Forty Worlds
Forty short stories in forty genres, each with a note on where it came from. A detective dog, the fall of Constantinople, a vampire in therapy, and a chicken that outsmarts God.
Tag: Fantasy Fiction (Page 5)
Fantasy FictionDungeon
A deserter enters the dungeon under the white house to fill a trophy case with twenty categories of treasure. Literary fantasy built from the 1977 MIT text adventure.
Fairy TaleGreatest Fantasy Movies – Worlds Beyond Reason
Twenty of cinema's greatest fantasy films, from Excalibur to Pan's Labyrinth. The 1980s golden era, Lord of the Rings, and one catastrophic trilogy — five decades of the genre.
AmbiguityThe Arena
Two wizards — father and son — meet in magical combat that neither can win and neither will abandon. Based on Metagaming's 1978 game Wizard.
Artistic ObsessionThe Cartographer of Lost Places
Emile Soreau draws maps of places that no longer exist, and somehow people keep arriving at his shop looking for the exact street they lost. His hand moves across the paper with impossible accuracy, naming buildings and tracing gardens in…
American DecayThe Bridge Troll’s Retirement
After six hundred years guarding Millstone Bridge, Groth's body is falling apart. When the county decides to replace his bridge with concrete, the old troll has to figure out what comes next.
FamilyMy Grandfather’s Compass
Nate finds his grandfather's compass in a shoebox of leftover things and discovers it doesn't point north, but toward the people and moments he needs most. When his marriage starts falling apart, the compass points directly at his wife, and…
AmbiguityThe Woman Who Sold Her Shadow
In the back corridors of Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, Claire meets a woman who offers to buy her shadow, the grief and guilt that have weighed her down since her mother's death and divorce. What starts as an impossible transaction becomes…
AmbiguityThe Violin Maker’s Apology
A violin maker finishes his masterpiece and realizes it plays something he didn't intend, not the notes he drew, but the grief he carries. What happens when an instrument becomes honest about what its maker can't say.
Fantasy FictionA Cat Called Eternity
A retired intelligence officer moves to a Cotswolds cottage and acquires a black cat that doesn't age — the same cat that's been appearing at the cottage for four hundred years.
Fantasy FictionThe Corpse Collector’s Son
A mortuary transport driver talks to the dead after every pickup — and when the dead start lingering in his house as cold spots, his twelve-year-old son learns to talk to them too.
American DecayThe Cab Driver of Oz
A cab driver from Queens gets dropped into Oz by a tornado and spends three years driving a Toyota Camry on the Yellow Brick Road, discovering that fairy tales have terrible infrastructure.