Marc Aplin's Blog, page 139
July 3, 2016
Nevernight by Jay Kristoff
If you read the Harry Potter series and thought, “This is a pleasant little story and all, but I just wish everyone at Hogwarts was a blood-thirsty sociopath and the instructors should stop wasting everyone’s time with all these pointless classes and just teach the students how to f— and kill one another.” Then I’ve […]
July 1, 2016
Writing Fantasy Battles – A Look At Strategy
You’ve seen the blood spray through the air, you’ve felt the crash judder through your arm as the enemy hits your lines, but have you ever thought about the big picture? Have you ever thought about the mechanics of a battle, the interplay of different units that determines the outcome, whether the cavalry should ride […]
June 30, 2016
13 more hours of Game of Thrones….
The countdown has begun… Game of Thrones show creator David Benioff has told the world: “It’s two more seasons we’re talking about[.] From pretty close to the beginning, we talked about doing this in 70-75 hours, and that’s what we’ll end up with. Call it 73 for now.” We’ve already had 60 hours, so this means that […]
June 28, 2016
The Last of a Kind: Extinction in Fantasy
We often hear about extinction in the real world – whether it’s a dodo that’s already died out, a rhinoceros that’s on the brink of extinction, a bluefin tuna that’s well on its way there, or more rarely, a Bermuda petrel that provides a glimmer of hope, reappearing after years of being thought extinct. The […]
June 27, 2016
Roses and Rot by Kat Howard
Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers. Please read with caution if you’ve yet to finish the book. This is the thing about fairy tales: You have to live through them, before you get to happily ever after. That ever after has to be earned, and not everyone makes it that far. There are stories […]
June 25, 2016
2016 Locus Award Winners Announced!
Yesterday the Locus Science Fiction Foundation announced the winners of the 2016 Locus Awards during the Locus Awards Weekend in Seattle, WA. The awards are chosen by a survey of readers in an open online poll that runs from February 1 to April 15 each year. This year the ballots contained an amazing group of […]
June 24, 2016
Company Town by Madeline Ashby
There is a lot to like about this ambitious, quick and explosive sci-fi story. Company Town is told through the eyes of the protagonist Hwa and takes place in a city called New Arcadia. She lives in a world where almost everyone has some sort of physical or biological augmentation. People are stronger, faster, more […]
June 23, 2016
Graphic Fantasy: Catching up on Comics
Step into any forum, whether on Fantasy-Faction or another site, and conversation often turns to recommendations. “I liked X, but not Y. What should I pick up next?” Unless X and Y are really off the wall, the same handful of names pop up pretty much every time. And while I do try to suggest […]
June 22, 2016
The Language of Dying by Sarah Pinborough
There is a language to dying. It creeps like a shadow alongside the passing years and the taste of it hides in the corners of our mouths. It finds us whether we are sick or healthy. It is a secret hushed thing that lives in the whisper of the nurses’ skirts as they rustle up […]
June 21, 2016
Mash Up edited by Gardner Dozois
Mash Up is a short story anthology edited by Gardner Dozois, in which authors take famous first lines from literature and weave completely new stories from them, all with a sci-fi or fantasy theme, often going in very unexpected directions. The anthology was originally a partnership between Audible and the SFWA, with each story recorded […]
