#fantasy read-list

[mask131]

A fantasy read-list: B-2

Part B: The First Classical Fantasy

2) On the other side, a century of France... 

As I said in my previous post, for this section I will limit myself to two geographical areas: on one side the British Isles (especially England/Scotland), and now France. More specifically, the France of fairytales! 

Maybe you didn’t know, but the genre of fairy tales, and the very name “fairy tale” was invented by the French! Now, it is true that fairytales existed long before that as oral tales spread from generations to generations, and it is also true that fairy tales had entered literature and been written down before the French started to write down their own... But the fairytale genre as we know it today, and the specific name “fairy tale”, “conte de fées”, is a purely French AND literary invention. 

# If we really want to go back to the very roots of fairy tales in literature, the oldest fairytale text we have still today, it would be a specific segment of Apuleius’ The Golden Ass (or The Metamorphoses depending on your favorite title). In it, you find the Tale of Psyche and Cupid, and this story, which got MASSIVELY popular during the Renaissance, is actually the “original” fairytale. In it you will find all sorts of very common fairytale tropes and elements (the hidden husband one must not see, the wicked stepmother imposing three impossible tasks, the bride wandering in search of her missing husband and asking inanimate elements given a voice...), as well as the traditional fairytale context (an old woman telling the story to a younger audience to carry a specific message). In fact, all French fairytale authors recognized Psyche and Cupid as an influence and inspiration for their own tales, often making references to it, or including it among the “fairytales�� of their time. 

# The French invented the genre and baptized it, but the Italian started writing the tales and began the new fashion! The first true corpus, the first literary block of fairytales, is actually dating from the 16th century Italy. Two authors, Straparola and Basile, inspired by the structure, genre and enormous success of Boccace’s Decameron, published two anthologies respectively titled, Piacevoli Notti (The Facetious Nights) and the Pentamerone, or The Tale of Tales. These books were anthologies of what we would call today fairytales, stories of metamorphosed princes, and fairies, and ogres, and magical animals, and bizarre transformations, and curses needing to be broken, and damsels needing to be rescued... In fact, these books contain the “literary ancestors” and the “literary prototypes” of some of the very famous fairytales we know today. The ancestors of Sleeping Beauty (The Sun, the Moon and Thalia), Cinderella (Cenerentola), Snow-White (Lo cuorvo/The Raven), Rapunzel (Petrosinella) or Puss in Boots (Costantino Fortunato, Cagliuso)... 

However be warned: these books were intended to be licentious, rude and saucy. They were not meant to be refined and delicate tales - far from it! Scatological jokes are found everywhere, many of the tales are sexual in nature, there’s a lot of very gory and bloody moments... It was basically a series sex-blood-and-poop supernatural comedies where most of the characters were grotesque caricatures or laughable beings. We are far, far away from the Disney fairytales... 

# The big success and admiration caused by the Italian works prompted however the French to try their hand at the genre. They took inspiration from these stories, as well as from the actual oral fairytales that were told and spread in France itself, and turned them into literary works meant to entertain the salons and the courts. This was the birth of the French fairytale, at the end of the 17th century - and the birth of the fairytale itself, since the name “fairy tale” was invented to designate the work of these authors. 

The greatest author of French fairytale is, of course, Charles Perrault with his Histoires ou Contes du Temps Passé (Stories or Tales of the Past), mistakenly referred to by everyone today as Les Contes de Ma Mère L’Oie (Mother Goose Fairytales - no relationship to the Mother Goose of nursery rhymes). Charles Perrault is today the only name remembered by the general public and audience when it comes to fairytales. He is THE face of fairytales in France and part of the “trio of fairytale names” alongside Grimm and Andersen. He wrote some of the most famous fairytales: Sleeping Beauty, Puss in Boots, Cinderella... He also wrote fairytales that are considered today classics of French culture, even though they are not as well known internationally: Donkey Skin, Diamonds and Toads or Little Thumbling. The first Disney fairytale movies (Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella) were based on his stories! 

But another name should seat alongside his. If Charles Perrault was the father of fairytales, madame d’Aulnoy was their mother. She was for centuries just as famous and recognized as Charles Perrault - when Tchaikovsky made his “Sleeping Beauty” ballet, he made heavy references to both Perrault and d’Aulnoy - only to be completely ignored and erased by the late 19th and early 20th centuries, for all sorts of reasons (including the fact she was a woman). But Madame d’Aulnoy had stories translated all the way to Russia and India, and she wrote twice more fairytales as Perrault, and she was the author of the very first chronological French fairytale! (L’Ile de la Félicité, The Island of Felicity). Her fairytales were compiled in Les Contes des Fées (The Tales of Fairies), and Contes Nouveaux, ou Les Fées à la mode (New Tales, or Fairies in fashion) - and while for quite some times madame d’Aulnoy fell into obscurity, many of her tales are still known somehow and stayed classics that people could not attribute a name to. The White Doe (an incorrect translation of “The Doe in the Wood), The White Cat, The Blue Bird, The Sheep, Cunning Cinders, The Orange-Tree and the Bee, The Yellow Dwarf, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks (an incorrect translation of “Beauty with Golden Hair”), Green Serpent... 

