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Race and Popular Fantasy Literature: Habits of Whiteness (Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature)
by Helen YoungThis book illuminates the racialized nature of twenty-first century Western popular culture by exploring how discourses of race circulate in the Fantasy genre. It examines not only major texts in the genre, but also the impact of franchises, industry, editorial and authorial practices, and fan engagements on race and representation. Approaching Fantasy as a significant element of popular culture, it visits the struggles over race, racism, and white privilege that are enacted within creative works across media and the communities which revolve around them. While scholars of Science Fiction have explored the genre’s racialized constructs of possible futures, this book is the first examination of Fantasy to take up the topic of race in depth. The book’s interdisciplinary approach, drawing on Literary, Cultural, Fan, and Whiteness Studies, offers a cultural history of the anxieties which haunt Western popular culture in a century eager to declare itself post-race. The beginnings of the Fantasy genre’s habits of whiteness in the twentieth century are examined, with an exploration of the continuing impact of older problematic works through franchising, adaptation, and imitation. Young also discusses the major twenty-first century sub-genres which both re-use and subvert Fantasy conventions. The final chapter explores debates and anti-racist praxis in authorial and fan communities. With its multi-pronged approach and innovative methodology, this book is an important and original contribution to studies of race, Fantasy, and twenty-first century popular culture.
Race and Popular Fantasy Literature: Habits of Whiteness (Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature)
by Helen YoungThis book illuminates the racialized nature of twenty-first century Western popular culture by exploring how discourses of race circulate in the Fantasy genre. It examines not only major texts in the genre, but also the impact of franchises, industry, editorial and authorial practices, and fan engagements on race and representation. Approaching Fantasy as a significant element of popular culture, it visits the struggles over race, racism, and white privilege that are enacted within creative works across media and the communities which revolve around them. While scholars of Science Fiction have explored the genre’s racialized constructs of possible futures, this book is the first examination of Fantasy to take up the topic of race in depth. The book’s interdisciplinary approach, drawing on Literary, Cultural, Fan, and Whiteness Studies, offers a cultural history of the anxieties which haunt Western popular culture in a century eager to declare itself post-race. The beginnings of the Fantasy genre’s habits of whiteness in the twentieth century are examined, with an exploration of the continuing impact of older problematic works through franchising, adaptation, and imitation. Young also discusses the major twenty-first century sub-genres which both re-use and subvert Fantasy conventions. The final chapter explores debates and anti-racist praxis in authorial and fan communities. With its multi-pronged approach and innovative methodology, this book is an important and original contribution to studies of race, Fantasy, and twenty-first century popular culture.
The Race for the Glo Rubies (Taranauts #4)
by Roopa PaiThree worlds shining on to the fourth! Race away with the Taranauts to another heart-stopping adventure – at Glo! Mithya’s eight worlds - Shyn Lustr Sparkl Glo Dazl Shimr Syntilla and Glytr – were plunged into darkness when the wicked Shaap Azur captured all its 32 stars. There was no hope until Zarpa Tufan and Zvala - three bright and brave Taranauts with special gifts - set out to bring back light and cheer to Mithya. With three successful rescues under their belts the Taranauts head west determined to notch up another win against their foes. But things take a nasty turn right at the start - the Marani of Glo is taken hostage! What’s worse Ograzur Dusht now has a secret agent in the Taranauts’ camp a spy who is known only by the code name Dro Hie. Can the Taranauts get safely across the fearsome Budbudana and the treacherous cliff paths of Pur Butte? Will they survive the motion-sensitive lightning hurlers of Wilderwolf Gorge? Does t
Race in the Machine: A Novel Account
by Quincy Thomas StewartAn intelligent machine built to study methods of social warfare struggles to understand and communicate the lived experience of race In a narrative full of social significance and poetically decorated with monks, vampires, and mythical statistics, Race in the Machine presents a world where the stories we use to explain race all simultaneously exist, within and around us, dictating our interactions and innermost beliefs. The nameless protagonist, an enigmatic social mechanic at Nearbay Institute, living in a population of socially connected intelligent machines, encounters a simple query in the context of an introductory lecture: "What exactly is race? And what is it in the context of the social machine?" This prompt guides the protagonist along a twisting intellectual tale surrounding a series of experiments which explore: How many racists does it take to create systems of inequality? What role do non-racists actors play in upholding them? How is bias learned? How does it spread? The narrator develops a distinct understanding of race through the figurative bending of time, dreams of a "race code" and by confronting a series of mysterious communications that remain just outside comprehension. Over the course of this journey, the answers to important questions about racial inequality quietly emerge for the protagonist. Scholarly encounters with both antagonistic colleagues and unexpected allies, culminate when the hero is forced to reach a devastating conclusion about themself and the world. Stirring and luminous, Race in the Machine deftly oscillates between the allegorically simplified and the impossibly complex to weave an utterly unique and nuanced portrait of race in the modern world.
