417 Caietele Echinox, vol. 43, 2022: Contemporary Eastern/ Southeastern European Noir Marius Conkan, Building Secondary Worlds in Portal-Quest Fantasy Fiction, Interdisciplinary Discourses, 2020 OF GATEWAYS, RABBIT HOLES AND WARDROBES – A STUDY IN THE POROUS FRONTIERS OF SECONDARY WORLDS W ithin the inner circles of scholars who have become well versed in the warps and woofs of fantasy literature, it has long been established that the act of tackling the genre from a theoretical angle constitutes a deceptively strenuous task. is axiom, of course, runs contrary to the arguments of those who seek to infantilize fantasy and brand it with the derogatory sigil of “children’s literature”. Many of these wayward indictments, which persist anachronistically to this day, have their origin in 19th century reactions to the nascent genre. More than capable of surmounting this often unexpected (and woefully still persistent) hurdle, Marius Conkan’s book Building Secondary Worlds in Portal-Quest Fantasy Fiction proposes an enticing foray into the infrastructure of fantasy worldbuilding and – more specifi- cally – the function of the portal, as a trope which remains central to the entire genre and its ontological semantics. e scope of the entire volume boasts an impressive amplitude, despite its rela- tive brevity. While not branching off into the perilous realm of overanalysis, it nev- ertheless compartmentalizes its subject matter rigorously and amalgamates its core tenets with other interrelated and equally alluring tangents. Although dealing with a general topic that could be warily deemed “platonic” in nature, Marius Conkan’s re- search technique and method of composi- tion present themselves as markedly Aris- totelian. Compounding diverging opinions regarding the taxonomy and interpretation Andrei-Călin Zamfirescu Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania andreiczamfirescu@gmail.com DOI: 10.24193/cechinox.2022.43.28