A similar warning should be held as with the Italian fairytales - because the French fairytales aren’t exactly as you would imagine. These fairytales were very literary - far away from the short, lacking, simplified folklore-like tales a la Grimm. They were pieces of literature meant to be read as entertainment for aristocrats and bourgeois, in literary salons. As a result, these pieces were heavily influenced (and heavily referenced) things such as the Greco-Roman poems, or the medieval Arthuriana tales, and the most shocking and vulgar sexual and scatological elements of the Italian fairytales were removed (the violence and bloody part sometimes also). But it doesn’t mean these stories were the innocent tales we know today either... These fairytales were aimed at adults, and written by adults - which means, beyond all the cultural references, there are a lot of wordplays, social critics, courtly caricatures and hidden messages between the lines. The sexual elements might not be overtly present for example, but they are here, and can be found for those that pay attention. These stories have “morals” at the end, but if you pay attention to the tale and read carefully, you realize these morals either do not make any sense or are inadequated to the tales they come with - and that’s because fairy tales were deeply subversive and humoristic tales. People today forgot that these fairytales were meant to be read, re-read, analyzed and dissected by those that spend their days reading and discussing about it - things are never so simple... 

# While Perrault and d’Aulnoy are the two giants of French fairytales, and the ones embodying the genre by themselves, they were but part of a wider circle of fairytale authors who together built the genre at the end of the 17th century. But unfortunately most of them fell into obscurity... Perrault for example had a series of back-and-forth coworks with a friend named Catherine Bernard and his niece mademoiselle Lhéritier, both fairytale authors too. In fact, the “game” of their “discussion through their work” can be seen in a series of three fairytales that they wrote together, each author varying on a given story and referencing each-other in the process: Catherine Bernard wrote Riquet à la houppe (Riquet with the Tuft), Charles Perrault wrote his own Riquet à la houppe in return, and mademoiselle Lhéritier formed a third variation with the story Ricdin-Ricdon. Other fairytale authors of the time include madame de Murat/comtesse de Murat, mademoiselle de La Force, or Louise de Bossigny/comtesse d’Auneuil. Yes, the fairytale scene was dominated by women, since the fairytale as a genre we perceived as “feminine” in nature. There were however a few men in it too, alongside Perrault, such as the knight de Mailly with his Les Illustres Fées (Illustrious Fairies) or Jean de Préchac with his Contes moins contes que les autres (Fairy tales less fairy than others). 

A handful of these fairytales not written by either Perrault or d’Aulnoy ended up translated in English by Andrew Lang, who included them in his famous Fairy Books. For example, The Wizard King, Alphege or the Green Monkey, Fairer-than-a-Fairy (The Yellow Fairy Book) or The Story of the Queen of the Flowery Isles (The Grey Fairy Book).

# These people were however only the first wave, the first generation of what would become a “century of fairytales” in France. After this first wave, the publication of a new work at the beginning of the 18th century shook French literature: Antoine Galland translation+rewriting of The One Thousand and One Nights, also known later as The Arabian Nights. This work created a new wave and passion in France for “Arabian-flavored fairytales”. Everybody knows the Arabian Nights today, thanks to the everlasting success of some of its pieces (Aladdin, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Sinbad the Sailor, The Tale of Scheherazade...), but less people know that after its publication in France tons of other books were published, either translating-rewriting actual Arabian folktales, or completely inventing Arabian-flavors fairytales to ride on the new fashion. Pétis de la Croix published Les Milles et Un Jours, Contes Persans, “The One Thousand and One Days, Persian tales” to rival Galland’s own book. Jean-Paul Bignon wrote a book called Les Aventures d’Abdalla (The Adventures of Abdalla), and Jacques Cazotte a fairytale called La Patte de Chat (The Cat’s Paw). I could go on to list a lot of works, but to show you the “One Thousand and One” mania - after the success of 1001 Nights and 1001 Days, a man called Thomas-Simon Gueulette came to bank on the phenomenon, and wrote, among other things, The One Thousand and One Hours, Peruvian tales and The One Thousand and One Quarter-of-Hours, Tartar Tales. 

# Then came what could be considered either the second or third “wave” or “generation” of fairytales. It is technically the third since it follows the original wave (Perrault and d’Aulnoy times, end of the 17th) and the Arabian wave (begining of the 18th). But it can also be counted as the second generation, since it was the decision in the mid 18th century to rewrite French fairytales a la Perrault and d’Aulnoy, rejecting the whole Arabian wave that had fallen over literature. So, technically the “return” of French fairytales. 