Race in the Machine: A Novel Account
by Quincy Thomas StewartAn intelligent machine built to study methods of social warfare struggles to understand and communicate the lived experience of race In a narrative full of social significance and poetically decorated with monks, vampires, and mythical statistics, Race in the Machine presents a world where the stories we use to explain race all simultaneously exist, within and around us, dictating our interactions and innermost beliefs. The nameless protagonist, an enigmatic social mechanic at Nearbay Institute, living in a population of socially connected intelligent machines, encounters a simple query in the context of an introductory lecture: "What exactly is race? And what is it in the context of the social machine?" This prompt guides the protagonist along a twisting intellectual tale surrounding a series of experiments which explore: How many racists does it take to create systems of inequality? What role do non-racists actors play in upholding them? How is bias learned? How does it spread? The narrator develops a distinct understanding of race through the figurative bending of time, dreams of a "race code" and by confronting a series of mysterious communications that remain just outside comprehension. Over the course of this journey, the answers to important questions about racial inequality quietly emerge for the protagonist. Scholarly encounters with both antagonistic colleagues and unexpected allies, culminate when the hero is forced to reach a devastating conclusion about themself and the world. Stirring and luminous, Race in the Machine deftly oscillates between the allegorically simplified and the impossibly complex to weave an utterly unique and nuanced portrait of race in the modern world.
Race To The End Of The World (The Mapmaker Chronicles #1)
by A. L. TaitShortlisted for The Readings Children's Book Prize 2015Adventure and danger lie just off the edge of the map in this swashbuckling new trilogy!Quinn's older brothers may long for adventure, but he is content with a quiet life on the farm. Destiny, however, has other plans.The King is determined to create the first map of the world and has scoured the kingdom for boys who could become mapmakers. When Quinn is chosen for the King's training school, he's amazed - but that is nothing compared to his shock when he is selected as one of the three mapmakers and finds himself on board a ship, competing for the big prize.So begins Quinn's reluctant journey deep into the unknown, on a ship captained by a slave, with a stowaway girl on board, and a mysterious sea monster that seems to be following them. Hot on their trail are the other competitors for the King's prize, who will stop at nothing to win.The Mapmaker Chronicles: Race to the End of the World is packed with action, adventure and intrigue, as Quinn battles unexpected enemies, discovers strange new lands and tries to conceal two very big secrets from his crewmates...'Not since Emily Rodda's Deltora Quest series has there been such an exciting adventure tale from an Australian author' - ReadingsThe Mapmaker Chronicles1. Race to the End of the World2. Prisoner of the Black Hawk3. Breath of the Dragon (October 2015)
Radar Alert
by Karl Zeigfreid Lionel Fanthorpe Patricia FanthorpeUnless life itself is a pathetic cosmic accident, man cannot be the only intelligence in the universe. It is unlikely that man is the highest intelligence. Compared to other planetary systems, our solar system is quite young. Its raw materials have barely been touched. If older intelligences wanted those raw materials only the primitive mind of man would stand in their way. Our so-called defences would perhaps aid the aliens more than aided us... Ken Andrews was a research worker in electronics. He had a sensitive mind and a vivid imagination. When he has a strange experience with the radar-screen his chief said he had been overworking. His doctor explained it as hallucination, but the so-called delusion persisted. If Ken Andrews was sane his world was in danger.... If he really was in communion with an alien intelligence, could that alien intelligence be trusted? The intriguing thought behind this story is that it could be true. It could happen today or tomorrow .... It might even have happened a few minutes ago in a top-secret research station somewhere in England...
