Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories. Several years later, Greenwood brought the setting to publication for the D&D game as a series of magazine articles, and the first Realms game products were released in 1987. Role-playing game products have been produced for the setting ever since, as have various licensed products including novels, role-playing video game adaptations, comic books, and the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Gor is the fictional setting for a series of sword and planet novels written by philosophy professor John Lange, writing as John Norman. The setting was first described in the 1966 novel Tarnsman of Gor. The series is inspired by science fantasy pulp fiction works by Edgar Rice Burroughs, such as the Barsoom series. It also includes erotica and philosophy content. The Gor series repeatedly depicts men abducting and physically and sexually brutalizing women, who grow to enjoy their submissive state. According to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Norman's "sexual philosophy" is "widely detested", but the books have inspired a Gorean subculture.
Tamora Pierce is an American writer of fantasy fiction for teenagers, known best for stories featuring young heroines. She made a name for herself with her first book series, The Song of the Lioness (1983–1988), which followed the main character Alanna through the trials and triumphs of training as a knight.
Eragon is the first book in The Inheritance Cycle by American fantasy writer Christopher Paolini. Paolini, born in 1983, began writing the novel after graduating from home school at the age of fifteen. After writing the first draft for a year, Paolini spent a second year rewriting and fleshing out the story and characters. His parents saw the final manuscript and in 2001 decided to self-publish Eragon; Paolini spent a year traveling around the United States promoting the novel. The book was discovered by novelist Carl Hiaasen, who brought it to the attention of Alfred A. Knopf. The re-published version was released on August 26, 2003.
Sword of Mana, originally released in Japan as Shin'yaku: Seiken Densetsu, is a 2003 action role-playing game developed by Square Enix and Brownie Brown and published by Square Enix and Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It is an enhanced remake of the first game in the Mana series, the Game Boy game Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden, which was released as Final Fantasy Adventure in North America and as Mystic Quest in Europe. Sword of Mana was the fifth release in the series. Set in a high fantasy universe, the game follows an unnamed hero and heroine as they seek to defeat the Dark Lord and defend the Mana Tree from enemies who wish to misuse its power.
Lina Inverse is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the comic fantasy-themed light novel, manga and anime series Slayers. Lina Inverse is a young yet very powerful sorceress travelling the world in search of adventure and treasure. Lina has been consistently voiced by Megumi Hayashibara in Japanese, dubbed by Lisa Ortiz in the English version of the TV series and by Cynthia Martinez in the English version of the films and original video animation episodes. Slayers novels are narrated by Lina herself from her point of view.
Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. She has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short-list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award.
Hilari Bell is an American fantasy author. She is the author of several science-fiction and fantasy novels including the critically acclaimed Farsala Trilogy. Bell worked as a reference librarian, but quit in 2005 to write full-time. She lives with her mother, brother and sister-in-law in Denver, Colorado.
James Daniel Lowder is an American author and editor, working regularly within the fantasy, dark fantasy, and horror genres, and on tabletop role-playing games and critical works exploring popular culture.
Kindred (1979) is a novel by American writer Octavia E. Butler that incorporates time travel and is modeled on slave narratives. Widely popular, it has frequently been chosen as a text by community-wide reading programs and book organizations, and for high school and college courses.
The Tree of Swords and Jewels is a 1983 fantasy novel by American writer C. J. Cherryh. It is the second of two novels in Cherryh's Ealdwood Stories series, the first being The Dreamstone. The series draws on Celtic mythology and is about Ealdwood, a forest at the edge of Faery, and Arafel, a Daoine Sidhe.
Boogiepop and Others is a Japanese light novel written by Kouhei Kadono and illustrated by Kouji Ogata. The first in the Boogiepop series, it was released in 1998 by MediaWorks and won the fourth Dengeki Game Novel Contest.
Forging the Sword is a fantasy novel written by American author Hilari Bell. It is the third and final book in the Farsala trilogy. It follows the adventures of Jiaan, Kavi, and Soraya as the try to regain control of their country from the invading Hrum empire.
Dragons of the Dwarven Depths is a fantasy novel by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, set in the Dragonlance fictional campaign setting. It is the beginning of the Lost Chronicles trilogy, designed to fill in the gaps in the storyline between the books in the Chronicles trilogy. The events in the book take place between the events of Dragons of Autumn Twilight and Dragons of Winter Night. While parts of the book foreshadow some of the events to take place in the Dragonlance Legends trilogy, the novel is otherwise free of spoilers.
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.
Fall of a Kingdom is the first novel in the Farsala Trilogy by American author Hilari Bell. It was previously published under the name Flame. The series it was in was also referred to as the "Book of Sorahb".
The Farsala Trilogy is a series of three fantasy novels by Hilari Bell that includes Flame, Rise of a Hero, and Forging the Sword.
Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, known in Japan as Hikari no 4 Senshi -Final Fantasy Gaiden-, is a role-playing video game developed by Matrix Software and published by Square Enix for the Nintendo DS. It is a spin-off of the Final Fantasy series and was released by Square Enix in Japan in 2009. The game was released in North America and Europe in October 2010.
Morgan Rice is an American author of fantasy and science fiction novels, with her books making the New York Times, USA Today, Apple Books, and other bestseller lists. Her first novel A Quest of Heroes was self-published in 2013 and was the first of 17 books in her epic fantasy series The Sorcerer's Ring.
Rebecca Roanhorse is an American science fiction and fantasy writer from New Mexico. She has written short stories and science fiction novels featuring Navajo characters. Her work has received Hugo and Nebula awards, among others.