The most defining and famous story to come of this generation was, Beauty and the Beast. The version most well-known today, due to being the shortest, most simplified and most recent, was the one written by Mme Leprince de Beaumont, in her Magasin des Enfants. Beaumont’s Magasin des Enfants was heavily praised and a great best-seller at the time because she was the one who had the idea of making fairytales 1- for children and 2- educational, with ACTUAL morals in them, and not fake or subversive morals like before. If people think fairytales are sweet stories for children, it is partially her fault, as she began the creation of what we would call today “children literature”. However Leprince de Beaumont did not invent the Beauty and the Beast fairytale - in truth she rewrote a previous literary version, much longer and more complex, written by madame de Villeneuve in her book La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins (The Young American Girl and the sea tales). Madame de Villeneuve was another fairy-tale author of this “fairytale renewal”. Other names I could mention are the comtesse de Ségur, who wrote a set of fairytales that were translated in English as Old French Fairytales (she was also a defender of fairytales being made into educational stories for children), and mademoiselle de Lubert, who went the opposite road and rather tried to recreate subversive, comical, bizarre fairytales in the style of madame d’Aulnoy - writing tales such as Princess Camion, Bear Skin, Prince Glacé et Princesse Etincelante (Prince Frozen and Princess Shining), Blancherose (Whiterose)... 

Similarly to what I described before, a lot of these fairytales ended up in Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books. Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, Prince Darling (The Blue Fairy Book), Rosanella, The Fairy Gifts (The Green Fairy Book)... 

# The “century of fairy tales” in France ended up with the publication of one specific book - or rather a set of books. Le Cabinet des Fées, by Charles-Joseph Meyer. As we reached the end of the 18th century, Meyer noticed that fairy tales had fallen out of fashion. None were written anymore, nobody was interested in them, nothing was reprinted, and a lot of fairytales (and their authors) were starting to fall into oblivion. Meyer, who was a massive fan of fairytales, hated that, and decided to preserve the fairytale genre by collecting ALL of the literary fairytales of France in one big anthology. It took him four years of publication, from 1785 to 1789, but in a total of forty-one books he managed to collect and compile the greatest collection of French literary fairytales that was ever known - even saving from destruction a handful of anonymous fairytales we wouldn’t know existed today if it wasn’t for his work. In a paradoxical way, while this ultimate collection did save the fairytale genre from disappearing, it also marked the end of the “century of fairytales”, as it set in stone what had been done before and marked in the history of literature the fairytale genre as “closed off”. All the French fairytales were here to be read, and there was nothing more to add. 

Ironically, Le Cabinet des Fées itself was only reprinted and republished a handful of times, due to how big it was. The latest reprints are from the 19th century if I recall correctly - and after that, there was a time where Le Cabinet was nowhere to be found except in antique shops and private collections. It is only in very recent time (the late 2010s) that France rediscovered the century of fairytales and that new reprints came out - on one side you have cut-down and shortened versions of Le Cabinet published for everybody to read, and on the other you have extended, annotated, full reprints of Le Cabinet with additional tales Meyer missed that are sold for professional critics, teachers, students and historians of literature. But the existence of Le Cabinet, and Meyer’s great efforts to collect as much fairytales as possible, would go on to inspire other men in later centuries, inciting them to collect on their own fairytales... Men such as the brothers Grimm. 

[aroaessidhe]

I had an idea the other day to make a list of ace & aro books based on where in the world they're set! Which, since I'm mostly excluding the US and there's a lot of secondary world sff, is ridiculously small

see my database for details on aspec content, a couple of these are side characters or brief mentions, or one character in an ensemble; not inherent recommendations, etc

Oceania

The Bone People (Aotearoa)

The Space Ace of Mangleby Flat (Aotearoa & Australia)

The Spider & Her Demons (Australia)

Two Can Play That Game (Australia)

An Accident of Stars (portal fantasy, starts in Australia)

Summer Bird Blue (Hawai'i)

Be The Sea (Hawai'i)

Asia

Small Gods of Calamity (South Korea)

Breasts & Eggs (Japan)

Convenience Store Woman (Japan)

She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat (Japan)

Is Love The Answer? (Japan)

Foul Lady Fortune (China)

She Who Became The Sun (China)

Stuck In her Head (Hong Kong)

Kaikeyi (Ancient India)

Nigeria

Until The Last Petal Falls

Vagabonds!

