Marc Aplin's Blog, page 143

Small Press Fantasy Titles On Our Radar: April 2016 Edition

Welcome to the second edition of the Small Press version of Fantasy-Faction’s popular ON OUR RADAR feature. This is the post in which we show readers all the Small Press books they should be looking out for during the course of the coming month. Savvy readers will notice this post is running a little bit […]

Javelin Rain by Myke Cole

This review contains spoilers for Gemini Cell. Please read with caution if you have yet to finish the first book. You can find Fantasy-Faction’s review for Gemini Cell here. Javelin Rain, Myke Cole’s sequel to Gemini Cell, may be the least hopeful book I’ve ever read. It wasn’t until the final pages, when protagonist Jim […]

Mythology in Urban Fantasy

I’ve talked before about creating a mythology using fantasy, and I’ve delved a little into world mythology and folklore through various articles on dragons, demons, fae, and magic, but this time I want a different spin. Mythology is all about the past: legend, folklore and tales that were somehow brought into being by our ancestors […]

Worldbuilding: The Nihilistic Architect and the Negligent Gardener

George RR Martin’s now famous analogy of the architect and the gardener distilled the craft of novel-writing into two distinct creative approaches. I would suggest that this is a particularly useful analogy when thinking specifically about worldbuilding – the manner in which writers go about creating a fictional universe for their story to live within. […]

Danielle L. Jensen Interview

Today we are lucky enough to have Danielle L. Jensen, author of The Malediction Trilogy with us to answer some questions about the series, which will be wrapping up in May with the final book, Warrior Witch. So who is Danielle L. Jensen—and what is she all about? What’s she likely to be found doing […]

Bloodfeud by Ben Galley

Just like its protagonist, Ben Galley’s Scarlet Star Trilogy is a series constantly on the move, constantly growing and changing from a coming-of-age fantasy/western hybrid to an adventure set in an alternate London. With the final book in the trilogy, Bloodfeud, Galley wraps up a consistently strong self-published series that introduced readers to likeable characters, […]

The Rook by Daniel O’Malley

“The body you are wearing used to be mine.” So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and track down […]

Hereville: How Mirka Met a Meteorite by Barry Deutsch

I’ve done a post on sequels before, and on the difficulty of making them both true to the original book while still building on the world and the characters. I think, in every review I write of a book that isn’t either standalone or the first in a series, I’ll be tempted to revisit that […]

‘I actually started worldbuilding…’ by Sam Sykes

Today we are delighted to welcome one of our favourite authors Sam Sykes (also known as Samus Sykesimus on the Roman Gladiator circuit) to Fantasy-Faction. I don’t really need to tell you too much more about the author and his works, because he’s about to do it for me… enjoy! So, I don’t know if anyone […]

Gateway to Fantasy: The Legend of Zelda

I was eight years old on August 22, 1987—the day The Legend of Zelda was released in the United States. A month later I turned nine and received a copy of my own and in an instant a world of matte grey was transformed. Remember when Dorothy finally gets to Oz? The sudden switch color, […]