Fantasy Novels That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity

Charlie Jane Anders recently wrote a piece at io9 - a blog focusing on science, technology, and science fiction - that "everbody loves a good dark, horrible fantasy. A misanthopic adventure, in which everybody is morally compromised, and we all live and die in the dirt. But every now and then, it's nice to read a fantasy novel in which people are, you know... good."

What’s What: Sumer Is Icumen In

Bellairs announces the end of summer vacation and the beginning of the new school year (his senior college year, no less) with the phrase, “summer is icumen out and the merry students are icumen in” [the beginning: a little too much about the author; Oct. 3, 1958]. Roger Bacon casually tosses out a piece of the song (“Awe bleteth after lamb, lhuth after calvecu...”) when trying to come up with a magical incarnation [The Face in the Frost; 121].

A Good Nose is Requisite

About a decade (or so) ago, two of John's friends, Alfred Myers and Charles Bowen, worked with us on a walk-through of Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies.  The project was to help us better understand the time and place from which it came from as well walk us through John's sense of humor in many of the jokes, puns, and satire.  Anyway, Bowen shared this remembrance during our research and we came across it again recently.  Dig in.