Radiance: A Novel (Tom Thorne Novels #569)
by Catherynne M. ValenteSeverin Unck is the headstrong young daughter of a world famous film director. She has inherited her father's love of the big screen but not his exuberant gothic style of filmmaking. Instead, Severin makes documentaries, artful and passionate and even rather brave - for she is a realist in a fantastic alternate universe, in which Hollywood occupies the moon, Mars is rife with lawless saloons, and the solar system contains all manner of creatures, cults and colonies. For Severin's latest project she leads her crew to the watery planet of Venus to investigate the disappearance of a diving colony there. But something goes wrong during the course of their investigations; and her crew limp home without her.All that remains of Severin are fragments. Can these snippets of scenes and shots, voices and memories, pages and recordings be collected and pieced together to tell the story of her life - and shed light on the mystery of her vanishing? Clever, dreamy, strange and beautifully written - Radiance is a novel about how stories give form to worlds.
Radiant: Towers Trilogy Book One (Towers Trilogy Ser. #Bk. 1)
by Karina Sumner-SmithXhea has no magic. Born without the power that everyone else takes for granted, Xhea is an outcast-no way to earn a living, buy food, or change the life that fate has dealt her. Yet she has a unique talent: the ability to see ghosts and the tethers that bind them to the living world, which she uses to scratch out a bare existence in the ruins beneath the City's floating Towers.When a rich City man comes to her with a young woman's ghost tethered to his chest, Xhea has no idea that this ghost will change everything. The ghost, Shai, is a Radiant, a rare person who generates so much power that the Towers use it to fuel their magic, heedless of the pain such use causes. Shai's home Tower is desperate to get the ghost back and force her into a body-any body-so that it can regain its position, while the Tower's rivals seek the ghost to use her magic for their own ends. Caught between a multitude of enemies and desperate to save Shai, Xhea thinks herself powerless-until a strange magic wakes within her. Magic dark and slow, like rising smoke, like seeping oil. A magic whose very touch brings death.With two extremely strong female protagonists, Radiant is a story of fighting for what you believe in and finding strength that you never thought you had.
Radiant State: Book Three of The Wolfhound Century (The Wolfhound Century Trilogy #3)
by Peter HigginsWith his loving evocation of a dark and fantastical realm that owes much to the myth and history of 20th-century Russia, and his rare ability to combine poetic writing and kinetic plotting, Peter Higgins has created one of the most original and critically lauded works of recent years. Adored by critics and authors such as Hannu Rajaniemi, Ian McDonald and Richard Morgan the Wolfhound Century novels now reach their extraordinary conclusion.In RADIANT STATE we discover both the glory and the true horror of Joseph Kantor's plan for the Vast and its people. It is a plan that transcends the boundaries of the world. And out in the depths of the endless forest that borders the Vast the mighty fallen angel and the powers of the earth itself will still have a part to play. Will Vissarion and Maroussia survive the violence of the end game?
