About

Worldbuilding For Fantasy Fans And Authors is written by M.D. Presley.

Worldbuilding For Fantasy Fans And Authors book cover

Blurb

Worlds can exist without stories, but fantasy stories cannot exist without a vibrant and enthralling world. But what makes a good fantasy world?

Be you a top-down planner, a bottom-up pantser, or a fantasy fan experiencing the worldbuilding from the inside-out, this comprehensive guide has you covered. Adopting a “tools not rules” approach, you will discover dozens of worldbuilding strategies, including:

Ineffective, effective, and inspired worldbuilding.

Designing comprehensive magic systems.

The four Cs of worldbuilding and how to use them.

The ins and outs of immersion.

Enhancing the audience experience with fantasy conceits.

Review

Outside of programming books, I rarely ever read non-fiction books. This year's bingo on /r/Fantasy/ has a SFF-Related Nonfiction square. Substitution is allowed for one square, but there are three squares that'd give me trouble this year. So, I spent a lot of time going through recommendations to pick a non-fiction book that I might be able to finish.

Worldbuilding For Fantasy Fans And Authors seemed to fit and it was on Kindle Unlimited. Took me multiple sittings spread over more than a week to finish, but I'm proud that I did it!

Difficult to rate the book based on my enjoyment. However, I can definitely recommend this book to those who are interested in worldbuilding strategies. I particularly liked the examples from popular works and the illustrations were nicely done too.

I got the impression that there's just too many things to consider. This book has given me a newfound respect for authors.

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟☆

What others are saying

From Anna K. Scott's review on goodreads:

Presley does a good job of bringing together various pieces of information and providing examples, mostly within five main worlds: Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and Avatar: The Last Airbender. These are all obviously very popular and well-known worlds, but the author encourages readers to use their own preferred world of choice and examine it with the tools provided.

From E.Y.E.-D's review on goodreads:

The amount of information in this book is incredible and it covers so much more than I expected when I started. Not only did it change the way I will read fantasy books going forward but I also learned quite a bit of information about the real world that I was completely unaware of. Who would have thought?

Bingo

/r/Fantasy/ 2021 bingo categories:

  • SFF-Related Nonfiction (HM)