Cirrus@Austlit

Susan La Marca discusses a number of different styles and approaches in contemporary children's fantasy fiction and notes that 'few fantasies appear as stand alone books, there is almost always a series' (6). She describes traditional fantasy series as 'big stories with intertwined subplots that take a number of books to get through the action' and contrasts this with recent trends towards an episodic style of 'self contained stories that contribute to a bigger story' (6). She discusses a number of series as examples of how fantasy can be 'simultaneously formulaic and inventive' in the ways they play with and/or subvert the traditional fantasy structure (6). She includes Emily Rodda's series Rondo and Deltora Quest, Michael Pryor's Laws of Magic and Isobelle Carmody's Little Fur, in her discussion of fantasy stories that 'create whole and complex worlds with a continuing story of growth and change' (6).