My father and I just finished The Bookwanderers, Book One of Anna James' Pages & Co. series

My father and I just finished The Bookwanderers, Book One of Anna James' Pages & Co. series.

Ever love a book so much you feel like you're really there and with just a tiny step you could jump inside? Ever wish you could talk to book characters in real-life? If you are half the reader Matilda "Tilly" Pages is, the answer is an unequivocal yes. The difference is that Tilly, her family, and many others can actually DO both. People called bookwanderers for whom the magic of reading becomes actually magical. And with magic comes danger, whether you are a character in a book talking with characters in another book or in the real-world talking with those or other characters or are a real, non-fictional person dealing with them in other books. If this makes your head spin, I know the feeling; both Dad and I felt a bit disoriented at times as Anna James' takes meta humor to strange levels and breaks the third wall in ways I have never seen.

Regardless and as Pablo Picasso says "everything you can imagine is real," meaning Tilly, Oskar, and all bookwanderers have a very real enemy lurking both within and without literature's pages.

 

I have started The White Gryphon, book #2 of The Mage Wars Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey.

I have started The White Gryphon, book #2 of The Mage Wars Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey.

Rebuilding after Cataclysm is hard, much less in uncharted and untamed wilderness, but the Kaled'a'in Clan k'Leshya has never faced it a task it was not up to; "We can do this" and "Soonest begun is soonest done" as the Hertasi and Gryphons says respectively. But the (initial) death of Ma'ar did not end every sadist-mage in Velgarth. Even in the new city there is a lurking – hopefully soon culled – evil, and goodness knows what dwells in the mysterious southern Haighlei Empire, realm of the Black Kings. An Empire whose resident and hopefully anomalous blood-mages will soon test the skills and threaten the lives of Skandranon Rashkae and Amberdrake as they fight for k'Leshya's future.

I have finished The Black Gryphon, book #1 of The Mage Wars Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey

Urtho, Mage of Silence.
Creator of the Gryphons.

I have finished The Black Gryphon, book #1 of The Mage Wars Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey.

Who heals the Healer? What is the toll emotional toll behind the lines and beyond loss of life in war? These are questions Lackey answers in the camp of Urtho, the Mage of Silence – by Amberdrake, Kaled'ai'in kestra'chern, Skandranon Rashkae, Zhaneel Winterhart, Gesten, and others. Battling prejudice, guilt, and grief until the Mage Wars reaches its Cataclysmic end – ending Urtho, Ma'ar (mostly), magic-dependent civilizations and the laws of magic itself. (As said Urtho, "Knowledge will always be the best weapon against tyrants." And the best bait.) Bringing the first set of Mage Storms and leaving the magic-twisted, scarred, and strange Pelagirs behind.

History shows that from these ashes will spring the Sundering of the Clans into the Tayledras and Shin'a'in, and eventually, two millennia hence, the meeting of Elspeth, Darkwind, the returned Clan k'Leshya, and Kerowyn. But the story of Skandranon Rashkae and Amberdrake is not over yet, and I for one cannot wait to learn more about Clan k'Leshya in this strange new world.

The Dawn Will Come

"Shadows fall
And hope has fled
Steel your heart
The dawn will come

 

The night is long
And the path is dark
Look to the sky
For one day soon

The dawn will come

 

The Shepherd's lost
And his home is far
Keep to the stars

The dawn will come

 

The night is long
And the path is dark
Look to the sky
For one day soon
The dawn will come

 

Bare your blade
And raise it high
Stand your ground
The dawn will come

 

The night is long
And the path is dark
Look to the sky
For one day soon
The dawn will come"

What would I look like if I were Vulcan/Human hybrid (like Spock) and a Starfleet Officer?

I am the first person the acknowledge the dangers of AI (Artificial Intelligence) but, that being said, one can also have a lot of fun with it. Such as answering the following question: What would I look like if I were Vulcan/Human hybrid (like Spock) and a Starfleet Officer?

Official Guest Post: What if Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Other Genres Collided? by J.V. Hilliard

An Official Guest Post by J.V. Hilliard, author of the most excellent Warminster Series:

What if Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Other Genres Collided?

