The imperial organization of witchcraft refers to the hierarchical structure and system of governance that was established during the era of imperialistic witchcraft. This system was characterized by a centralized authority, typically led by a powerful witch or warlock known as the Grand Witch/Warlock or the High Priest/Priestess, who held ultimate control and leadership over all witches within the empire. **At the top of the hierarchical pyramid was the Grand Witch/Warlock or the High Priest/Priestess.** This individual was seen as the embodiment of magical power and served as the supreme ruler and decision-maker for all matters related to witchcraft. They were responsible for establishing the laws and regulations that governed the practices and conduct of witches within their jurisdiction. **Beneath the Grand Witch/Warlock or the High Priest/Priestess were the Regional Witch Lords/Ladies or the Coven Leaders.
Darkly playful.--Michael Chabon
Kelly Link s engaging and funny stories riff on haunted convenience stores, husbands and wives, rabbits, zombies, weekly apocalyptic poker parties, witches, and cannons. Her exquisite stories mix the aggravations and epiphanies of everyday life with the stuff that legends, dreams and nightmares are made of, from pop culture to fairy tales.
**Beneath the Grand Witch/Warlock or the High Priest/Priestess were the Regional Witch Lords/Ladies or the Coven Leaders.** These individuals were appointed by the central authority and were responsible for overseeing specific regions or covens within the empire. They acted as intermediaries between the Grand Witch/Warlock or the High Priest/Priestess and the local witch communities, ensuring that the laws and regulations were upheld and enforced.
Magic for Beginners (Hardcover)
If I had to pick the most powerfully original voice in fantasy today, it would be Kelly Link. Her stories begin in a world very much like our own, but then, following some mysterious alien geometry, they twist themselves into something fantastic and, frequently, horrific. You won't come out the same person you went in.--Lev Grossman, The Week
Highly original.--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Dazzling.--Entertainment Weekly (grade: A, Editor's Choice)
Darkly playful.--Michael Chabon
Best of the Year: Time Magazine, Salon, Boldtype, PopMatters.
Kelly Link's engaging and funny stories riff on haunted convenience stores, husbands and wives, rabbits, zombies, weekly apocalyptic poker parties, witches, and cannons. Includes Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award winners. A Best of the Year pick from TIME, Salon.com, and Book Sense. Illustrated by Shelley Jackson.
Kelly Link is the author of three collections of short fiction Stranger Things Happen, Magic for Beginners, and Pretty Monsters. Her short stories have won three Nebula, a Hugo, and a World Fantasy Award. She was born in Miami, Florida, and once won a free trip around the world by answering the question "Why do you want to go through the world?" ("Because you can't go through it.")
Link lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she and her husband, Gavin J. Grant, run Small Beer Press, co-edit the fantasy half of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and play ping-pong. In 1996 they started the occasional zine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet.
About the Author
Kelly Link is the author of three collections of short stories, Stranger Things Happen, Magic for Beginners, and Pretty Monsters. Her short stories have won the Nebula, Hugo, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards. She was born in Miami, Florida, and once won a free trip around the world by answering the question "Why do you want to go around the world?" ("Because you can't go through it.") Link and her family live in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she and her husband, Gavin J. Grant, run Small Beer Press, and play ping-pong. In 1996 they started the occasional zine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet.
Praise For…
Intricate, wildly imaginative and totally wonderful. Whether or not you think you like fantasy, if you’re a fan of inventive plots and good writing (her use of language will fill you with awe), don’t miss Kelly Link’s collection.”
Nancy Pearl, NPR
Her exquisite stories mix the aggravations and epiphanies of everyday life with the stuff that legends, dreams and nightmares are made of, from pop culture to fairy tales. Some of these pieces are very scary, others are immensely sad, many are funny and all of them are written in prose so flawless you almost forget how much elemental human chaos they contain.”
Salon, Best of the Decade
Link’s stories . play in a place few writers go, a netherworld between literature and fantasy, Alice Munro and J.K. Rowling, and Link finds truths there that most authors wouldn’t dare touch.”
Time Magazine
Locus Award winner. Young Lions Award, Bram Stoker, World Fantasy Finalist, Story Prize recommended reading list.
