About the Accidental Bard

The Blog

The Accidental Bard is a fantasy fiction blog by James Cormier and CJ Stutz. Its goal is simple: to shine a spotlight on the fantasy fiction genre. There are many Science Fiction & Fantasy blogs and websites to be found across the Internet, but most of them cover Science Fiction first and Fantasy second. The Bard is your source for Fantasy-centric content written by people who love the genre.

That said, we will try not to get too hung up on genre divisions. At the end of the day, a person's reading list should not be defined by bookstore labels. More and more works continue to blur the line between classic science fiction and fantasy. Is Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun fantasy, or science fiction? What about Star Wars? Does technology have any place in fantasy, or swords and sorcery in sci-fi? When an author reveals that your favorite fantasy world is actually a post-apocalyptic civilization living in the ruins of a technological society, does the work cease to be fantasy and become science fiction? It seems clear that these labels are only useful to a point.

So fantasy is the main course here, but occasionally you will see a little sci-fi as a side dish, as the cooks' appetites dictate. This is supposed to be an inn, after all. We'd like to think nobody minds an occasional bit of William Gibson served alongside their George R. R. Martin. Not literally, of course. We'll leave that for the Horror readers.

The Authors

Jim Cormier and CJ Stutz live in Massachusetts. After passing the bar exam in 2007, they settled down to spend a series of wild Friday nights at Barnes & Noble, perusing the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section and buying more flashy paperbacks than any two people could ever have a use for.

Jim enjoys rereading old favorites until the bindings fall apart and spreading bibulous cheer at holiday parties.

CJ reads more quickly than Jim and seems to have read every Kim Harrison and Laurell K. Hamilton book ever written.

A Note on Reviews

A large part of The Accidental Bard's content is made up of reviews. While we certainly intend to review as much new fantasy fiction as we can, we will also be discussing and reviewing older, classic material. The Accidental Bard is intended to be an ongoing selection of the best (and the worst) of fantasy fiction, not a comprehensive survey of everything that's out there.

In summary, the book reviews will focus on works chosen at the whim of the edito...ahem, the resident minstrels. But we think you'll like what we have in store.

Copyright 2008 The Accidental Bard. Some Rights Reserved.