Marc Aplin's Blog, page 144

The Passage Readalong: Chapters 1-5

Hello everyone, Ah… What a week! If this is your first time reading The Passage, then I hope you are enjoying the ride. I think these early chapters may have surprised you a little, right? What you have probably noticed is that this is a book as much about characters and humanity as it is […]

King’s Quest: A Knight to Remember – Video Game Review

King’s Quest is an episodic adventure game, heavy on story, featuring puzzles and challenges along the way. It’s a reimagining from developer The Odd Gentlemen (published under Sierra) of the original King’s Quest series created by Roberta Williams in the 80s. While most of the game’s content is designed to fit into the gaps and […]

13 Minutes by Sarah Pinborough

“People so often try and make themselves look good when they lie. That, however, should never be the point. The point should be to distract from the truth. Whether you look good or not is irrelevant. All that matters is that you sound believable.” In 13 Minutes, Sarah Pinborough relocates the Whodunnit thriller to the […]

The Endless Journey

I recently began reading The Complete Chronicles of Conan Centenary Edition by Robert E. Howard, this weighty tome may well require the strength of a barbarian to lift it, such is the mass of stories it contains. The pages are filled with dozens of Conan’s adventures, plundering treasure from the towers of evil magicians, slaying […]

Apocalypse how? Vehicle modding inspiration for the end times

In my new novel Graft, the Britain of 2025 has all but collapsed. Up in lawless Manchester, local mechanic Sol props up his workshop business by stealing cars and scavenging their parts, while his partner armours vehicles for use on the country’s dangerous roads. In Britain now, of course, things aren’t quite so harsh. But […]

Dragon Hunters by Marc Turner

The first book in Marc Turner’s Chronicles of Exile series, When The Heavens Fall, got an array of positive reviews when it was released in 2015. We found it to be a Malazan style epic with nods to the fantasy of days gone by. Although this hit the spot for readers who like the big, sprawling epics being […]

Outlining With Scrivener

If you write fantasy then no doubt you will have heard of the writing software, Scrivener. Many writers – both those working toward publication and those who’ve been published many times over – make use of its various features. However, both those fresh to the software as well as those who have been using it […]

The Passage Readalong: Introduction

A plot that extends thousands of years, humanity at the brink, bloodthirsty vampires, and a young girl who may hold the key to survival… If you haven’t read The Passage by Justin Cronin then you’ve so far missed out on one of the very best examples of SFF released this decade. It’s really that simple. […]

Music To Write Science Fiction By

I listen to music when I write. For each novel, I make a playlist lasting up to twelve hours, and then listen to it repeatedly throughout composition. In the case of The Destructives, I made a second playlist to impart a different tone to the final third of the novel. One way of talking about […]

Hidden Treasures: The Heir to the North by Steven Poore

Hidden Treasures – A series that reviews small press and digital-first fantasy works. “I will not rest until I have broken the curse Malessar has set upon Caenthell. Whether it takes one year, ten, or ten hundreds of years, I swear I will revenge the High King.” There are some books you open up and settle […]