Fantasy is one of the more expansive, all-encompassing genres, offering tell-tale signs in the media it shows up in. It can blend with horror to create movies like Pan’s Labyrinth, or it can mix with romance for the ever popular “romantasy” genre as seen in A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) by Sarah J. Maas. Even more, fantasy can contribute to steampunk and appear in Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld or Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve.

Throughout it all, there are certain staples of the fantasy genre. These include: magic, an epic quest, and cryptids to name a few. Magic goes hand-in-hand with fantasy books and movies, appearing in fairytales and mythology, with spells, sorcery, grimoires, and totems featured prominently. Where sci-fi has technology, fantasy has magic, and sometimes, they combine to create your favorite media. We see sci-fi and fantasy blend together in Buffy the Vampire Slayer with the season six villains known as “the trio.” They utilize a freeze ray, jet packs, invisible ray, time loop tech, and more to terrorize Buffy and her friends. We also see sci-fi fantasy in Star Wars and Star Trek where technology is hyper-advanced and stands in for magic

One other sign of a fantasy story is an epic journey or quest, which is also called a “hero’s journey.” There’s a theme of a “chosen one” with an overall goal of conquering evil or fulfilling a prophecy. We see the chosen one trope with Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien as Frodo sets out to carry the One Ring to Mordor. In the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, the trope shows up with Harry himself being the only one who can defeat Lord Voldemort.

The final indicator of a fantasy tale is the presence of cryptids. Where sci-fi has aliens or robots, fantasy has all kinds of species, like dragons, hobbits, elves, wizards, vampires, demons, etc. If a story has something other than humans or your occasional cat or dog, it may be a safe bet that what you’re reading is fantasy.

Dystopias are a fantastical blend of “what ifs” that feature exciting technology & oftentimes a futuristic world. Think The Maze Runner with its chosen one trope, cryptids in the form of grievers, technology like the maze, and a grim future. Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games series is another example, with Katniss Everdeen as the chosen one and mockingjays, the Hunger Games, and a future of twelve districts in a country called Panem.

Throughout the fantasy genre, though it may blend with others and take on new forms, what remains true is its elements of escapism. Most of the time, fantasy media is created to satisfy a need to escape to other worlds, whether more technologically advanced or more fantastical and magical. Characters thrive in places like Abacus in my Warminster Saga, which is a scientific/scholarly city named after Abacus Athobasca, who was “a renowned inventor, using his wizardry to enhance his peculiar devices and inventions.” In similar form, there is the Citadel in Game of Thrones with the Order of Maesters: an order of intellectuals (scholars, healers, and other learned men).

As with most media, the sense of escapism and worldbuilding is rich and ever present in the realm of fantasy. The genre is highly adaptable, able to work with sci-fi, dystopian, romance, horror, and more in order to create the works we all know and love. It is a genre that is here to stay and just may be the most popular for decades to come.

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Want to see your own writing published online? I am listening. In short, I have gotten some emails addressed to "the Stars Uncounted team" asking about Content Writing and I respond by saying that the team consists of me, myself, and I, and that all one of us is willing to post your content. The only rule is that such a Guest Post would have to be within the context of the blog – meaning that it must relate to the Fantasy genre or be about self-publishing Fantasy. If you are interested, feel free to send me one for approval.

Just remember that any and all Guest Posts must adhere to the high moral spirit of my mostly humble blog. This does not mean that I have to agree with everything you say; it merely must be well-written and thought-out.

Just started The Black Gryphon, book #1 of The Mage Wars Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey

Just started The Black Gryphon, book #1 of The Mage Wars Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey.

In Prehistory, over a thousand years before the Founding of Valdemar in a time when magic obeyed different laws, different rules, the Tayledras and Shin'a'in were one people: the Kaled'a'in who in the time of the apocalyptic Mage Wars served Urtho, the Mage of Silence. This is the story of Skandranon Rashkae, legend of Clan k'Leshya, and his battle with Ma'ar, Mage of Dark Flames, who two millennia hence would under a different name trouble Elspeth and Darkwind.

Star-Eyed strike me but this will be fun! Fantasy books always are, but I have a special place in my heart for the works of Mercedes Lackey. My simple concern and hope (yes, they are one), which I am certain will come true, is that this book – indeed the whole series – will revolve around the Kaled'a'in proverb "Whatever is prepared for never occurs." Goodness knows I have barely begun and already another of their saying has basically come to pass: "Never look behind you, there may be an arrow gaining."