Jamaica/Caribbean

Sailing by Orion's Star (colonised, piracy era)

Europe

Smile and Be A Villain (Denmark/Germany)

The Reckless Kind (Norway)

The Spy With The Red Balloon (Germany/US)

Little Black Bird (Poland)

Let The Dead Bury The Dead (Russia)

The Last (apocalyptic Switzerland)

UK

Song of the Huntress (Ancient Britain)

Life Underwater (England)

The Murder Next Door (England)

Small Joys (England)

Fallen Thorns (England)

Cupid Calling (England)

If You Still Recognise Me (England)

Something Extraordinary (England/Scotland)

Other People’s Butterflies (England)

That's What She Said (England)

Loveless (England)

North America

note: I'm excluding the majority of US books here, because otherwise this section would be 3x as long as the rest combined. I am just including Canada, Alaska, Hawaii (under Oceania, above), and then books by Indigenous authors (which is all below except BLTG)

The Summer of Bitter and Sweet (Canada)

Before I Let Go (Alaska)

Elatsoe (Texas)

A Snake Falls To Earth (Texas)

Màgòdiz (postapoc US)

Godly Heathens (Georgia)

#aspec books / aspec database / tumblr masterpost

[emmatcha]

the lunar chronicles series needs so much more love.

the world? one of the most immersive worlds I’ve ever experienced, and fun but serious.

the characters? likable and distinct and heroic and complex, with deep trauma and moral dilemmas that make them feel like real people.

the concept? unique and epic and cinematic but classic.

the romance? nearly every type there is, a slow burn star-crossed lovers, an enemies to lovers, a childhood best friends to lovers and rapunzel and flynn vibes.

the plot? complex and extremely well thought out, yet easy to understand, original and so addicting.

fractured fairytale dystopian fantasy sci-fi on futuristic earth and the moon with secret princess trope and princes and evil queens who can control minds? cinderella and red riding hood and rapunzel and snow white? I WILL TAKE IT THANK YOU.

there’s literally something for everyone, and no one could say it isn’t well written.

why this series is not hyped up more is beyond me.

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🌙 What to Read After Watching Agatha All Along 🌙

❓ Who is your favorite fictional witch?

🦇 Enjoying Agatha All Along on Disney? Check out these books featuring witches, covens, chaotic queers, & everything in between, perfect for fans of Agatha All Along! List below!

✨🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑✨

✨ Payback's a Witch - Lana Harper 🌑 How to Get a Girlfriend (When You're a Terrifying Monster) - Marie Cardno 🌒 These Witches Don't Burn - Isabel Sterling 🌓 This Spells Disaster - Tori Martin 🌔 The Scapegracers - H. A. Clarke 🌕 Beetle & the Hollowbones - Aliza Layne 🌕 The Twice-Sold Soul - Katie Hallahan 🌖 In Charm's Way - Lana Harper 🌗 Brewed with Love - Shelly Page 🌘 Carry On - Rainbow Rowell 🌑 So This Is Ever After - F. T. Lukens ✨ Spells to Forget Us - Aislinn Brophy

✨ Basics of Spellcraft - L.C. Mawson 🌑 How To Succeed in Witchcraft - Aislinn Brophy 🌒 Sweet & Bitter Magic - Adrienne Tooley 🌓 The Midnight Girls - Alicia Jasinska 🌔 Labyrinth Lost - Zoraida Córdova 🌕 The Shattered Lands - Brenna Nation 🌕 Otherworldly - F. T. Lukens 🌖 Coven - Jennifer Dugan & Kit Seaton 🌗 The Dark Tide - Alicia Jasinska 🌘 Queen B - Juno Dawson 🌑 Her Majesty's Royal Coven - Juno Dawson ✨ Wild and Wicked Things - Francesca May

✨ Cemetery Boys - Aiden Thomas 🌑 The Last Sun - K. D. Edwards 🌒 The Jasmine Throne - Tasha Suri 🌓 The Sun and the Star - Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro 🌔 The Witch and His Crow - Ben Alderson 🌕 Lord of Eternal Night - Ben Alderson 🌕 The Crimson Crown - Heather Walter 🌖 Tonight, I Burn - Katharine J. Adams 🌗 Witches of Ash and Ruin - E. Latimer 🌘 The Severed Thread - Leslie Vedder 🌑 Pumpkin Spice & Poltergeist - Ali K. Mulford and K. Elle Morrison ✨ Love and Other Wicked Things -Philline Harms

✨ Off With Their Heads - Zoe Hana Mikuta 🌑 Practical Rules for Cursed Witches - Kayla Cottingham 🌒 Two Broke Witches - Kate Starling 🌓 Bitterthorn - Kat Dunn 🌔 The Honey Witch - Sydney J. Shields 🌕 The Witch and the Vampire - Francesca Flores 🌕 Spell on Wheels - Kate Leth, Megan Levens, Marissa Louise 🌖 The Witchery - S. Isabelle 🌗 The Hummingbird Coven - Augusta Owens 🌘 Children of the Night - Cara Malone 🌑 The Hex Next Door - Lou Wilham ✨ Malice - Heather Walter

✨ Mortal Follies - Alexis Hall 🌑 The Balance of Fates - Raquel Raelynn 🌒 Edie in Between - Laura Sibson 🌓 Doughnuts and Doom - Balazs Lorinczi 🌔 A Spell for Heartsickness - Alistair Reeve 🌕 Evocation - S.T. Gibson 🌕 The Spells We Cast - Jason June 🌖 An Education in Malice - S. T. Gibson 🌗 Rise and Divine - Lana Harper 🌘 Not Good for Maidens - Tori Bovalino 🌑 A Dark and Starless Forest - Sarah Hollowell ✨ Netherford Hall - Natania Barron

