128 pages; it was 7 inches (18 cm) wide by 10 inches (25 cm) high, and 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) thick, with ragged, untrimmed edges.
Sword and sorcery (S&S) is a subgenre of fantasy characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent adventures. Elements of romance, magic, and the supernatural are also often present. Unlike works of high fantasy, the tales, though dramatic, focus on personal battles rather than world-endangering matters. Sword and sorcery commonly overlaps with heroic fantasy.
ISFiC Press is the small press publishing arm of ISFiC. It often produces books by the Author Guest of Honor at Windycon, an annual Chicago science fiction convention, launching the appropriate title at the convention.
DAW Books is an American science fiction and fantasy publisher, founded by Donald A. Wollheim, along with his wife, Elsie B. Wollheim, following his departure from Ace Books in 1971. The company claims to be "the first publishing company ever devoted exclusively to science fiction and fantasy." The first DAW Book published was the 1972 short story collection Spell of the Witch World by Andre Norton.
Julie E. Czerneda is a Canadian science fiction and fantasy author. She has written many novels, including four Aurora Award for Best Novel winners, and a number of short stories; she has also edited several anthologies.
Heroes in Hell is a series of shared world fantasy books, within the genre Bangsian fantasy, created and edited by Janet Morris and written by her, Chris Morris, C. J. Cherryh and others. The first 12 books in the series were published by Baen Books between 1986 and 1989, and stories from the series include one Hugo Award winner and Nebula nominee, as well as one other Nebula Award nominee. The series was resurrected in 2011 by Janet Morris with the thirteenth book and eighth anthology in the series, Lawyers in Hell, followed by eight more anthologies and four novels between 2012 and 2022.
The Cherryh Odyssey is a 2004 collection of essays by various academics, critics and authors about American Hugo Award-winning science fiction and fantasy author, C. J. Cherryh. It was edited by author and academic, Edward Carmien, and was published by Borgo Press, an imprint of Wildside Press as part of its Author Study series. Locus Magazine put the book on its "2004 Recommended Reading List", and Carmien received a nomination for the 2005 Locus Award for Best Non-fiction book for The Cherryh Odyssey.
Jim C. Hines is an American fantasy and science fiction writer.
Tolkien: A Look Behind "The Lord of the Rings" is a study of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien written by Lin Carter. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books in March 1969 and reprinted in April 1969, April 1970, July 1971, July 1972, February 1973, July 1973, June 1975 and November 1977, after which it went out of print for over twenty-five years. The book has been translated into French, Japanese and Polish. A new edition updated by Adam Roberts was published by Gollancz in August 2003; it constituted both the first British edition and first hardcover edition. The first American hardcover edition was published by Tor Books in 2004.
James Judson Harmon, better known as Jim Harmon, was an American short story author and popular culture historian who wrote extensively about the Golden Age of Radio. He sometimes used the pseudonym Judson Grey, and occasionally he was labeled Mr. Nostalgia.
Realms of Wizardry: An Anthology of Adult Fantasy is an American anthology of fantasy stories, edited by American writer Lin Carter. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday in December 1976 as the second of two such anthologies continuing a series of nine assembled by Carter for the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series.
Vera Nazarian is an Armenian-Russian American writer of fantasy, science fiction and other "wonder fiction" including Mythpunk, an artist, and the publisher of Norilana Books. She is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) and the author of ten novels, including Dreams of the Compass Rose, a "collage" novel structured as a series of related and interlinked stories similar in arabesque flavor to The One Thousand and One Nights, Lords of Rainbow, a standalone epic fantasy about a world without color, the Cobweb Bride trilogy, and The Atlantis Grail books.
The Codex Writers’ Group also known as Codex is an online community of active speculative fiction writers. Codex was created in January 2004. The Codex Writers’ Group won the 2021 Locus Special Award.
Turn the Other Chick is an anthology of fantasy stories, edited by Esther Friesner, with a cover by Mitch Foust. It consists of works featuring female protagonists by (mostly) female authors. It was first published in hardcover by Baen Books in November 2004; a paperback edition followed in March 2006. It was the fifth of a series of similarly themed anthologies edited by Friesner..
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and drama. From the twentieth century, it has expanded further into various media, including film, television, graphic novels, books, manga, animations and video games.
Wondrous Beginnings is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Steven H. Silver and Martin H. Greenberg, first published in paperback by DAW Books in January 2003. It is a compilation of the first published stories of seventeen prominent authors in the genre, and features introductions to the stories provided by the authors of those stories. Wondrous Beginnings was the first of three similarly-themed anthologies, its companions being Magical Beginnings and Horrible Beginnings, compiling the first published stories of authors writing in the fantasy and horror genres, respectively. The book follows the example of the earlier First Flight: Maiden Voyages in Space and Time, edited by Damon Knight and First Voyages, edited by Damon Knight, Martin H. Greenberg and Joseph D. Olander. which did not include individual introductions. The content of Wondrous Beginnings has little overlap in content with these earlier anthologies, however, as only the stories by de Camp, Clement and Clarke are repeated from them.
Chicks and Balances is an anthology of fantasy stories, edited by Esther Friesner and John Helfers, with a cover by Tom Wood. It consists of works featuring female protagonists by (mostly) female authors. It was first published in trade paperback and e-book form by Baen Books in July 2015. It was the sixth of a series of similarly themed anthologies, the first five of which were edited by Friesner alone.
The Goblin Master's Grimoire is a collection of fantasy short stories by Jim C. Hines, first published in hardcover by ISFiC Press in November 2013. An e-book edition followed from the same publisher in October 2014.
Children's Fantasy Literature: An Introduction is a reference work by American author Michael Levy and British author Farah Mendlesohn, published in 2016 by Cambridge University Press. It follows the history of fantasy read by children over a period of 500 years. Events covered in the book include the collection of folk tales in the 16th century, the impact of world wars on British fantasy and the American response, and the emergence of modern children's and young adult fantasy.
