Many fantasy novels - 'Lord of the Rings', for instance, or 'Lavondyss' by Robert Holdstock - are beautifully written. Geoff Ryman's 'The Child Garden' is exquisite and utterly beguiling. Mervyn Peake's 'Gormenghast' trilogy is an astonishing piece of multi-faceted storytelling. So quality of writing does not condemn the genre.

Societies need heroes. So we travel to places where the revisionists cannot dismantle the great.

If you look at any ancient civilization, they've all used fantasy stories to train the young.

David Gemmell Quotes