The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy, Vol. 2

The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy, Vol. 2: The Opus Magus, edited by Tee Morris and Valerie Griswold-Ford, builds on the foundation of the first volume by moving into more advanced territory. Where volume one covered fundamentals, this installment tackles the higher-order challenges of writing fantasy, the more sophisticated craft and genre-specific problems a writer faces once the basics are in hand. As the intermediate volume in the series, it is aimed at writers ready to move past the introductory level, and judged on that footing, it does a useful job carrying the reader forward, with the same multi-author characteristics as its companions.

The series logic puts this volume in the middle: past the fundamentals of the first book, not yet at the dedicated magic-and-world-building focus of the third, covering the advanced craft in between.

Past the basics

The volume’s value is addressing the craft questions that arise after a writer has the fundamentals down, the more advanced and genre-specific problems that a foundation book cannot reach. Subtitled The Opus Magus, it aims at the developing fantasy writer ready to deepen their skill, taking on the more sophisticated dimensions of constructing fantasy fiction. For a writer who has outgrown introductory material and wants to push further into the genre’s particular demands, this kind of intermediate, advance-the-craft volume fills a real need, building on the base rather than repeating it, and the range of contributors again offers varied perspectives on the harder problems.

Building on the foundation

What gives the volume its place is its position in a deliberate progression. A well-structured craft series that moves a writer from fundamentals through advanced technique offers something a single book often cannot, a staged path that meets the writer at each level of development, and this volume is the middle step on that path. For a writer working through the series in order, it provides the natural next stage after the foundations, addressing the more demanding craft once the basics are secure. That progression is the series’ real strength, and this volume is a necessary part of it rather than a standalone reference.

The honest caveats

The same honest notes apply as to its companions. As a middle volume in a series, it builds on the first and assumes that foundation, so it is best read in sequence rather than alone, and a reader needs the set for the full progression. The multi-author anthology format again produces variable quality and some unevenness essay to essay, the trade-off for a range of voices. And as with the whole series, its distinct value lies in the genre-specific framing and the staged structure more than in coverage unavailable elsewhere. These are the normal characteristics of an intermediate volume in a multi-author series rather than flaws.

Verdict

It is a useful intermediate volume that carries the developing fantasy writer past the fundamentals into more advanced craft, valuable as the natural next step in a deliberately staged series and for addressing the harder genre-specific problems a foundation book cannot reach. It earns a fair, middling-to-good rating, held from higher by the same factors as its companions: the multi-author format’s uneven quality, its dependence on the rest of the series, and a distinct value that lies more in framing and progression than in unique content. For a writer working through the series and ready to deepen their fantasy craft, it is a solid continuation; on its own it is incomplete by design. A sound middle volume, fairly judged.

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