George R. R. Martin’s fantasy masterpiece continues. . . . With her unborn son proclaimed “the stallion who mounts the world,” Daenarys has more cause than ever to rejoice in her marriage to Khal Drogo. But when her brother, the mad Viserys, demands his promised crown, Dany’s future takes an unexpected turn. Meanwhile, in King’s Landing, Robert Baratheon is mortally wounded while hunting. Robert decrees that Eddard Stark shall be Lord Regent until Prince Joffrey comes of age, but Eddard knows the boy is no son of the dying king’s. Yet where in this serpent’s nest of intrigue can he turn for help to secure the throne for the rightful heir? And in the frozen north, Jon Snow, newly promoted to the Night’s Watch, suffers a shock to his pride—and takes the next fateful step toward his destiny.

END OF STORY ARC ITÕS THE RISE OF GERTZILLA! As Gert and Larry reach the end of Fairyland, the little baby Gertlins from a year ago are now decidedly NOT little and are in fact huge, slobbering, Gert-eating monsters. With a little help from Virgil, the team pulls together one final weapon to kill Õem all...

This 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.

Popular culture is more than just a broad term for entertainment and frivolous diversions; it is also highly relevant to our understanding of society. This exciting book is the first to offer insights into the important, but often overlooked, relationship between popular culture and social problems. Drawing on historical and topical examples, the authors apply an innovative theoretical framework to examine how facets of popular culture--from movies and music to toys, games, billboards, bumper stickers, and bracelets--shape how we think about, and respond to, social issues, such as problems of gender, sexuality, and race. Including student features, evocative case studies, and access to online material, this book will help students explore and understand the essential connection between popular culture and social problems. Deftly combining the fun and irreverence of popular culture with critical scholarly inquiry, this timely book delivers an engaging account of how our interactions with--and consumption of--popular culture matter far more than we may think.

Adult-directed utopian fiction has historically rejected depictions of persons with disabilities, underrepresenting a community that comprises an estimated 15% of the world's population. From the earliest stories of utopias written for and about children, however, persons with disabilities have been included in abundance, and are central to classic narratives like The Wizard of Oz and Winnie the Pooh. In a perfect world centered on children and their caretakers, these works argue, characters with a diverse range of bodies and minds must flourish. Spanning from Lewis Carroll's 1865 Alice in Wonderland to Jordan Peele's 2019 film Us, this examination of the wonderland demonstrates the role that bodily and neurological diversity plays in an ever-popular subgenre.