✨ The Poisons We Drink - Bethany Baptiste 🌑 This Poison Heart - Kalynn Bayron 🌒 Over My Dead Body - Boo Sweeney 🌓 Girl, Serpent, Thorn - Melissa Bashardoust 🌔 The Bewitching Hour - Ashley Poston 🌕 Pushing Daisy - Isla Winter 🌕 Daughter of the Bone Forest - Jasmine Skye 🌖 Keep Your Witches Close - Colette Rivera 🌗 Mooncakes - Suzanne Walker, Wendy Xu 🌘 Snapdragon - Kat Leyh 🌑 Runaways - Rainbow Rowell & Kris Anka ✨ Witchlings - Claribel A. Ortega

✨🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑✨

[desi-laila]

reading update: starting zodiac academy series today

[cto10121]

…There is a whole Wikipedia page about literary influences she has openly talked about.

[mask131]

Fantasy read-list: B-1.5

Next in our series of articles detailing fantasy works, is one from André-François Ruaud, covering Shakespeare, his work, and his work’s great influence over the fantasy genre. Given I already talked about Shakespeare’s work proper in my main post, here I will detail the list of work influenced by or shaped thanks to Shakespeare in the fantasy world.

# We will begin with one of the most straightforward and oldest Shakespeare retellings there are: Tales from Shakespeare, by the Lamb couple (Charles and Mary). This book was actually a retelling of Shakespeare’s plays, aimed at young children (for example it removed all sexual references, omitted many subplots, removed some plays deemed too historical for kids to understand), and a massive success, still in print today. Even though today’s kids find this book a bit hard to read… Because it was written in the beginning of the 19th century, and does an effort to keep as much of Shakespeare’s quite outdated language, in an effort of faithfulness.

# Rudyard Kipling’s Puck of Pook’s Hill. In this collection of short stories, Puck (from A Midsummer Night’s Dream) summons different characters from various parts of English history so they can tell their fantastical tales to two children…

# Caliban’s Hour, by Tad Williams. 20 years after the events of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, Miranda is imprisoned by a vengeful Caliban who wishes to kill her… but not before she hears the story of his life, the reason of his wrath, the truth behind his curse, and his true relationships to the sorcerers Prospero and Sycorax, putting the events of “The Tempest” under a new light.

# Not a book, but a movie this time: Prospero’s Book by Peter Greenaway. An avant-garde and very stylistic retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest as a complex story where Prospero preparing his revenge and Shakespeare preparing his play become one and the same…

# Elizabeth Willey’s A Sorcerer and a Gentleman, a fantasy novel about various fictional countries being threatened by a possible open-war, resulting of the centuries-old conflict between Avril, “usurper emperor”, and his sorcerous brother, Prospero.

# Roger Zelazny’s major fantasy series, The Chronicles of Amber, heavily reference the plays of Shakespeare, borrowing names, places and sentences from the playwright’s work (Oberon, “To sleep, perchance to dream…”, the forest of Arden, “Ill-met by moonlight”, Osric, “Good night, sweet Prince”…). Ruaud also mentions in his article Zelzany’s work “A Night in the Lonesome October”, even though to my knowledge there is no actual overtly Shakespearian theme in it? (I guess it might be a mistake due to the French title having been translated as “A Mid-october night’s dream”.

# Ruaud doesn’t talk about Macbeth’s influence over Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (despite it being very famous – the defeat of the Witch-King and the march of the Ents both being influenced by Shakespeare’s tragedy), but he mentions how Gollum can remind one of Caliban, while Prospero was a model for the “archetypal wizard” of which Gandalf and Saruman are two prominent examples. [Personal note: From what I gathered, despite Tolkien referencing Shakespeare, he did not like his works at all, in fact most of the time Tolkien referenced Shakespeare not out of an “homage” but to “correct” what he felt was poorly used - as with how the march of the Ents is meant for Tolkien to get over his disappointment at Macbeth’s not having actual trees walking).

# Ruaud also mentions among the example of “archetypal wizards” inherited from Prospero, Belgarath, the main sorcerer of The Belgariad by the Eddings couple. From the Belgariad universe, Ruaud points out that the character of Silk is actually part of a tradition in fantasy of the “clownish member of the hero’s party”, that can date back to Touchstone from As you like it. 

# Ruaud suggests that the character of Ariel from The Tempest was an inspiration for Neil Gaiman’s Islington in Neverwhere (I cannot check this, because I know barely anything about Neverwhere, though I do plan on reading it one day).

# Ruaud, of course, also mentions Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters, a fantastical and hilarious parody of Shakespeare’s Macbeth (and additional plays) inside the humoristic fantasy universe of the Discworld series. I will personally add another book, which is actually the second sequel to Wyrd Sisters (between it and this one, there is Witches Abroad, which is a fairytale parody) – Lords and Ladies, a darkly funny deconstruction of both Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Tolkien’s elves, inspired by traditional British fairy folklore (and which went on to influence the view of what people call “the true fae”).

