Today I found myself taking a stroll down memory lane, recalling the authors who, during my formative years, kindled my love for the fantastic in literature and in life. Some of these favorites make me grimace; having reread their work, I see their flaws and in some cases the pedestol I placed them on has [...]

Ahoy! Hail! Salutations!
I’ve been remiss in updating AzureScape lately. I’ve been writing reviews over at SFFaudio, and I’ll be posting those here in the coming days.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m legally blind, and consume most of my fiction through audible format. The term “legally blind” sounds so bland and sterile, but it’s hard to describe my [...]

Definition 2 of “escapist” in the Oxford English Dictionary reads:

fig. Esp., one who seeks distraction from reality or from routine activities.
Hence attrib. or as adj., that provides escape from reality or routine; pertaining to escapism.

By this definition, all popular literature, not just science fiction and fantasy, qualifies as “escapist”. Most modern literature, however, seems to [...]

As a former academic, I’m big on the idea of citing sources, examples, and everything else under the sun. While the requirements for writing reviews and more “popular” analysis for blogs and print publication, I think the same rules generally apply. With the magic of hyperlinks, embedded media, and other nifty web-tricks, blogging makes the [...]

(Pronounced “nah-fah-sigh-fie-RHYME-O or, preferably in my opinion, “nah-fah-skiffy-RHYME-O.)
On an impulse I signed up for NaNoWriMo and immediately received the following email.

Dear eternalkyr [one of a few variations on my usual username],
Well, you did it. You’ve gone and pledged your November to the pursuit of the month-long novel. Whether this is your [...]

One thing I appreciate about Garrsion Kiellor’s Writer’s Almanac podcast is its breadth of focus not only on “literary” authors and poets but on genre writers as well. Unfortunately I’m a couple days behind on podcasts, but on listening to my backlog this morning I realized that he’d covered the birthday of Earthsea novelist Ursula [...]

Welcome to AzureScape!
In an effort to maintain some semblance of professionalism, I’ve decided to split this site away from my own personal blog. This site will feature all my reviews, previews, and ideas about fantasy and science fiction in all forms of media. Watch this space to expand your horizons.