Marc Aplin's Blog, page 129

Dracula vs. Hitler by Patrick Sheane Duncan

Ravaged by the Nazi Secret Service during World War II, Romanian resistance forces turn to one of their leaders, Professor Van Helsing for any way out. To fight these monstrous forces, Van Helsing raises a legendary monster from centuries of slumber: Prince Dracula himself. Once he was the ruler of Transylvania. Prince Vlad Dracul, is, […]

Nothing Is As It Seems

I’ve always referred to The Relic Guild Trilogy as a single story chopped up into three books. Mostly because it’s true. It is the tale of a secret band of magickers protecting a million humans in a city hidden at the centre of a giant labyrinth; a city that barely manages to survive, trapped behind […]

The Drowning Eyes by Emily Foster

This review contains spoilers. Please read with caution if you have yet to finish the story. 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 […]

The Key by Mats Strandberg and Sara Bergmark Elfgren

This review contains spoilers. Read with caution if you have yet to finish Fire (Eld) and The Key (Nyckeln). Engelsfors has been saved from the cult of positivity that attempted to take it over, and while one might think an event of the magnitude of the climax of Fire (including the better part of the […]

Off Leash by Daniel Potter – SPFBO Review: And Then There Were Four

The SPFBO team are making steady progress in our search for a finalist. To avoid cruelly stretching things out, we’ll be posting (in no particular order) individual reviews for those who don’t make it as and when we eliminate them. Now, only four books remain as we say farewell to Daniel Potter and Off Leash. […]

Valley of Embers by Steven Kelliher

Tough to be young or old in this Valley of ours. The night is dark and full of terrors, especially for the besieged inhabitants of the Valley of Embers. In Steven Kelliher’s secondary world only a handful of walled towns remain as the last bastions against the night, and the dwindling population of Emberfolk struggle […]

Monthly Short Story Winner: Known Title, Unknown Story

The name of the short story must be that of a fantasy bestseller but the story isn’t allowed to have anything to do with the original book. So if your stories title is The Name of the Wind it isn’t allowed to be about an orphan musician magician sex god king killer and the power […]

Time Siege by Wesley Chu

Time Siege, by Wesley Chu, is the second book in the Time Salvager series. It picks up right where the first book left off. James Griffin-Mars and his allies are still on the run from corporate security and Chronocom, the organisation he used to work for. At the head of this hunt is Kuo, the […]

Emergence edited by J. M. Martin

Emergence is a shared-world anthology that takes full advantage of its format, building one story atop the next to create a three-dimensional world that ultimately reaches its peak with Edward M. Erdelac’s “Perennial”. As Ragnarok Publications Editor-in-Chief Tim Marquitz explains in the book’s introduction, he originally intended to write a superhero novel, but soon realized […]

The Sacred and Profane in Fantasy Writing: Who Gives a F___?

As I started writing this my five-year-old niece was settling down to a sleepover with my youngest daughter, and my second daughter had just reminded me that we would have to watch our language around the impressionable little one. Those who have worked with me will know that I have a slight tendency to cuss. […]