Borderland

Borderland refers to a shared universe created by Terri Windling, and to a fictional place within that universe. The premise of the Borderland books is that at some point in the near future, the "Elflands", the realm of magic populated by post-Tolkien elves, "returns" to the world, and is placed in juxtaposition with "The World."

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The region of this juxtaposition (which seems at times to be New York, New York and at other times to be geographically underspecified) is called the "Borderland" or "Borderlands." The dystopian metropolis that lies along the Border, which combines urban fantasy of various forms with a vaguely post-apocalyptic atmosphere, is "Bordertown" or "B-Town." In the liminal environment of Bordertown and its environs, neither magic nor technology functions "normally," and unpredictable combinations of the two may emerge.

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The Borderlands series focuses primarily but not exclusively on the disenfranchised youth culture of Bordertown, as manifest in gang violence, race relations and miscegenation, impromptu forms of social organization, class conflict, generation gaps, and literary criticism. The music of the 1980s is a significant influence.

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Shared universe: A Shared universe is a literary technique in which several different authors share settings and characters which appear in their respective works of fiction, often referring to events taking place in the other writers' stories. It can also be called a "shared setting." It can be a metafictional de...

Terri Windling: Terri Windling is an influential fantasy editor, artist, essayist, and author of the novel The Wood Wife (1996), winner of the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for best novel....

Fictional place: REDIRECT List of fictional location types...