Marc Aplin's Blog, page 114

Small Press, Big Stories: Luna Press & A.J. Dalton Cover Reveal

Small Press, Big Stories is a monthly column focusing on small and independent presses from around the world. This month’s featured publisher is Luna Press. Back in March I popped up to the York Pubmeet (find them on Twitter @YorkPubmeet) for AJ Dalton’s talk on his PhD thesis, The Sub-Genres of British Fantasy Literature. Not only […]

Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel

Warning: this review contains spoilers for Sleeping Giants! Waking Gods is the sequel to Sleeping Giants, which established a world where a gigantic robot named Themis had been found, put together and stocked with two special pilots under the guidance of the person who discovered her – Dr Rose Franklin. (Our Overlord Marc Aplin wrote […]

Star Wars: Thrawn by Timothy Zahn

Timothy Zahn’s first foray into the New Star Wars EU sees him return to his most beloved character, the enigmatic and sorely missed Grand Admiral Thrawn. In a pseudo-origin story that both pulls back the veil on the origins of the Chiss mastermind and deepens the mystery of his service to the Empire, Zahn proves […]

Cover Reveal for THE EMERALD BLADE by Steven Kelliher

Back in August 2016, Steven Kelliher surprised the indie scene with his self-published debut novel, Valley of Embers.  Introducing readers to the LANDKIST universe (where flame-wielding warriors known as Embers struggle in dwindling numbers to defend their homes from the Darkness), Valley of Embers was widely regarded as a solid and highly competent debut. Though Fantasy-Faction didn’t find it […]

What’s the Deal with Interactive Storytelling?

What’s the deal with interactive storytelling? Glad you asked. If you know me, you’ll know that I’ve been making video games since I was a kid, banging away at the keyboard of my dad’s Commodore 64. If you don’t know me, well . . . surprise! One of my other favorite things since I was […]

Cover Reveal for PRINCESS OF BLOOD by TOM LLOYD

So here it is: the cover of Princess of Blood in all its monstery goodness. After the brilliant Stranger of Tempest cover we of course went back to Jon McCoy to do this one too and I think you’ll agree it’s a cracker – artwork to grab you by the throat! Before the throat grabbing […]

Cruising the Cosmere: Visit Magical Arelon!

Buckle in, dear readers – we’re taking a tour of the Cosmere!  Over the course of a truly ridiculous number of months, Sonia Grace will be reading her way through every book, novella, and short story set in Brandon Sanderson‘s Cosmere. Read all about it here, follow along on the forum, and be sure to […]

Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly

“At the beginning of the workweek, most of Amberlough’s salary-folk crawled reluctantly from their bed – or someone else’s – and let the trolleys tow them, hungover and half asleep, to the office. Amberlough City, eponymous capital of the larger state, was not home to many early risers.” Amberlough (2017) by Lara Elena Donnelly is […]

Tough Travels: Assassins

Back in 2014, Nathan Barnhart created a weekly feature called ‘Tough Travels’, which he hosted over on Fantasy Review Barn. Inspired by The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones – a tongue-in-cheek parody of the fantasy genre – it would spotlight a different trope every week, and invite other bloggers to compile their […]

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2

I think it’s safe to call Guardians of the Galaxy one of the real breakout hits of 2014. If you had told me 10 years ago that a movie about a D-List Superhero team, featuring a giant tree man and a raccoon with machine guns, would’ve ended being so incredibly popular… I probably would’ve been […]