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Welcome, everyone, to Books and Beverages! This week we are discussing Fantasy books! Many of you who like this genre will also be SciFi fans; so check out Episode 102 if you have not already heard it.

This is our book group podcast, where we discuss different genres of books each week, while we all sit in our comfy chairs and drink our beverages. And you are, of course, an important part of this book group. So if you do not already have a nice beverage please go get one, so you can join the experience.

Who is joining our reading group this week? This week we welcome back frequent book group guest Ariel Krist, from St. Cloud Public Library!

Fantasy is one of those great genres that cross all kinds of boundaries in terms of other genres it can intersect with. Scifi can be defined as having a story that focuses on science; things in the story are possible (in theory at least) now or in the future. Items can be built, diseases can be unleashed or vanquished, robots walk among us. Fantasy books, in contrast, rely on magic or paranormal creatures or powers to advance the story.

These books easily lend themselves to big, sprawling world-building series. And those lend themselves to big-budget sprawling TV series and movies. So you see Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings being not only very successful book series, but also very successful visually. Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series is so epic Brandon Sanderson had to wrap it up – along with all of his Mistborne books! (Love his novellas in the Legion series!) Is Dune Fantasy? Sure…also some Scifi – but it’s undoubtedly epic! Think about the Marvel and DC comic universe – those Avengers can be thought of as scifi (sometimes), but could also fit pretty neatly into the Fantasy world. It’s a pretty fantastic time to be a Fantasy fan!!

We have a lot of suggestions for Fantasy books and series you might want to check out, if you don’t already know them. Because, as we said – this is a very diverse genre, and filled with all sorts of potentially great things to discover!