The dream-logic of Magic for Beginners is intoxicating. These stories will come alive, put on zoot suits, and wrestle you to the ground. They want you and you will be theirs.”
Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones
"A mind-bending blast, as funny, disturbing and poignant as anything I’ve read this year.”
Capitol Times
The storyteller’s mantraIt gets better”come to life and multiplied.”
Village Voice
Link’s powerful prose places this collection into a class of its own.”
Boldtype (Notable Books)
Kelly Link’s second collection trumps her first on all levels. The fantastic is more subtle here, more sinister and more pervasive. Link writes fantasy fiction in clear, crisp prose that features nontraditional zombies, a fictional television show, and large stone rabbits. She’s toeing the line between literature and sci-fi/fantasy, and her books are usually found in the latter section in stores. The stories in Magic for Beginners are lengthier than typical short stories, driven by solid characters and weird, intriguing scenarios, like a 24-7 gas station that caters to zombies and humans alike. Link brings to each of her pieces a dreamlike, unsettling quality that adds to the sense that on some level of super-reality, all of the weirdness makes some sort of sense.”
PopMatters
Eerie and engrossing.”
Washington Post Book World
Dazzling. One to savor.”
Entertainment Weekly (A, Editor’s Choice)
Magic for Beginners is worth picking up. Doing so will put you in the hands of a true conjurer.”
Cleveland Plain Dealer
These stories shimmer like impressionist paintings.”
Montreal Gazette
Kelly Link is the future of American short fiction.”
Alexis Smith, Powells.com Staff Pick
The best short-fiction writer working in science fiction and fantasy today, and her new collection, Magic for Beginners, proves it.”
Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing
Link’s stories are delightfully playful, almost precocious, as she creates palimpsests of secret passages, hidden doors, quiet pulses of deeper meaning. Link is fast becoming a major talent.”
Boston Globe
Advanced alchemy.”
The Believer
Exuberantly eccentric.”
Time Out New York
A complete delight.”
Rich Horton, Locus
"Not only does Link find fresh perspectives from which to explore familiar premises, she also forges ingenious connections between disparate images and narrative approaches to suggest a convincing alternate logic that shapes the worlds of her highly original fantasies.”
Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
One of the most fascinating writers practicing the craft today.”
The Simon
Wishful thinking on the brink of disaster.”
Village Voice
Magical realism meets horror meets postmodern absurdism. Very fresh and funny.”
Michael Knight, Knoxville Metro Pulse Summer Reading Guide
A bizarre and enchanting read, worth reading and re-reading.”
Daily Nebraskan
Kelly Link has an uncanny knack for casting spells over her readers, for luring them into the dark places the attic, the underworld, a realm beneath a hill. These stories bend and transcend genre as Link stirs together myth, mystery, horror, and fantasy. Fairy tales and myths may be timeless, but these stories are of this moment.”
Nina MacLaughlin, Boston Phoenix
Cult-favorite fabulist and Shirley Jackson-esque master of the short story, returns with an eagerly-awaited new collection of thoughtfully strange tales that sprinkle the mundane with pixie dust, a dash of old-fashioned tragedy and a bit of gallows humor.”
The Ruminator Review
Truly magical, with masterfully crafted stories that are as dark as they are delightful. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes disconcerting, Link’s stories demonstrate her wicked sense of humor and genius wit.”
Bookpage
I am in love with Kelly Link’s new collection of stories, Magic for Beginners just out in hardcover. This book is a fairly complete list of my favorite things. She sort of summarized it best when she signed it for me: Love, Magic, Zombies!” It’s fantastical, whimsical, and dead serious and it makes me interested in short stories again.”
Alexander Chee (Edinburgh) in Books To Watch Out For
This is one of the most extraordinary and wonderful books of the year.”
Time Out London
Possibly grimmer than Grimm.”
The Herald
Beautifully written short stories; eccentric and dark, the collection is an Alice in Wonderland for grown-ups.”
Dazed and Confused
Link’s writing is bold, tender, mischievous and unsettling.”