A Radical Act of Free Magic: The Shadow Histories, Book Two
by H. G. ParryA Radical Act of Free Magic is the epic conclusion to the genre-defying Shadow Histories series following A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians; a sweeping tale of revolution and wonder in a world not quite like our own.The Concord has been broken, and a war of magic engulfs the world. In France, the brilliant young battle-mage Napoleon Bonaparte and has all but conquered Europe. Britain fights back, protected by the gulf of the channel and powerful fire-magic, but Wilberforce's own battle to bring about free magic and abolition has met a dead end. In Saint Domingue, Fina watches as Toussaint Louverture navigates these opposing forces to liberate the country.But there is another, even darker war being fought beneath the surface. A blood magician is using the Revolutionary Wars to bring about a return to dark magic. Across the world, only a few know of his existence and the choices they make will shape the new age of magic.Praise for A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians:'A rich, sprawling epic full of history and magic' Alix E. Harrow, Hugo award-winning author'An absolute delight to read' Genevieve Cogman, author of The Invisible Library'Impressively intricate; fans of the magic-and-history of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell will be delighted' Alexandra Rowland, author of A Conspiracy of TruthsThe Shadow HistoriesA Declaration of the Rights of MagiciansA Radical Act of Free MagicFor more from H. G. Parry, check out The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep.
Radicalized
by Cory DoctorowIf you want a better future tomorrow, you're going to have to fight for it today. Here are four urgent stories from author and activist Cory Doctorow, four social, technological and economic visions of the world today and its near – all too near – future. 'Unauthorized Bread' is a tale of immigration, toxic economic stratification and a young woman's perilously illegal quest to fix a broken toaster. In 'Model Minority' a superhero finds himself way out his depth when he confronts the corruption of the police and justice system. 'Radicalized' is the story of a desperate husband, a darknet forum and the birth of a violent uprising against the US health care system. The final story, 'The Masque of the Red Death', tracks an uber-wealthy survivalist and his followers as they hole up and attempt to ride out the collapse of society. 'Cory Doctorow is one of our most important science fiction writers' KIM STANLEY ROBINSON.
Radio Free Albemuth
by Philip K. DickA preliminary to Dick’s masterwork, Valis, in which Phil appears as an explicitly named autobiographical character for the first time. Soon to be a major new film.
Radio Life
by Derek B. MillerIn this riveting political thriller, The Commonwealth, a post-apocalyptic civilisation on the rise, is locked in a clash of ideas with the Keepers, a fight which threatens to destroy the world . . . again.When Lilly was first Chief Engineer at The Commonwealth, nearly fifty years ago, the Central Archive wasn't yet the greatest repository of knowledge in the known world, protected by scribes copying every piece of found material - books, maps, even scraps of paper - and disseminating them by Archive Runners to hidden off-site locations for safe keeping. Back then, there was no Order of Silence to create and maintain secret routes deep into the sand-covered towers of the Gone World or into the northern forests beyond Sea Glass Lake. Back then, the world was still quiet, because Lilly hadn't yet found the Harrington Box.But times change. Recently, the Keepers have started gathering to the east of Yellow Ridge - thousands upon thousands of them - and every one of them determined to burn the Central Archives to the ground, no matter the cost, possessed by an irrational fear that bringing back the ancient knowledge will destroy the world all over again. To prevent that, they will do anything.Fourteen days ago the Keepers chased sixteen-year-old Archive Runner Elimisha into a forbidden Gone World Tower and brought the entire thing down on her. Instead of being killed, though, she slipped into an ancient unmapped bomb shelter where she has discovered a cache of food and fresh water, a two-way radio like the one Lilly's been working on for years . . . and something else. Something that calls itself 'the internet' . . .
Radix: Radix Tetrad: Book 1 (Radix)
by A.A. AttanasioIn a vastly changed world, thirteen centuries from now, Sumner Kagan searches the earth to find the godmind, a malicious being with reality-shaping powers. In this strange and beautiful world - eerily alien, yet hauntingly familiar - Kagan will change from an adolescent outcast to a warrior with god-like abilities and, in the process, take us on an epic and transcendent journey.Author's Note: The volumes of this series can each be read independently of the others. The feature that unifies them is their individual observations of science fiction's sub-genre: "space opera," which the editors David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer define as "colorful, dramatic, large-scale science fiction adventure, competently and sometimes beautifully written, usually focused on a sympathetic, heroic central character and plot action, and usually set in the relatively distant future, and in space or on other worlds, characteristically optimistic in tone. It often deals with war, piracy, military virtues, and very large-scale action, large stakes."