# S.P. Somtow’s Riverrun Trilogy. I have to admit I forgot why Ruaud mentioned it among the Shakespearian influenced work – I didn’t take my notes when reading the article. But it is in the list, so…

# Ruaud claims that the archetype of the “fantasy inn”, actually comes from Shakespeare. The Prancing Pony from The Lord of the Rings, The Silver Eel from Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Pratchett’s The Broken (then Mended) Drum from Discworld, the inn from Beagle’s The Innkeeper’s Song… According to Ruaud all those fantasy inns are inheriting from the inn in which most of Shakespeare’s Henry V takes place. Ruaud also mentions two authors that both deconstruct the “fantasy inn” archetype: Neil Gaiman, with the Sandman’s arc Worlds’s End (see below), and before him Poul Anderson with his Shakespeare-rewriting novel A Midsummer Tempest.

# While appearing on the list of the works deconstructing the “fantasy inn” archetype, Anderson’s A Midsummer Tempest deserves its own place in the list, being a fantasy novel where all of the events of Shakespeare’s play happened simultaneously, during the era of Cromwell and Charles I – A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest unfolding simultaneously between the English Civil War and the Industrial Revolution.

# Sarah A. Hoyt’s Ill-Met by Moonlight. A fantasy story retelling William Shakespeare’s life under the influence of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Young William Shakespeare discovers his wife and daughter were taken away by elves in their fairyland, and to get them back he will have to deal himself with the descendants of the legendary fairy rulers Oberon and Titania.

# Not a book, but a literary and highly praised comic that can be read as a book – the famous Sandman series by fantasy author Neil Gaiman. The comic was heavily influenced by Shakespeare’s plays, and actively references them several times. The issue “Men of Good Fortune” has the main character, the titular Sandman, lord of dreams, sleep and nightmares, meet a young William Shakespeare and make a deal with him to provide the playwright inspiration… This sets up the next Shakespearian issue, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, an homage, deconstruction, meta-retelling of Shakespeare’s play. And to conclude it all – “The Tempest”, the very last issue of the series, which invites the reader to take a second look at the final arcs of the story under the light of Shakespeare’s play.

# To conclude this long list, let’s have one French name around here. Fabrice Colin’s work, “Or not to be”. A Shakespeare-obsessed amnesiac young man is released from a mental institution after his mother forced him there due to a suicide attempt. Attempting to rediscover and puzzle back his past, he goes on a visit of England, tracking down William Shakespeare’s own life path, through a narration oscillating between pure imagination and schizophrenic madness… Until he stumbles upon a mysterious village he saw many times in his dreams and that does not appear on any map: Fayrwood, whose surroundings seem haunted by Pan himself…  

[fiercestpurpose]

A complete list of books with female protagonists:

Pride and Prejudice

The Hunger Games

The Locked Tomb series

The Haunting of Hill House

Wonder Woman comics

[preciouslandmermaid]

The Gods gave mortals magic, but every gift has a price.

Maeve, a priestess of Juno, has her idyllic life turned upside down after her home is ravaged by the ambitious and delirious ex-king Hagken.

As Maeve is emboldened by Juno’s divine power, she will stop at nothing to prevent this war before it begins. She forms an unlikely alliance with an expelled alchemist and Hagken’s prior spymaster, Alistair, who shares they have a personal vendetta against the king.

In the city of Pyrite, where magic and alchemy thrive, Maeve must navigate the unfamiliar waters of political intrigue, combat forbidden spirit magic, contend with her faith, and discover what it means to reshape her dreams, her destiny—and the destinies of others.

What readers are saying;

⭐ Our main female character was wonderful , and the self journey she goes through along side what she's trying to accomplish to help her people is so well written. I seriously cannot tell you how much I loved this book...

⭐ Maiden of Dawn is an absolutely refreshing delight for anyone who loves fantasy and/or queer stories. 

⭐ This debut Romantasy takes the genre into the future! The arc of the MC is not just a romantic one, but a journey of self actualization and spiritual discovery!

Maiden of Dawn is an emotional high fantasy, queer romance novel with a cast of gender non-conforming characters, disabled characters, lush world building and complex antagonists that is sure to drawn you in.

E-Book $3.99 (USD) / Paperback $13.99 (USD)

You can order it wherever books are sold :: B&N, Amazon, or by contacting your local bookseller and asking them to order it.

[rockislandadultreads]

For Fans of Legends & Lattes!

If you enjoyed Travis Baldree's Legends & Lattes, be sure to check out these fantasy read-alikes!

The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong

Tao is an itinerant fortune teller, traveling between villages with just her trusty mule for company. She only tells "small" fortunes: whether it will hail next week; which boy the barmaid will kiss; when the cow will calve. She knows from bitter experience that big fortunes come with big consequences. When a reformed thief, ex-mercenary, baker, and slightly magical cat recruit her into their desperate search for a lost child, Tao starts down a new path. But as she lowers her walls, she’ll have to decide whether to risk everything to preserve the family she never thought she could have.

