Short fantasies

Posted on by Patrick

There’s an arti­cle in The Guardian by one Natasha Pul­ley which posits that prop­er fan­ta­sy world-build­ing can’t be accom­plished in a short sto­ry, and that’s why so many fan­ta­sy nov­els these days are a) hefty and b) con­tin­ued in mul­ti-vol­ume series.

I offer the fol­low­ing coun­ter­points:

  • the short fan­tasies of Michael Swan­wick (for exam­ple, “The Drag­on Line” or “Radio Waves”)

  • the very exis­tence of the Mag­a­zine of Fan­ta­sy and Sci­ence Fic­tion

  • …and Beneath Cease­less Skies

  • …and Fan­ta­sy Fac­tion

  • …and so forth.