Rae the Rollercoaster Fairy: The Funfair Fairies Book 1 (Rainbow Magic)
by Daisy MeadowsGet ready for an exciting fairy adventure with the no. 1 bestselling series for girls aged 5 and up. Kirsty is so excited to visit Rachel for a weekend and even more excited to visit The Fernandos' Fabulous Funfair! But Jack Frost wants a funfair all to himself and he's stolen the Funfair Fairies magic keyring to make it happen. Can Kirsty and Rachel defeat him, before the funfair is totally wrecked! 'These stories are magic; they turn children into readers!' ReadingZone.com Read all four fairy adventures in the Funfair Fairies set! Rae the Rollercoaster Fairy; Fatima the Face-Painting Fairy; Paloma the Dodgems Fairy; Bobbi the Bouncy Castle Fairy. If you like Rainbow Magic, check out Daisy Meadows' other series: Magic Animal Friends and Unicorn Magic!
Rafael (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Novels #28)
by Laurell K. HamiltonI've never read a writer with a more fertile imagination' DIANA GABALDONAn Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, novella from the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author.FOR FANS OF CHARLAINE HARRIS AND ANNE RICE.My name is Anita Blake. I'm a U. S. Marshal for the Preternatural Branch, and I always have my friend's back. Even when they ask me to risk everything...Rafael, king of the wererats, is facing a challenge to his crown. He wants me, one of his closest allies, to help him take down a dangerous opponent unlike any he's fought before. But some of the wererats fear that Rafael is too dependent on me and my ties to the vampire world. They believe that there is only room in America for one supernatural king, and that Rafael will abandon them as prey for the bloodsuckers.A new challenger has arisen among Rafael's enemies... one who is younger, hungrier and has dark secrets that could destroy both the wererats and the vampires. Now, my friend must go into the magical heart of his people to find the power and violence that he needs to save them all - or die trying.Readers can't get enough of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, series:'Anita Blake novels are my addiction''Vampires, zombies and guns, oh my!''I have loved every single book in this amazing series, have fallen in love and lust with many characters and desperately hope that there will be more''I am hooked''I couldn't love Anita and her adventures with the supernatural community any more
Raffkor the Stampeding Brute: Series 14 Book 1 (Beast Quest #79)
by Adam BladeHaving successfully walked the Warrior's Road, Tom has reclaimed his rightful place as Master of the Beasts. But there's no time to rest, for now Tom must tackle four Beasts controlled by his lifelong foe, Kensa... Don't miss the other titles in Series 14: The Cursed Dragon:- Vislak the Slithering Serpent- Tikron the Jungle Master- Falra the Snow Phoenix
Raft: Raft, Flux, Ring, Timelike Infinity (S.F. MASTERWORKS)
by Stephen BaxterStephen Baxter's highly acclaimed first novel and the beginning of his stunning Xeelee Sequence finally enters the SF Masterwork series!A spaceship from Earth accidentally crossed through a hole in space-time to a universe where the force of gravity is one billion times as strong as the gravity we know. Somehow the crew survived, aided by the fact that they emerged into a cloud of gas surrounding a black hole, which provided a breathable atmosphere. Five hundred years later, their descendants still struggle for existence, divided into two main groups. The Miners live on the Belt, a ramshackle ring of dwellings orbiting the core of a dead star, which they excavate for raw materials. These can be traded for food from the Raft, a structure built from the wreckage of the ship, on which a small group of scientists preserve the ancient knowledge which makes survival possible. Rees is a Miner whose curiosity about his world makes him stow away on a flying tree - just one of the many strange local lifeforms - carrying trade between the Belt and the Raft. And what he finds will change his world...
A Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair
by Nicholas FiskAt the end of the 22nd century, following a nuclear accident, the birth rate is falling.Faced with a rapidly shrinking human race, governments come up with a solution: new people from old. Cloning.But these Reborn people are kept closely monitored, in controlled scenarios. Will they really fit into futuristic society? What other secrets are being hidden outside of the worlds in which they are contained?