Shoestring Theory by Mariana Costa

The kingdom of Farsala is broken and black clouds hang heavy over the arid lands. Former Grand-Mage of the High Court, Cyril Laverre, has spent the last decade hiding himself away in a ramshackle hut by the sea, suppressing his guilt over the kingdom’s ruin. For he played his part – for as the King, Eufrates Margrave, descended further and further into madness, his Grand-Mage - and husband - Cyril didn’t do a thing to stop him. Cyril knows his days are finally numbered, but are there enough left to put things right?

Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy

Leo is a master of small magics and has vowed to never *again* write powerful magic. That is, until a mix-up involving a forbidden spell binds Leo to obey the commands of his longtime nemesis, Grimm. To dissolve the curse, they’ll have to uncover the true depths of Leo’s magic and set aside their long-standing rivalry. Little do they know that an odd spark of attraction will start to flare between them. 

This is the first volume of "The Wildersongs" trilogy.

Can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne

All Reyna and Kianthe want is to open a bookshop that serves tea. Worn wooden floors, plants on every table, firelight drifting between the rafters… all complemented by love and good company. Leaving their lives as one of the Queen's private guards and the world's most powerful mage, they settle together in Tawney, a town that boasts more dragons than people, and open the shop of their dreams. What follows is a cozy tale of mishaps, mysteries, and a murderous queen throwing the realm’s biggest temper tantrum.

This is the first volume of the "Tomes & Tea" series.

[leebrontide]

Apparently we're doing these again, so

Names in Their Blood is fully for sale as of TODAY!

After a spring they barely survived, the superhero team the Sentinels, and their family, head to rural Minnesota for long awaited reunions and a chance to finally start to heal. But when they realize that genetically altered people have been going missing from the small town that houses the US's only full service hospital for genetically altered people they have to decide who they can trust- and fast, our thousands of people could die.

Buy on Amazon paperack or ebook now! (audiobook to come)

Buy ebook NOT on Amazon here or here.

Also available for special order from your local independent book store!

The first book in the series is FREE right HERE or HERE (or in paper form from Amazon or from your fav independent bookstore)

Also I made a Uquiz that I think is a lot of fun, here.

Reblogs welcome! I'm deeply proud of this book and I'm so so excited to finally share it with you all!

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

💜 Queer Fairytale Retellings

🌙 Good afternoon, my beloved bookish bats. For many of us, fairytales were our first introduction to the fantasy & romantasy genres. Here are a few queer fairytale retellings filled with magic, mischief, & mayhem that are bound to enchant your heart.

✨ The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller 🌙 The Nightmare Verse Series - LL McKinney ✨ Icarus - K. Ancrum 🌙 A Clash of Steel - CB Lee ✨ Cinderella is Dead - Kalynn Bayron 🌙 The Fox Maidens - Robin Ha ✨ Briar Girls - Rebecca Kim Wells 🌙 Beast - Brie Spangler ✨ Malice - Heather Walter

🌙 The Witch and the Vampire - Francesca Flores ✨ Gwen & Art Are Not in Love - Lex Croucher 🌙 The Magic Fix - Trung Le Nguyen ✨ Not Good for Maidens - Tori Bovalino 🌙 Relit - Various ✨ Tink and Wendy - Kelly Ann Jacobso 🌙 Hunting Monsters - S.L. Huang ✨ Burning Roses - S.L. Huang 🌙 Caged Bird Rising - Nino Delia

✨ Summer in the City of Roses - Michelle Ruiz Keil 🌙 A Lake of Feathers and Moonbeams - Dax Murray ✨ Girl, Serpent, Thorn - Melissa Bashardoust 🌙 Winterglass - Benjanun Sriduangkaew ✨ Robber Girl - S.T. Gibson 🌙 Ash - Malinda Lo ✨ Sword In The Stars - Amy Rose Capetta & Cori McCarthy 🌙 Darling - K. Ancrum ✨ Girls Made of Snow and Glass - Melissa Bashardoust

🌙 Dark And Deepest Red - Anna-Marie McLemore ✨ Ghost Wood Song - Erica Waters 🌙 His Hideous Heart - Various ✨ The Bone Spindle - Leslie Vedder 🌙 Legendborn By Tracey Deonn ✨ The Midnight Girls - Alicia Jasinska 🌙 Iron Widow - Xiran Jay Zhao ✨ The Mercies - Kiran Millwood Hargrave 🌙 She Who Became the Sun - Shelley Parker-Chan

[theghostavocadoe]

Can I get some Sephiroth headcanons from you? Wholesome or angst will do.

How about both? :3

Sephiroth is inherently a very curious person and loves asking about things he doesn't quite understand.

