Tommye Turner's Blog: The Fantasy Review, page 174

Free Character Template for Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction

Character Sheet Fantasy/ Science Fiction TemplateDOWNLOAD

It can be a little challenging, when coming up with characters for your new fantasy or science fiction book, to know where to begin. Thats why Ive put together this simple, minimalist character template to help you start straight away with the basics.

I find that I can get bogged down with writing pages and pages about a character and then I never get around to writing the actual story, so I had to learn to focus on the basics to...

April Wrap-Up and May TBR (2020)

With there only being one week remaining of April, Ive put a list together of what I want to read in May. April has been a really good reading month for me and I hope to keep that up!

April Wrap-Up

So far, I have read nine books in April, and hopefully Ill have finished one more in the next seven days. Reviews for all books listed below are linked to my review:

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The Dresden Files

Ive burned through several books in Jim Butchers The Dresden Files this month, after reading Storm Front (#1) in...

The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King: Book Review

In the first book of this brilliant series, Stephen King introduces readers to one of his most enigmatic heroes, Roland of Gilead, The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which frighteningly mirrors our own, Roland pursues The Man in Black, encounters an alluring woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the Kid from Earth called Jake. Both grippingly realistic and eerily dreamlike, The Gunslinger leaves...

Blood Rites (The Dresden Files #6) by Jim Butcher: Book Review

For Harry Dresden, Chicagos only professional wizard, there have been worse assignments than going undercover on the set of an adult film. Dodging flaming monkey poo, for instance. Or going toe-to-leaf with a walking plant monster. Still, there is something more troubling than usual about his newest case. The films producer believes hes the target of a sinister entropy curse, but its the women around him who are dying, in increasingly spectacular ways.

Harry is doubly frustrated because he...

How to Read ‘Gardens of the Moon’

There are many readers, myself among them, who begin reading Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson, hoping to find themselves whisked into a huge, epic fantasy world. With a series as long as Malazan Book of the Fallen, and all of the extra trilogies and books written by both Steven Erikson and Ian C. Esslemont, there is massive potential for readers to become obsessed with a new fantasy world and story.

When I first read Gardens of the Moon, I put it down after 200 pages and thought that I...

Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen #1) by Steven Erikson: Book Review

The Malazan Empire simmers with discontent, bled dry by interminable warfare, bitter infighting and bloody confrontations with the formidable Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii, ancient and implacable sorcerers. Even the imperial legions, long inured to the bloodshed, yearn for some respite. Yet Empress Laseens rule remains absolute, enforced by her dread Claw assassins.

For Sergeant Whiskeyjack and his squad of Bridgeburners, and for Tattersail, surviving cadre mage of the Second Legion, the...

The Joy of Creating a Fantasy World

As with many who read fantasy books, I have always wanted to create my own secondary world. Ive read books by J. R. R. Tolkien, Brandon Sanderson, George R. R. Martin, Trudi Canavan, Ursula K. Le Guin (the list goes on) and those books have shaped the periods of my life in which they dominated. Canavan and Tolkien were my first forays into the fantasy genre, and I was taken away by the colossal creativity of these authors. Im not comparing them as they are very different but they both...

April – May TBR (2020)

Its not often I have much of a solid plan of what Im going to read in the near future. Its normally just a pile of books and Ill pick one at random. However, right now I have a clear plan of what books I want to pick up over the next couple of months.

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Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen #1) by Steven Erikson

In a recent post, I talked about all the series I wanted to read or try over the next two years. Malazan was one of those series.

Ive tried reading this one once before...

Death Masks (The Dresden Files #5) by Jim Butcher: Book Review

Harry Dresden, Chicagos only practicing professional wizard, should be happy that business is pretty good for a change. But now hes getting more than he bargained for:

A duel with the Red Court of Vampires champion, who must kill Harry to end the war between vampires and wizards

Professional hit men using Harry for target practice

The missing Shroud of Turin

A handless and headless corpse the Chicago police need identified

Not to mention the return of Harrys ex-girlfriend Susan, whos still...

The Rage of Dragons (The Burning #1) by Evan Winter: Book Review

The Omehi people have been fighting an unwinnable fight for almost two hundred years. Their society has been built around war and only war. The lucky ones are born gifted. One in every two thousand women has the power to call down dragons. One in every hundred men is able to magically transform himself into a bigger, stronger, faster killing machine.

Everyone else is fodder, destined to fight and die in the endless war. Young, gift-less Tau knows all this, but he has a plan of escape. Hes...