Marc Aplin's Blog, page 101

2,000 to 10,000 and 5,000 Words Per Hour – Reviews and Comparison

I think it’s safe to say that most writers wish they could write more. We block out time to write before work, during our lunch hours, and before bed. But life often gets in the way: we have jobs, school, family to look after, friends to meet up with, gym sessions, or errands to run. […]

In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker

Technically, my entry for this month (and for the next few months to come) won’t be fantasy. I’ll be delving into science fiction, though you could argue that the Young Wizards series was about as close as you can get to science fiction while still talking about wizards and wizardry. (One of the characters is […]

MJ-12: Shadows by Michael J. Martinez

Following an outstanding start to his new superhero spy series with last year’s MJ-12: Inception, Michael J. Martinez is back to continue the thrilling adventure with MJ-12: Shadows—and it’s a belter. The Official Blurb It’s 1949, and the Cold War is heating up across the world. For the United States, the key to winning might […]

Adam Roberts Interview – The Real-Town Murders

Adam Roberts is the BSFA Award winning author of Jack Glass (2012), a mixture of locked room murder mystery and golden age science fiction, Bete (2014), which imagines a world in which animal rights activists implant farm animals with computer chips that give them the ability to talk, and The Thing Itself, which uses John […]

Fallen Gods by James A. Moore – Cover Reveal & Giveaway

At the beginning of 2017, Angry Robot released the first in a new series by James A. Moore: The Tides of War. The first book, The Last Sacrifice, came out to much acclaim with people like Seanan McGuire calling it, “Gripping, horrific, and unique…well worth your time.” If this dark gem of sword and sorcery […]

War for the Planet of the Apes – Movie Review

War… Huh… Yeah! What it is good for? Absolutely nothing! Say it again y’all! Okay, with that tired joke out of the way, it turns out that war is in fact good for one thing after all. Specifically, for giving us yet another really rather good Planet of the Apes movie. (And a rather belated […]

Blood of Assassins by R. J. Barker – Cover Reveal

RJ Barker’s fantasy debut Age of Assassins has been out for just over a month, and already both RJ and the book are making a name for themselves – kind of like how an assassin’s reputation precedes them. And, like a true assassin, when the time is right to strike, RJ and publishers Orbit are […]

Small Press, Big Stories: Arachne Press

Small Press, Big Stories is a monthly column focusing on small and independent presses from around the world. This month’s featured publisher is Arachne Press. This month on #SmallPressBigStories, we’re delving into the realms of Arachne Press, an award-winning imprint based in London that specialises in short stories, collections, and poetry. I met Arachne’s Cherry […]

Fantasy in the Court 2017

Back in August I headed up to the ‘big smoke’ – though with electric cars, the congestion charge and the general relocation of heavy industry out of London, it is not really that smoky any more, but it is big. The reason for my train journey was simple – Fantasy in the Court. An event […]

Monthly Short Story Winner: Urban Fantasy

We haven’t had a genre as our monthly theme for quite a while, so this time entrants wrote us a nice, little urban fantasy story. This means that story should take place mainly in a city. Any city, any time? No. To make it a bit more specific, they had to stay on our world […]