And "asking" doesn't always mean verbally, sometimes he just has to tilt his head a certain way and others know he's pondering something.

He refers to Masamune as a "she" and thinks of her as a living, breathing thing. He also sees her as an extension of himself.

^ This could totally be a Gender thing but that's another conversation.

Sees fighting as more than just an activity, but also an art form and a way of expression. A lot of his true emotions show when he's sparring. It's also a good stress relief for him.

Speaking of stress relief. I am of the firm belief that this man went absolutely FERAL during the Nibelheim incident.

Screaming, frothing at the mouth, tearing books apart, knocking down shelves, pulling at his own hair. Just complete batshit insane.

But then, when he exhausted everything, it all just smoothed over and he locked all his emotions away from then on.

He still thinks about Rosen. Constantly. It was probably his first time killing someone who actually asked for it, and it did a LOT of damage to his poor, young psyche.

Sometimes he daydreams about what life would've been like if he hadn't killed Rosen, but then quickly stops because he thinks its selfish to think of such things.

Also, Rosen's death was the sole reason he absolutely refused to go on missions against Genesis or Angeal during Crisis Core. He refused to go through the "just kill me" treatment again.

[glowettee]

Hi! I hope your day is going great. your blog is so pretty and your posts are really inspiring. I was wondering if you have any good book suggestions? 📚

thank you so much for your sweet message! i'm literally so happy you find my blog inspiring! book recommendations are one of my favorite things to share, so here are some reads that have totally changed my life, organized by category just for you:

✧ fiction ✧

• "normal people" by sally rooney (the way she writes relationships is sooo real)

• "the seven husbands of evelyn hugo" by taylor jenkins reid (glamour + heartbreak!)

• "little fires everywhere" by celeste ng (family drama at its finest)

• "circe" by madeline miller (mythology but make it feminist)

• "the midnight library" by matt haig (perfect for when you're feeling lost)

✧ fantasy fiction ✧

(i mostly read fiction, more so fantasy fiction, i'm such a huge fan of this genre)

• "the night circus" by erin morgenstern (magical + romantic in the best way)

• "a darker shade of magic" by v.e. schwab (parallel londons? yes please!)

• "uprooted" by naomi novik (dark fairy tale vibes that i'm obsessed with)

• "the invisible life of addie larue" by v.e. schwab (immortality with a twist)

• "ninth house" by leigh bardugo (dark academia meets magic at yale)

• "the starless sea" by erin morgenstern (underground library dreams)

• "piranesi" by susanna clarke (strange + beautiful + haunting)

✧ self-help + personal growth ✧

• "atomic habits" by james clear (literally changed how i build routines)

• "burnout" by emily + amelia nagoski (for when you're feeling overwhelmed)

• "the mountain is you" by brianna wiest (healing your self-sabotage!)

• "untamed" by glennon doyle (finding your inner voice)

• "buy yourself the f*cking lilies" by tara schuster (self-care that actually works)

✧ poetry + essays ✧

• "milk and honey" by rupi kaur (for your soft girl feelings)

• "the princess saves herself in this one" by amanda lovelace

• "trick mirror" by jia tolentino (essays that make you think)

• "salt" by nayyirah waheed (short poems that hit deep)

• "what kind of woman" by kate baer (feminine power on every page)

✧ academia + productivity ✧

• "deep work" by cal newport (how i get through finals week tbh)

• "make it stick" by peter c. brown (revolutionized my study methods)

• "digital minimalism" by cal newport (for when social media is too much)

• "how to do nothing" by jenny odell (because sometimes we need to just breathe)

• "grit" by angela duckworth (staying motivated when things get hard)

✧ cozy + comfort reads ✧

• anything by taylor jenkins reid (her characters feel like friends)

• "such a fun age" by kiley reid (so readable yet thought-provoking)

• "beach read" by emily henry (romance that doesn't feel cringey)

• "the house in the cerulean sea" by tj klune (like a warm hug in book form)

• "the secret history" by donna tartt (dark academia vibes)

hope these suggestions bring you as much joy as they've brought me! let me know if you read any of them, i'd love to hear your thoughts! just a little note: my favorite genres to read are fantasy, mystery and romance, and historical fiction as well, but i do try to broaden my genre-range, so this was a long list of books i've read in different genres, hopefully you can find some you'd like. <333

xoxo, mindy 🤍

[fictionadventurer]

Potential February Reads

East by Edith Pattou

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

The Beggar Prince by Kate Stradling

The Thrifty Guide to Ancient Rome: A Handbook for Time Travelers by Jonathan Stokes

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

The Frindle Files by Andrew Clement

A fantasy romance

[artemisapollo97]

A whole year since Books 1 and 2 came out! They grow up so fast 🥹

Happy birthday to you

You live in a zoo

You look like a monkey

Aaaaaand you smell like one too! 🥳

In celebration, Book 2 will be free on Kindle from today (26th May) until the 30th!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D4KJJJBZ

(You do have to read Book 1 first though 😉)