Category Archives: Fictional Worlds

Why Did Star Wars Stick? #MayThe4thBeWithYou #StarWarsDay

Posted on May 4, 2023 by Brenton Dickieson

As much as we wonder about it, it’s a question that is not perfectly easy to answer. Long before technologically precise blockbuster films, Star Wars had cheesy lines, over-the-top acting, and zippers up the back of the monster’s costume. How … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Reviews | Tagged #MayThe4thBeWithYou, A New Hope, Dune, film, George Lucas, J.R.R. Tolkien, Larry Niven, May the Fourth, myth, mythopoiea, Ringworld, Ron Howard, Science Fiction, Star Wars, That '70s Show, The Force Awakens | 2 Comments

Thoughts on Classic and Contemporary SF vs. Fantasy Hugo Best Novel Award Winners while Failing to Write a Review of a Great Book that was not Nominated

Posted on December 14, 2022 by Brenton Dickieson

Tamsyn Muir’s Locked Tomb Series is a discovery from my stint as a Hugo Award panellist in 2020 and 2021–the years that Gideon the Ninth (book 1) and Harrow the Ninth (book 2) were nominated. As much as I loved these books–and … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging the Hugos, Fictional Worlds, News & Links, Reviews | Tagged A Canticle for Leibowitz, Alix E. Harrow, allegory, apocalyptic literature, Arthur C. Clarke, Dune, Ender's Game, Gene Wolfe, Gideon the Ninth, Harrow The Ninth, Hugo Awards, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Mary Doria Russell, N.K. Jemisin, Nona the Ninth, Science Fiction, speculative fiction, Tamsyn Muir, Ursula K. Le Guin | 6 Comments

My Conference Papers this Week in Canada and K’zoo on C.S. Lewis’ Constructed Language and Intertextuality, with a Note on the Impostor Syndrome

Posted on May 9, 2022 by Brenton Dickieson

In an intriguing confluence of events, this week is Canada’s annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Congress2022–what scholarly Canadians used to call “the Learneds”–and is at the same time as the International Congress on Medieval Studies, hosted by … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, News & Links, Original Research, Studies in Words | Tagged C.S. Lewis, conlangs, Constructed Languages, Dante, Imposter Syndrome, intertextuality, Literary Theory, Marsha Daigle-Williamson, owen barfield, philology, Ransom Cycle, Reflecting the Eternal: Dante’s Divine Comedy in the Novels of C.S. Lewis, The Personal Heresy, The Screwtape Letters, world-building | 10 Comments

L.M. Montgomery’s The Story Girl, “Such Stuff as Dreams are Made On”: Chapter Reading, the L.M. Montgomery Readathon, a Montgomery Conference, and Other Things I am Working On (Friday Feature)

Posted on April 1, 2022 by Brenton Dickieson

I thought I would use today’s “Feature Friday” segment of A Pilgrim in Narnia to highlight some L.M. Montgomery adventures this spring and in the months ahead. My Chapter Reading for the L.M. Montgomery Readathon For the L.M. Montgomery Readathon … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Friday, Fictional Worlds, L.M. Montgomery, Reflections | Tagged Anne of Green Gables, Benjamin Lefebvre, Dan Brown, fantasy theory, L.M. Montgomery, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Mary Henley Rubio, The Story Girl, theology and literature | 7 Comments

The Literary Magic of L.M. Montgomery’s Storied Domains: The King Orchard and The Story Girl

Posted on March 14, 2022 by Brenton Dickieson

While Lucy Maud Montgomery was a prodigious journal-keeper, leaving us thousands of pages of material to study in the decades after her death, she was far less dedicated as a memoirist. Thus, it is sometimes hard to know how to … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, L.M. Montgomery | Tagged Anne of Green Gables, Anne's House of Dreams, Emily of New Moon, fantasy literature, Jane of Lantern Hill, L.M. Montgomery, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Prince Edward Island, The Alpine Path, The Blue Castle, The Golden Road, The Story Girl | 8 Comments

The Sloo/Slow/Sluff of Despond: Today’s Word of the Day and a Spiritual Truth in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress

Posted on March 3, 2022 by Brenton Dickieson

Today’s word of the day arrives as I am rereading John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress: I do not always find the Word of the Day terribly enlightening, in part because Merriam-Webster only gives a brief etymology. And it is the stories … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Reflections | Tagged Anna Karenina, Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Harry Potter, John Bunyan, Leo Tolstoy, Perelandra, Prince Caspian, spiritual theology, The Great Divorce, The Pilgrim's Progress, The Voyage of The Dawn Treader | 23 Comments

The Heroic Gideon and Harrowing Features of Living in the Ninth: Thoughts on Tamsyn Muir’s Necromantic Dream Vision (Blogging the Hugos 2021)

Posted on December 14, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

In our 2020 Hugo Award roundtable, I was tasked with presenting Alix E. Harrow’s gorgeous gateway fantasy, The Ten Thousand Doors of January. Though I chose the book simply for its name and cover design, I came to love the … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging the Hugos, Fictional Worlds, News & Links, Reviews | Tagged Alix E. Harrow, allegory, apocalyptic literature, Gene Wolfe, Gideon the Ninth, Harrow The Ninth, Hugo Awards, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Science Fiction, speculative fiction, Tamsyn Muir, Ten Thousand Doors of January | 4 Comments

Hugo Award 2021: Best Novel Signum Roundtable (Sat, Dec 18th, 6pm Eastern)

Posted on December 13, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

As I announced in my “Blogging the Hugos 2021” series launch, I am once again joining Signum University’s Hugo Award Best Novel Roundtable. In a gala zoom event that no doubt will rival the Worldcon ceremony in DC, I will … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging the Hugos, Fictional Worlds, News & Links, Reviews | Tagged Alix E. Harrow, allegory, apocalyptic literature, Gideon the Ninth, Harrow The Ninth, he Ten Thousand Doors of January, Hugo Awards, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Martha Wells, N.K. Jemisin, Network Effect, Science Fiction, speculative fiction, Susanna Clarke, Tamsyn Muir, The City We Became, urban fantasy, Ursula K. Le Guin | 13 Comments

N.K. Jemisin’s Super Strange Urban Apocalypse in The City We Became: Part 2: The City I Can’t Become (Blogging the Hugos 2021)

Posted on December 9, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

N.K. Jemisin is clearly one of the science fiction greats of the generation. Time will tell if she will stand with the all-time greats, like H.G. Wells, Robert A. Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert, Ursula … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging the Hugos, Fictional Worlds, News & Links, Reviews | Tagged allegory, apocalyptic literature, Frank Herbert, H.G. Wells, Hugo Awards, Isaac Asimov, N.K. Jemisin, New York City, Octavia E. Butler, Philip K. Dick, Postcolonial literature, racism, Ray Bradbury, Robert A. Heinlein, Science Fiction, speculative fiction, The City We Became, urban fantasy, Ursula K. Le Guin, William Gibson | 14 Comments

N.K. Jemisin’s Super Strange Urban Apocalypse in The City We Became: Part 1: The Allegory That is Born (Blogging the Hugos 2021)

Posted on December 7, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

I first encountered N.K. Jemisin’s “Great City” series in her bracing, breakneck-speed short story, “The City Born Great,” which (in an edited form) is the prologue to The City We Became. Jemisin is one of this generation’s great speculative fiction … Continue reading →