Marc Aplin's Blog, page 124

Wrath by John Gwynne

Spoiler Warning: This review contains spoilers for the first three books: Malice, Valour and Ruin. Please read with caution if you haven’t finished the books. “We’re going to need a bigger warband.” Since 2012, John Gwynne has been promising us that ‘even the brave will fall’ and dear god, they have. Each successive instalment in […]

The Burning Isle by Will Panzo

Slow and steady does win the race, as proven by Will Panzo’s debut novel. Also, bonus points for being a standalone. The Burning Isle delivers with a long-brewing vengeance story. Looking back, there was nothing remarkably unique about the plotline, but not once in its 400-plus pages was I tempted to give up. There are […]

So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane

I think it’s a safe bet that most people who visit this site have wanted to be a wizard at some point (and a safe bet that some of us still do). Unfortunately, as far as I know, none of those wishes have come true, which is why we turn to books. If we can’t […]

Infernal by Mark de Jager

Infernal is truly a book that raises hell across its pages. After beginning in a quiet meadow one scarcely expects the kind of chaos that occurs throughout the story. The plot focuses on the amnesiac Stratus who awakens in said meadow with nothing but his name and a headache, yet he quickly discovers that while […]

Ten Tips For Short Story Writing

Short stories can be great fun to write, but sometimes tough to get the knack of. For anyone who wants to try their luck at this form, I’ve come up with a list of useful tips to help you get started. 1. Keep the focus. One reason that short stories fail is the writer tries […]

Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off #2: Round Two

Here we are at the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning. It really depends on your viewpoint. Round One is complete and done. The ten finalists have been selected, put forward to other blogs and one author (that we know of) has already bagged an agent and they didn’t even make […]

Monthly Short Story Winner: Young Love

This month’s stories are about people experiencing true love (or what they believe to be love) for the first time. I know that writing about feelings – and especially love – is quite hard too but since love is an integral part of life, it was about time to try writing about it. If you […]

Hunger Makes The Wolf Book Announcement & Cover Reveal

We’ve heard some great news from Angry Robot today… They’ve picked up another author for their already hugely impressive list, Alex Wells. Rumour has it that Alex Wells is a pseudonym, but we couldn’t possibly confirm or deny. The book Angry Robot have snapped up from Alex is described as a cross between Dune and Sons […]

Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft

This is an exceedingly rich book. A depth of imagination married with a poetic turn of phrase and an engaging cast of characters (both those we meet and those who keep us waiting) conspire to deliver an epic story soaring high above the clouds. The engine of the fantastic story is a terrifyingly ordinary dilemma. […]

Our Monsters, Our Selves

The title of this article is taken from a panel discussion at World Fantasy Convention 2012—a panel that had so many voices who wanted to contribute that it had to be split into two parts! The topic of discussion was on the appeal of monsters in fantasy literature: Why, how, and to who do they […]