Tag: epic fantasy
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What is worldbuilding?
It says right there on the home page of my blog that I’m interested in worldbuilding. This is something, as you may have noticed, that a lot of fantasy and science-fiction writers talk about. It may be something that you do yourself, or you may be wondering what it is.…
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Impossible speech
I have a pet theory. I would like to articulate it eventually through a scholarly monograph, but for the moment it guides my peregrinations through fantasy (and other forms of) fiction, and emerges in partial form in the things I say about it. It is roughly as follows: certain writers…
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The Blackswords: Episode 6
Amudr knew that their time in Tua was coming to an end. He was probably alone among the Blackswords in regretting it. The city was not large, but it was a cultured place, with booksellers and libraries, and good discourse to be found in its taverns. Soon he would be…
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The Blackswords: Episode 5
The dice were not favouring Rajir. He looked at yet another fistful of ones, twos and threes, taunting him from the table, and threw a handful of coppers at them, standing. ‘I’ve had enough of this, you whoresons,’ he grumbled. ‘Your luck could change at any moment, sir,’ said Falcon,…
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The Blackswords: Episode 4
The cabin shutters were closed, slicing the the sunlight into a gridwork of thin lines: thicker verticals at the hinges, or where the two leaves met, and fine horizontals that passed between the boards. Ashurra’s eyes traced the lines across the wall, and abruptly out, around the lean knots and…
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The Blackswords: Episode 3
Umbaral rode scout to the port, handing his lance to another rider and stringing his bow; being an archer usually let him keep a safe distance from the enemy, which was why he’d specialised as one, but there were other times it when condemned him to the van. It was…
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The Blackswords: Episode 2
The Beroan family kept the matriarchal Roganid Custom in their domestic arrangements; Feldua sat on his wife’s right hand, and Ukhand faced him across the table, sitting, as the most honoured male guest, on her left. Shenailo directed the meal from the head of the table, beautiful, pale, and very…
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The Blackswords: Episode 1
Irtain could smell burning, and hear the rumble of a crowd at war. It wasn’t so much the clash of arms, although there was that as well, muted and intermittent, but the sound of many voices; he had survived enough battles to know the difference between the note of a…
Oliver Arditi 