Welcome, Adventurer - today we crack open a tome that tries to do the impossible.
The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy isn’t just a book - it’s a guided walk through the history of imagination itself. From ancient myth and sword-and-sorcery roots to modern fantasy worlds across books, film, and television, this volume charts how fantasy has grown, evolved, and branched into countless realms.
Rather than a cover-to-cover review, this edition is a visual tour — a sampling of pages, illustrations, timelines, and concepts that spark that old familiar feeling: the sense that fantasy is bigger than any one story, and that every path leads to another adventure waiting to be discovered.
Come explore this path with me.
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Opening the Great Compendium
Originally published in 1998, this 2021 revision of The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy sets out to chart the vast landscape of fantasy across time and media. Rather than focusing on a single subgenre or era, it gathers together fantasy’s many forms - myth, literature, film, television, games, and imagined worlds — arranging them in a broadly chronological, interconnected way.
Part reference guide, part visual history, the book traces a path between fantasy tropes, archetypes, settings, ancient stories and modern pop culture. It’s designed less for cover-to-cover reading and more for browsing - inviting readers to dip in, follow timelines, and make unexpected connections between the stories and worlds they love.
This book is big, well laid out, and it’s beautiful - let’s get started!
“Perhaps it is because the landscapes of fantasy exist only in our imagination that they seem so vivid. Or equally perhaps it is because fantasy is the literature of sensation - of smells and tastes, sights and sounds and touch.” - Ben Aaronovitch
“Our ability to make other worlds made us human” - Terry Pratchett
“Fantasy is the fiction of the heart’s desire”
What a profound statement I am going to be pondering on for a while.
Instead of checking out Ursula’s excerpts, check out these soul-inspiring ones instead:
“Today, although we have gained in so many ways from the advances of modern science, modern medicine, modern transportation and modern communications, we have lost that feeling of otherness, that sense of mystery which sustains the human imagination.”
“In taming the world, and making it over in our own image, maybe we have created a wasteland of the imagination, a land which cries out for regeneration. Fantasy is a form which speaks to these ancient and fundamental needs and longings.”
“In these times, it’s more important than ever to look at worlds that never were.”
The Many Faces of Fantasy
“Creating works of fantasy is not a neat, tidy activity, thankfully. It is inventive, imaginative, fun and - like most things that match that description - inherently messy.”
Conan: “I see your Schwartz(-enegger) is as big as mine.”
Some of my favorite tropes. And you?
Fantasy on the Silver Screen
Who here loves Ray Harryhousen’s claymation monsters still to this day?!
(Did you catch the description for Sorceress? “Totally unhinged. Not in a good way.” Full stop. I have to laugh because I just saw this last year and was pretty shocked at many of the scenes. You’ll know what I mean within the first 5 minutes of the movie . . . and then it just keeps heapin’ it on!)
From Warcraft (2016). I thought this movie was really good!
Your next piece of fantasy fun is calling.
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Fantasy Comes Home
Never heard of either of these TV Fantasy shows - “Worzel Gummidge” and “Into The Labyrinth” but will definitely be trying to hunt them down to watch!
🐦🔥 There was a fantasy TV show episode I watched in the 1980s at my grandparents’ house once and only once that I enjoyed so much.
It was on later at night, so wasn’t something I was allowed to stay awake for at home. It had knights and magic and humor . . . it was glorious and as a small kid I longed to see the rest of the series . . . if I only knew its name.
I racked my brain and early web browsers years later to find out what it was but never could discover it. My subconscious had been dwelling on this series for 4 decades . . . until now.
“Wizards and Warriors”, mentioned above, IS THAT SHOW!
Has anyone else ever seen it or remember it? Reading the description above makes it sound even more awesome than I remember.
After finishing this newsletter, you can bet I will be scouring the entire Internet to find this lost gem!
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One of the darkest days in my life is when I found out that “Legend of the Seeker” was cancelled. Anyone else here a fan?
Ahhh, Galavant. Another humorous fantasy gem the likes of which will probably never be seen again. If you aren’t averse to musicals and love to laugh, then you need to watch this!
The Enchanted Pens of Fantasy
^ One of my favorite authors. David Gemmell was such a brilliant fantasy writer that somehow always connected deeper meaning within the common fantasy tropes.
Any Gemmell fans here?
When Fantasy Became Play
Ahhh, the good stuff!
Did you see the fantasy games released in the 2-page spread above?
EPIC!!!
Worlds Worth Wandering
Books like The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy remind us that the magic never belonged to just one story, one author, or one age - it belongs to all of us on our shared journey. Every new world stands on the shoulders of old myths, shared imagination, and countless times spent dreaming of something just beyond the torchlight.
May these pages rekindle that sense of wonder, Bold Adventurer . . . and inspire you to keep exploring, revisiting, and rediscovering the realms that shaped you.
Until our next journey, Keep the Adventure Going STRONG!
If this encyclopedia landed on your lap, which section would you flip to first?
Did any long-slumbering memories or rediscoveries awaken as you explored these pages?
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This looks worthy of a purchase chiefly for the illustrations and ideas of undiscovered books and shows. Side not I watched Wizards and Warriors on network TV as a young gamer and was bitterly disappointed when it was canceled/ not renewed.
Didn't realize a newer edition of this tome was published in 2021. Thanks to you, that's been ordered. As for the "Wizards and Warriors" TV show, I do hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Watched it with fervor when it was originally airing on US television and picked up the full DVD set during the pandemic. It was just as much fun as I'd remembered! Thanks for a great post and here's to a superb 2026.
![Wizards and Warriors [DVD] [1983] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!DfpR!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbc462d88-220a-4ee5-9e3d-2cbf6ff099f2_350x500.jpeg "Wizards and Warriors [DVD] [1983] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]")
This looks worthy of a purchase chiefly for the illustrations and ideas of undiscovered books and shows. Side not I watched Wizards and Warriors on network TV as a young gamer and was bitterly disappointed when it was canceled/ not renewed.
Didn't realize a newer edition of this tome was published in 2021. Thanks to you, that's been ordered. As for the "Wizards and Warriors" TV show, I do hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Watched it with fervor when it was originally airing on US television and picked up the full DVD set during the pandemic. It was just as much fun as I'd remembered! Thanks for a great post and here's to a superb 2026.