Marc Aplin's Blog, page 110
May 17, 2017
Spiderlight by Adrian Tchaikovsky
So, that Adrian Tchaikovsky is a clever bloke. He tricked me (and plenty of others, no doubt) into thinking Spiderlight was a tropey, cliched, rose-tinted throwback to the ‘good old days’ of D&D. You know the days: when men were men and spiders were spiders and women were damsels in distress and mages were all […]
May 16, 2017
A Beginner’s Recommendation Guide to Fantasy Manga: Shonen (Adventure Fantasy)
You know, it’s interesting to take a look at genres from different perspectives. Here in the West, we have a very particular view of the Fantasy genre, one forged by hugely influential works such as Lord of the Rings, Conan the Barbarian and, more recently, A Song of Ice and Fire. But what about other […]
May 15, 2017
Tabletop Tuesday: It was the Dead of Winter…
I could see them. Even in the growing dark, I could see them. Flickers of flame from the fire threw their shadows against walls of peeling paint. Stupid. Really stupid. The old school was not a place of refuge. It was a haven for them. They gathered here and we’d never tried to clear them […]
May 14, 2017
Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale (Movie Review)
If you’re anything like me (and gods help you if you are), you’ve spent a lot of time playing video games and watching anime. If that’s the case, you’ve probably already seen Sword Art Online, the immensely popular anime based on a light novel about a group of people trapped in a virtual reality MMORPG […]
Marc Aplin’s Dog Walk
This coming Saturday, Fantasy-Faction’s founder Marc Aplin will be walking from Bristol to London (around 120 miles) non-stop to raise money and awareness for dog rescues across the United Kingdom. It is expected to take around 35 to 40 hours. In the UK, around 50,000 dogs are given up as ‘unwanted’ each year. With our support, […]
May 13, 2017
Self-Published Fantasy: How the SPFBO is Revitalising SFF
With the exciting kick-off of the THIRD Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (#SPFBO) already underway, I thought I’d share some thoughts about the complexities of self-publishing and how Mark Lawrence’s SPFBO initiative is shaking up not only the medium, but also the genre itself. (An older, less awesome version of this article can be found here.) Self-published […]
May 11, 2017
Plot Twists That Defy Genre Expectations
Most of us love a good plot twist. We’re always trying to predict where a narrative is headed, but we’re usually thrilled when it takes an unexpected turn, surprises us, and makes us re-evaluate the assumptions we’ve made about the characters and the story. However, some of these sudden turns knock the wind out of us more than others, because […]
May 10, 2017
Agents of Dreamland by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Tor’s novella series was started in 2015, with the aim of promoting this shorter medium. The line includes both established authors and those just making their debut, and has included a number of authors from diverse backgrounds. The resulting line is full of interesting and different stories from authors both familiar and new. This column […]
May 9, 2017
An Introduction to Anime and Manga
In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in anime and manga by Western cultures. Before, mentioning the terms anime or manga in casual conversation would have been met with confusion, but more and more it’s met with “What do you watch?” or “Which one are you reading right now?” Most anime and […]
May 8, 2017
Within the Sanctuary of Wings by Marie Brennan
The fifth – and final – of Lady Trent’s memoirs is a difficult beast to review without lurching firmly into spoiler territory, both for the preceding books and for the plot of this one. So, in order to set the scene for this review, the next paragraph will contain brief spoilers from the previous entry. […]
