Month: August 2012

Surely the zombie apocalypse is at hand!

On By janewisemanIn fantastic fantasyLeave a comment

Is a vast undead army amassing somewhere in Denmark?

Researchers have discovered a bogful of bog-men, hundreds of them. A skeleton army buried in Alken Enge, a Danish bog that was once an ancient lake bed, MAY BE POISED TO MARCH ON COPENHAGEN!

Or not. These guys are the undead? Actually, no. They’re not only merely dead, they’re really most sincerely dead.  Scientists surmise these are creepily well-preserved sacrificial victims to some long-forgotten Iron Age rite or religion. It’s a major discovery in archaelogy, a field in which bog men are among the most fascinating finds in Europe. Alken Enge has been the site of excavations since the 1950s.

“Tollund Man,” a well-preserved bog man from Denmark.

Source of image: Wikimedia Commons. Image in the public domain.

To get the real story, take a look at these:

http://www.skanderborgmuseum.dk/New_research_project-1073.aspx

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/smart-news/archaeologists-excavate-death-pit-finding-hundreds-of-sacrificed-soldiers-in-denmark-166264156.html

To find a list of even more articles about the bogman army, go here:

http://www.sciencenewsdaily.org/archaeology-fossils-news/cluster197464680/

The astonishing find actually happened in 2009. So the real mystery seems to be why this old news about a very old (but incredibly amazing and fascinating) event from 2000 years ago should suddenly be surfacing right now on all of the “weird news” web sites:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/trending/2012/08/15/massive_sacrifice_of_ancient_warrior_army_discovered_at_danish_alken_enge_bog.html

http://www.geekosystem.com/skeleton-army-danish-bog/

I’m imagining there are two answers to this question:

1. The find itself was announced in 2009, but the dramatic results are just now being revealed to the world press, causing a renewed flurry of interest.

And

2. ZOMBIES

Everyone loves zombies, right?

Or do you think the Zombie Apocalypse is getting a bit frayed around the edges as a pop culture meme?

Take our poll!

Hello, fantasy lovers!

On By janewisemanIn fantastic fantasyLeave a comment
Wood engraving (recolored) first published in Camille Flammarion’s 19th century treatise on meterology. The engraving shows a supposedly medieval sense of wonder about the universe.

I started this blog because I am fascinated by fictions of all sorts. I’m especially fascinated by speculative literary fiction, a broad category that might include science fiction, fantasy, utopian/dystopian tales, and similar written-down stuff. But really, to restrict fiction to literary stuff is to narrow it and tie it down. The category “fiction” includes so much more than that! See the ABOUT page for some definitions. I define “fictions” broadly. After all, the word literally means, “something that is made.” Something that is made up. Something that humans do to answer the question, “What If?” The category “fiction” therefore includes, as far as I am concerned, not only literary stuff but the stuff of the visual arts, of music, of dance, of anything and everything human beings can imagine.

What fantasy books have moved you? Which ones have you loved?

On By janewisemanIn Best Fantasy Writing EverLeave a comment

UPDATE: It’s now 2025. I started this blog in 2012, and from my perspective NOW, the list I posted THEN seems impossibly naive. I’d still put some of these books on my Top Ten list, but here it is, over a decade later, and I’ve read so many more novels of speculative fiction, and thought about them so much more intensely, that I hardly feel like the same person. But then, isn’t that always the way? Never step in the same river twice, etc. At the least, I feel like I’ve given myself a real education. You can, too. It’s easy. No classes or degrees necessary. I’ve taught those, I’ve taken those, I have those.

But here’s the key: Just start reading, and don’t stop.

 Here’s what I said in my first post, back in 2012:

I won’t put up a Top Ten list, because there are too many good ones to mention. But I’ll just list some I like, in no particular order. What about you?

  • J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings series and The Hobbit–the granddaddy of them all. (Or is he???)
  • C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (and several of the others in the Narnia series, but not all)
  • Guy Gavriel Kay, Tigana (and a few of his others, although not all)
  • China Mieville, Perdido Street Station (told ya this was an electic list!)
  • George R. R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire (the first two books, anyway)
  • Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind
  • T. H. White, The Once and Future King
  • Lian Hearn, Across the Nightingale Floor (and several of the others in the Tales of the Otori series, but not all)