Rag, Tag and Bobtail and other Magical Stories
by Enid BlytonIn print for the first time in 20 years, Rag, Tag and Bobtail and Other Magical Stories is a classic collection of stories from Enid Blyton, one of the best-loved children's writers of all time.Join pixies Rag, Tag and Bobtail, rabbits Flop and Whiskers, the quarrelsome tin soldiers, the little brown pony, the two good fairies and many other lovable characters in this collection of twenty-three delightful and funny short stories about magical adventures, naughty children and charming animals.
Rage
by Matthew CostelloFrom Bethesda, designers of the multi-million selling classics Doom, Quake and Fallout comes the game of 2011. Unmissable, it will be this year's Call of Duty, Assassins Creed or Halo. Eagerly awaited by the gaming community, RAGE is already being touted as one of the industry's most innovative first-person shooters, winning numerous awards at E3 2010, including 'Best Overall Game of Show' from IGN and three 'Best of E3' Game Critics Awards including 'Best Console Game'. Set in the not-too-distant future, an asteroid has hit Earth leaving behind a ravaged wasteland. The world was doomed and only so much of the population could be saved. That was what the scientists were saying, at least. So the best and brightest were gathered up and put into stasis deep beneath the surface of the Earth. When they emerge they find the human race has not been wiped out. And people, as resilient as they are, are scraping together a new world from the rubble of the old. This was not what anyone in the Arks expected; a new society where might is right and bandits, gangs and mutants plague the Earth.This novel delves even deeper into this world and its characters through the pen of Matt Costello - the same person who helped write the story for the game.
Rage of a Demon King: Book Three Of The Serpentwar Saga (The Serpentwar Saga #3)
by Raymond E. FeistThe third book in the bestselling Serpentwar series.
The Rage of Dragons: Book one of the Burning (The Burning #1)
by Evan Winter'A captivating epic fantasy from a major new talent' Anthony Ryan, author of Blood Song'Intense, inventive and action-packed from beginning to end - a relentlessly gripping, brilliant read' James Islington, author of The Shadow of What Was LostThe Omehi people have been fighting an unwinnable war for generations. The lucky ones are born gifted: some have the power to call down dragons, others can be magically transformed into bigger, stronger, faster killing machines. Everyone else is fodder, destined to fight and die in the endless war. Tau Tafari wants more than this, but his plans of escape are destroyed when those closest to him are brutally murdered.With too few gifted left the Omehi are facing genocide, but Tau cares only for revenge. Following an unthinkable path, he will strive to become the greatest swordsman to ever live, willing to die a hundred thousand times for the chance to kill three of his own people.THE RAGE OF DRAGONS LAUNCHES AN UNMISSABLE EPIC FANTASY SERIES ABOUT A WORLD CAUGHT IN AN ENDLESS WAR AND THE YOUNG MAN WHO WILL BECOME HIS PEOPLE'S ONLY HOPE FOR SURVIVAL'Utter and complete perfection. Winter has created an absolute masterpiece of a novel' The Bookbag'Intense, vivid and brilliantly realized - a necessary read' Anna Smith Spark, author of The Court of Broken Knives'Stunning debut fantasy' Publishers Weekly'Fans of Anthony Ryan's Blood Song will love this' Django Wexler, author of The Thousand Names'A Xhosa-inspired world complete with magic, dragons, demons and curses, The Rage of Dragons takes classic fantasy and imbues it with a fresh and exciting twist' Anna Stephens, author of Godblind'A gripping tale . . . with one of the most enthralling hero's journeys I've read' S. A. Chakraborty, author of City of Brass
Rage Within
by Jeyn RobertsAfter the earthquakes came the infectious rage, turning friends into deadly enemies. For survivors Michael, Aries, Mason and Clementine the battle to stay alive is about to get even tougher. The new world is organising itself, with camps that promise protection for the uninfected. But the reality of the sites is far more sinister. Besides, nobody is safe from the rage within their own soul . . . For fans of GONE, or 28 DAYS LATER – not to be missed!