Cork Evening Echo
These are weird and wacky tales, each with their own barmy internal logic which draws you in, flips you on your head and leaves you dizzy with disbelief. Link’s extraordinary use of language is as haunting as the tales themselves. She blends fantasy and reality into an irresistible melange that, at its best, becomes a powerful metaphor for the unreliability of perception.”
Jane Wessel, Venue (****)
Link’s magic is to show the extraordinary in the ordinary and vice versa: no mean feat.”
RTE Guide (*****)
Just when you think you’ve read all the best magic and fantasy stories, along comes Link and the dull world is enchanted all over again. Her imagination floats free into her very own twilight zone.”
Saga
Whether she’s writing about a suburban family haunted by rabbits or a grandmother who keeps a world hidden in her handbag, Link’s stories are witty, moving and sometimes scary.”
The Gloss Magazine
A collection of nine stories from a talent to watch, this is a lyrical fantasy where the ordinary is made extraordinary.”
The Bookseller
Kelly Link owns the most darkly playful voice in American fiction since Donald Barthelme. She is pushing the American short story into places that it hasn’t yet been pushed, while somehow managing to maintain a powerful connection to traditional forms and storytelling values.”
Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
A wonderful rattlebag of fantastic tales from far beyond the concrete sidewalks and convenience stores we know.”
Rich Rennicks Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe, Asheville, NC
In the very best way, I never know what is coming next. If she only parcelled out one elegant sentence at a time I would beg for each one.”
Pam Harcourt, Women & Children First, Chicago, IL
- Short Stories (single author)
- Paperback (July 1st, 2014): $17.00
These stories shimmer like impressionist paintings.”
Montreal Gazette
**Below the Regional Witch Lords/Ladies or the Coven Leaders were the Local Witch Elders or Coven Members.** These individuals were members of the local witch communities and were responsible for practicing and preserving the ancient traditions and rituals of witchcraft. They provided guidance and mentoring to younger witches and followed the leadership of the Regional Witch Lords/Ladies or the Coven Leaders. **At the bottom of the hierarchical structure were the Novice Witches or Apprentices.** These were individuals who were new to witchcraft and were undergoing training and education to become full-fledged witches. They were under the supervision and tutelage of the Local Witch Elders or Coven Members, who would teach them the various spells, rituals, and practices of witchcraft. **Overall, the imperial organization of witchcraft was characterized by a strict hierarchical structure with a centralized authority.** This system allowed for the efficient governance and control of witches within the empire, ensuring that the laws and regulations were adhered to and that the ancient traditions of witchcraft were passed down from generation to generation. It also provided a sense of order and unity among witches, as they were all part of a larger organization with a shared purpose and hierarchy..
Reviews for "The Art of Subterfuge: How Disguise and Secrecy Shaped Imperial Witchcraft"
1. Emily - 2 stars
"I was really looking forward to reading 'Imperial Organization of Witchcraft' as I am a huge fan of fantasy novels. However, I was left disappointed. The book had an interesting premise, but the execution was poor. The plot was confusing and lacked depth, leaving me struggling to connect with the characters. The pacing was also off, with some parts dragging on while others were rushed. Overall, I found it difficult to engage with this book and it did not live up to my expectations."
2. Justin - 1 star
"Unfortunately, 'Imperial Organization of Witchcraft' was a major letdown for me. The writing felt amateurish, with simplistic sentence structure and numerous grammatical errors throughout the book. The characters were one-dimensional and lacked proper development, making it hard to care about their fates. Additionally, the world-building was superficial and lacked the necessary detail to fully immerse the reader. I found myself skimming through pages just to finish the book and would not recommend it to fellow fantasy enthusiasts."
3. Sarah - 2.5 stars
"I had high hopes for 'Imperial Organization of Witchcraft' based on the intriguing title and promising cover, but unfortunately, the story fell flat. The writing style was disjointed, making it difficult to follow the storyline and keep track of the characters. The dialogue felt forced and unrealistic, lacking natural flow. While the concept of an imperial organization of witches was interesting, the execution did not do it justice. The lack of consistent world-building and the underdeveloped magical system left me wanting more. Overall, this book had potential but failed to deliver."