George stepped cautiously forward through the door eyes clamped tightly shut; he felt a warm breeze and the smell of wild flowers filled his nose. He opened his eyes a bit at a time, the glare of the sun made him turn his head, and then as his eyes adjusted he was awestruck by what he saw. In front of him were rolling fields of lush blue grass smothered in flowers which looked like multi coloured polka dots, in the distance a huge golden castle surrounded by a massive stone wall, towering behind it the biggest range of mountains he had ever seen, all capped in snow......... Follow George Royle, an ordinary 10 year old boy on the adventure of a lifetime in a land of magical wonder. A breath taking quest of good versus evil. Making new friends and confronting fearsome enemies, in a battle to save the land. Will he succeed? Will the darkness defeat the light and will George make the ultimate sacrifice?

Fantasy is a creation of the Enlightenment, and the recognition that excitement and wonder can be found in imagining impossible things. From the ghost stories of the Gothic to the zombies and vampires of twenty-first-century popular literature, from Mrs Radcliffe to Ms Rowling, the fantastic has been popular with readers. Since Tolkien and his many imitators, however, it has become a major publishing phenomenon. In this volume, critics and authors of fantasy look at its history since the Enlightenment, introduce readers to some of the different codes for the reading and understanding of fantasy, and examine some of the many varieties and subgenres of fantasy; from magical realism at the more literary end of the genre, to paranormal romance at the more popular end. The book is edited by the same pair who produced The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction (winner of a Hugo Award in 2005).