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You are here: Home / Archives for Wyrd and Wonder

Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi – #WyrdandWonder

By John Folk-Williams

Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi

In Wole Talabi’s exciting fantasy adventure, Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, the spirit world has fallen on hard times. With dwindling followers to make faith offerings, the companies of the gods have to make do with diminished income, and their powers are not quite what they used to be. Shigidi is an ex-god […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction, Wyrd and Wonder Tagged With: Afrofuturist, gods, heist, imagination, magic, sexuality, spirits, transformation, Wole Talabi

Favorite Fantasy Characters – #Wyrd&Wonder

By John Folk-Williams

Thanks to imyril, I wanted to pick up on her tag, Fantasy Characters of the Year, which she first saw at Space & Sorcery. I’m adapting it to Favorite Fantasy Characters of the past year or more without identifying a favorite male, female, villain, etc. – just fictional people that I find unforgettable. This theme […]

Filed Under: Favorite SFF, Wyrd and Wonder Tagged With: Gautam Bhatia, Jadie Jang, Kelly Barnhill, Leslye Penelope, Liz Williams, Marlon James, Nicola Griffith, Nnedi Okorafor

The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford – A Review for Wyrd & Wonder

By John Folk-Williams

The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford

John M. Ford’s The Dragon Waiting is a brilliant reshuffling of fantasy tropes and alternate history but at heart also a beautiful study of a group of extraordinary characters. First published in 1983, this is the first of Ford’s novels to be republished since his death in 2006 when, apparently because no one could trace […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction, Wyrd and Wonder Tagged With: alternate history, deception, dragons, empire, England, fantasy, John M. Ford, magic, power, vampire

Moon Witch Spider King by Marlon James, A Review for Wyrd & Wonder

By John Folk-Williams

Moon Witch Spider King

Marlon James’ Moon Witch Spider King (second book of the Dark Star trilogy) impressed me at first as everything I had missed in the first novel, Black Leopard Red Wolf. There was a story of emotional depth I could link into and a brilliant character I could care about, as opposed to the strangely alienating […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction, Wyrd and Wonder Tagged With: fantasy, identity, immortal, Marlon James, memory, power, story-telling, supernatural

Five Favorite Fantasy Novels Read This Past Year: Wyrd & Wonder

By John Folk-Williams

Wyrd & Wonder 2022

It’s Wyrd & Wonder time again and, though I’ll have other kinds of posts this month as well, I thought I’d start with this Fantastic Five meme. I’ve read a lot more than five great fantasies since last May, but here are the most recent ones (actually six) that haven’t yet been in any other […]

Filed Under: Favorite SFF, Wyrd and Wonder Tagged With: Adrian Tchaikovsky, Gautam Bhatia, Kate Elliott, Nicola Griffith, Rebecca Roanhorse

By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar #WyrdandWonder

By John Folk-Williams

By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar

I hope no one is so jaded on Arthurian fantasy that they can’t enjoy this glorious retelling and meticulous tear-down of every facet of the over-familiar stories. Every character comes to scurrilous life in By Force Alone, as that title phrase echoes over and over throughout this dynamic, hilarious and strangely moving book. I say […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction, Wyrd and Wonder Tagged With: Arthurian fantasy, fairyland, Lavie Tidhar, magic, myth, primal Britain, violence

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Something is struggling to be born in this damaged and inspiring world, and I believe science fiction and its speculative cousins are helping us figure out what it is. It’s pushing the imaginations of fiction writers to bend and twist familiar forms to try to capture the forces that are hurling us into a barely conceivable future. This blog is my small way of exploring the half-perceived … Read More about About

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