What does a Magician do when he can have as many lives as he wishes to have but is tired of living the life of a Magician? He makes himself a knight. Sir Stefan experiences the joys and sorrows of living as a knight when he fights against an evil King, in his quest to restore the balance between good and evil in his world. His new life finds him romancing a Queen and her maid, leading armies, combatting Assassins and seeking vengeance.

Lev Grossman’s new novel THE BRIGHT SWORD will be on sale July 2024 The New York Times bestselling novel about a young man practicing magic in the real world, now an original series on SYFY “The Magicians is to Harry Potter as a shot of Irish whiskey is to a glass of weak tea. . . . Hogwarts was never like this.” —George R.R. Martin “Sad, hilarious, beautiful, and essential to anyone who cares about modern fantasy.” —Joe Hill “A very knowing and wonderful take on the wizard school genre.” —John Green “The Magicians may just be the most subversive, gripping and enchanting fantasy novel I’ve read this century.” —Cory Doctorow “This gripping novel draws on the conventions of contemporary and classic fantasy novels in order to upend them . . . an unexpectedly moving coming-of-age story.” —The New Yorker “The best urban fantasy in years.” —A.V. Club Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A high school math genius, he’s secretly fascinated with a series of children’s fantasy novels set in a magical land called Fillory, and real life is disappointing by comparison. When Quentin is unexpectedly admitted to an elite, secret college of magic, it looks like his wildest dreams have come true. But his newfound powers lead him down a rabbit hole of hedonism and disillusionment, and ultimately to the dark secret behind the story of Fillory. The land of his childhood fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. . . . The prequel to the New York Times bestselling book The Magician King and the #1 bestseller The Magician's Land, The Magicians is one of the most daring and inventive works of literary fantasy in years. No one who has escaped into the worlds of Narnia and Harry Potter should miss this breathtaking return to the landscape of the imagination.

A magical suit of armour has gone missing in suspicious circumstances and there’s only one person who can help to solve the mystery. You! With nearly 20 different endings, exploding fart potions, freezing spells and plenty of other silly twists and turns, The Magic Knight is an adventure that puts you in control of the action. You choose where the story goes by making decisions and following your instincts. But be warned, not all endings are happy! By controlling the decisions your character makes, only you can solve the mystery of the Magic Knight! Roll the dice and control the action as you become the hero of your very own Monstacademy adventure!

The female gaze is used by writers and readers to examine narratives from a perspective that sees women as subjects instead of objects, and the application of a female gaze to male-dominated discourses can open new avenues of interpretation. This book explores how female manga artists have encouraged the female gaze within their work and how female readers have challenged the male gaze pervasive in many forms of popular media. Each of the chapters offers a close reading of influential manga and fancomics to illustrate the female gaze as a mode of resistant reading and creative empowerment. By employing a female gaze, professional and amateur creators are able to shape and interpret texts in a manner that emphasizes the role of female characters while challenging and reconfiguring gendered themes and issues.

Tracing the evolution of fantasy gaming from its origins in tabletop war and collectible card games to contemporary web-based live action and massive multi-player games, this book examines the archetypes and concepts within the fantasy gaming genre alongside the roles and functions of the game players themselves. Other topics include: how The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings helped shape fantasy gaming through Tolkien's obsessive attention to detail and virtual world building; the community-based fellowship embraced by players of both play-by-post and persistent browser-based games, despite the fact that these games are fundamentally solo experiences; the origins of gamebooks and interactive fiction; and the evolution of online gaming in terms of technological capabilities, media richness, narrative structure, coding authority, and participant roles.

Ross Galloway is more than ready for a new life away from Yachats, Oregon. All he needs for his plans to fall into place is a little money and a lot of luck. He gets his break when he discovers something out of this world on one of his dives – a real-life mermaid. His plans to cash in on his discovery don’t work out quite the way he’d planned when the mermaid gives him an unexpected gift – a magic shell. Swept overboard by the spell contained within the shell, Ross surfaces in a strange, bizarre world. Princess Gem LaBreeze is an Elemental, a powerful species that can control the elements. Transformed to stone to protect her from the evil threatening the Isle of the Elementals, she is awakened by a man from another world – a stranger who is as arrogant and uncouth as he is unpredictable. Gem and Ross, forced together in a desperate race against time, learn that opposites can attract and that sometimes the roughest surface hides the tenderest of hearts. Can an unlikely hero and a lone woman survive the traps set to stop a destructive alien creature, or will the Isle of the Elementals fall back into the ocean and disappear beneath the waves forever? A NY Times and USA Today bestselling author, the internationally acclaimed S.E. Smith presents a new story with her signature humor and unpredictable twists! Exciting adventure, hot romance, and iconic characters have won her a legion of fans. Over TWO MILLION books sold!