A new chapter in the fantastic

Fantasy books,
stories, and the
people who
create them.

For the curious reader. The world-builder.
And anyone who’s ever disappeared into a book.

New perspectives. Old favourites. Other worlds.
An illustrated doorway opens onto a moonlit valley, mountains and a winding river.Beyond the familiarAn invitation to wander ↗
Pull up a chair

From the reading room

Browse the bookshelf
Books

Where to begin with Earthsea

Six books, a sea of islands, and a world that changes as you read. A simple route into Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea.

2 min read
Stories

Make room for a short story

A small reading ritual, a few reliable places to start, and the pleasure of a complete world in one sitting.

2 min read
Books

Reading Piranesi without a map

An invitation to pay attention to Susanna Clarke’s House, with a few questions to keep beside your reading chair.

2 min read
Tools for world-makers

Names with a meaning

All name generators
Name generator

Dragon names

Generate dragon names with meanings. Choose fire, frost, storm, earth, shadow or sea, add an epithet, and see what each syllable means.

Open the generator
Name generator

Wizard names

Generate wizard names with meanings for scholars, hedge witches, court magicians, wanderers and sinister sorcerers, with titles and places.

Open the generator
The Realms of Fantasy archive

Some stories stay with us.

Explore the history, people and surviving references of a magazine that made room for the fantastic. A growing guide to its literary past.

Open the archive
For those who make worlds

At the writing desk

A woodland path winds toward a small sun.Art & imagination

A world in the margins

Look a little longer. There is more to an illustration than its first impression.

Take a closer look

Find your next read

Search the reading room and historical reference pages.