Marc Aplin's Blog, page 139

Cover Reveal for Jay Kristoff’s “Nevernight”

I’ve been a huge fan of Jay Kristoff’s since reading Stormdancer back in 2012. Admittedly, the themes of Japan, Martial Arts, Fantasy, Mythical Creatures and Technology pretty much answered my prayers… but the writing style, the kick ass characters, the fun and keep-you-guessing plot were surely enjoyed by most fantasy readers too. Of course, I’ve […]

SPFBO #2: The Fall of the Three

Everything needs an evocative title to draw the reader in and, whilst not quite the hyperbole of a Sun newspaper headline, these three haven’t truly fallen. It is more to do with our collective tastes. Now, we are motoring (with all the speed of a Ford Mondeo towing a rather large caravan down a Cornish […]

The Malice by Peter Newman

Peter Newman has followed up his remarkable debut The Vagrant with another exceptional tale, The Malice. In The Vagrant, Newman flouted convention with a present tense story of a protagonist who was not only mute, but whose point of view we never saw. Newman decided that we would only know his eponymous hero by his […]

Fantasy’s Tricksters

Fantasy loves a big, strong hero, almost as much as we love a big, scary villain. We love to see a good, old-fashioned epic showdown, preferably on top of a castle or inside an active volcano. However, there are some characters who weren’t blessed by being the biggest and the strongest. They may not be […]

Star Wars: Bloodline by Claudia Gray

Bloodline is best novel of the new Star Wars unified continuity. It’s certainly one of the best Princess Leia tales ever told. Steeped in the myth, lore and continuity of the Star Wars films (all seven of them…) while remaining fresh and fiercely individual, Bloodline exists as a novel set in the Star Wars universe. […]

Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay

Children of Earth and Sky, Guy Gavriel Kay’s 13th novel, interweaves several individual tales into a larger story highlighting the pain and opportunity and fragility of living between clashing empires in an alternate Renaissance Europe. Although Kay likes to say his books are histories that take a quarter-turn to the fantastic, in this case, he […]

Game of Thrones: Content vs. Delivery

I’ve just finished the fourth episode of the current season and I’m more engaged with both the show and the world of A Song of Ice and Fire than I have been since A Dance With Dragons was published in 2011. This renewed interest in Mr. Martin’s world is 100% attributable to the fact that […]

Breaking the Glass Slipper: Podcast Celebrating Women in Genre

This month, I’d like to officially introduce Fantasy-Faction readers to Breaking the Glass Slipper. The brainchild of Megan Leigh over at Pop Verse, it’s a bi-monthly podcast focusing on women in genre. Charlotte Bond and I join Megan as co-hosts. Our aim is straightforward: we want to get people talking about women, be they authors, […]

HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

“This is all it takes for people to plunge into insanity: one night alone with themselves and what they fear most.” Witches have a long history running through folklore, myth and fable, through the fairy tale and into modern fantasy and horror. As such they tap into a deep and primal well of our fears […]

Create Your Own Fantasy Author Frankenstein Monster

Last year, in the build up to Fantasy-Faction’s Grim Gathering event, it was suggested to me that I would look a lot better if I had Myke Cole’s arms. One kind soul even photoshopped them in to my picture so I could really appreciate the difference. Faced with the undeniable glory of Mr Cole’s biceps […]