Genre Fantasies is an ongoing blog on the cultural history of American fantasy, horror, and sf. My main focus is on fantasy fiction and my goal is to recover the “great unread” of the genre and tell a fuller history of how fantasy developed, matured, and thrived in the mass market paperback era of the 1960s–1990s.
In my essays, I try to offer a balance of literary critical insights, historical and cultural contexts, and my own personal response, while referring to the work of other scholars, critics, and fans whenever possible. My guiding principle is that every novel has something to tell us about the history of genre fiction and is worth giving our critical attention to. I welcome feedback, discussion, and your thoughts.
Most of my essays are published under the Reading… category and I also have an ongoing series of more targeted essays: Ballantine Adult Fantasy: A Reading Series. Miscellany is published as Other Essays. For a full list of everything covered here, see my Index of Essays and Reviews. I also use tags to cross-list essays by author, cover artist, publisher, imprint, narrative series, publisher series, publication year, publication decade, and genre (these tags can be found at the bottom of each essay).
The Forgotten Fantasies of Thomas Burnett Swann: A Reader’s Introduction
Over the course of 2025 and early 2026, I undertook to read all 16 historical fantasy novels by Thomas Burnett Swann, which were published between 1966 and 1977. In those 16 essays, I charted Swann’s importance to and uniqueness in the emerging fantasy genre of the 1970s. I fell in love with his work as…
Reading “The Dolphin and the Deep” by Thomas Burnett Swann
Thomas Burnett Swann’s The Dolphin and the Deep (1968) is the author’s first story collection, bringing together three of his earlier (and uneven but ambitious) works of short fiction from 1963–1966.
Reading “Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time” by James Gurney (Dinotopia 1)
James Gurney’s Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time (1992) is an incredible illustrated utopian novel of an adventurer’s arrival and education in a land where dinosaurs and humans live side-by-side in harmony. And it fucking rules!
Ballantine Adult Fantasy: Reading “The King of Elfland’s Daughter” by Lord Dunsany
The thirteenth essay in my Ballantine Adult Fantasy reading series, which looks at Lord Dunsany’s The King of Elfland’s Daughter (1924), a fairy tale mixed with a heroic romance that offers a cautionary tale of what happens when you invite magic in.
Reading “Cry Silver Bells” by Thomas Burnett Swann
Thomas Burnett Swann’s Cry Silver Bells (1977), the author’s sixteenth and final novel, returns to the Country of the Beasts on Crete and tells the tragic story of the Minotaur Silver Bells.
Reading “Queens Walk in the Dusk” by Thomas Burnett Swann
Thomas Burnett Swann’s Queens Walk in the Dusk (1976) is the author’s fifteenth and only hardcover novel, which retells the melancholy, tragic story of Aeneas and Dido’s ill-timed love.
Reading “The Gods Abide” by Thomas Burnett Swann
Thomas Burnett Swann’s The Gods Abide (1976) is the author’s fourteenth novel and explores the violence of the rise of Christianity in Roman Italia and Britannia.
Reading “The Minikins of Yam” by Thomas Burnett Swann
Thomas Burnett Swann’s The Minkins of Yam (1976) is the author’s eleventh novel, is set four thousand years ago in pharaonic Egypt, and is one of his weaker novels charting the “secret history” of the prehumans.
Ballantine Adult Fantasy: Reading “The Blue Star” by Fletcher Pratt
The twelfth essay in my Ballantine Adult Fantasy reading series, which looks at Fletcher Pratt’s The Blue Star (1952), an impressive, short novel of “rational” fantasy about power, gender, and why you should not cheat on your witch girlfriend.
Reading “Will-O-the-Wisp” by Thomas Burnett Swann
Thomas Burnett Swann’s Will-O-the-Wisp (1976) is the author’s tenth novel and is set in seventeenth-century Devon. It is a critique of Puritan moralizing against love, sexuality, and the body, and is surprisingly good!
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