Marc Aplin's Blog, page 148
February 23, 2016
My Experience Publishing With Angry Robot
Today, Peter Tieryas, author of United States of Japan coming from Angry Robot in March, has been kind enough to share his journey from a short story writer struggling with rejections to published novelist. In addition to being a damned good writer (I’ve read United States of Japan and thought it was excellent: in equal parts beautiful, […]
February 22, 2016
Split Worlds Series by Emma Newman – Review of the First Three Books
Spoiler Warning! I’m reviewing the first three books of the Split Worlds series. Consequently, when describing the plot of book three, it’s darn near impossible not to say things that are spoilers for book one, but I have minimized them as best I can while still talking about the books sensibly. If you are extremely […]
Emma Newman Interview: The Split Worlds Series, Writing, Tea, and More
On the eve of her February 23 re-release of her Split Worlds series, I caught up with author, narrator, and host of the Tea and Jeopardy podcast, Emma Newman to talk about her path to publishing, her writing style, finishing the Split World Series, her motivations for writing this story, being married to a novelist, […]
Five Legendary Swords of Fantasy Fiction
This was meant to be a post about five legendary weapons of Fantasy fiction – but when I started counting them off on my fingers, there were other styles of weapon, sure, but by far and away the greatest number of any one kind were swords. Heck, if I wanted, I could just stick with […]
February 21, 2016
FANTASY TV DOWN UNDER: NEW ZEALAND IS MORE THAN MIDDLE EARTH
Nowadays putting fantasy fiction and New Zealand in the same sentence is hardly unusual. As the home of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and the subsequent Hobbit movies, the country had been resoundingly stamped as a centre for fantasy film production and lovingly referred to by many as “Middle Earth”. While these films and their director Peter Jackson (who also […]
February 19, 2016
Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard
This review contains spoilers for Red Queen. Read with caution if you have yet to finish the first book. I’m new to this series and tore through the first book, Red Queen, in one sitting. The idea isn’t an original one – we’re talking an ‘us and them’ scenario with the eugenics elements borrowed from […]
February 18, 2016
Interview with Paul Tassi
I’ve been enjoying the blog posts of Paul Tassi – video games, technology, and Internet contributor at Forbes – for quite some time now. Simply put, his tastes are pretty similar to my own (and probably yours too!): Playstation/XBOX Games, Superhero & SFF Movies/TV Shows, the latest innovations in technology. So, despite Science-Fiction being one […]
February 17, 2016
When Does Magic Stop Being Magical?
Many years ago, I did a bit of role-playing. I played various characters in that time, but my favourite one – and the one I advanced to the highest level – was a mage. I remember a particular game when my party was planning to go treasure hunting in a trap-infested dungeon. As you do. […]
The Copper Cat has a face
For many years, one of Fantasy-Faction’s most beloved authors, Jen Williams, has had her books stranded here on our little island. Despite us Brits raving about Jen’s sword & sorcery adventures until we’re blue in the face, Americans have been without word on when/if they’d be able to follow the tales of sellswords Wydrin and Sebastian, and their vengeful […]
February 16, 2016
Interview with Clifford Beal
Hopefully you’ve seen yesterday’s review of The Guns of Ivrea by Clifford Beal. It’s a novel that features pirates, adventure and politics and throws in fantastical elements such as supernaturally gifted humans, magical objects and mermaids. I concluded my review with my feelings that “it’s highly readable, fast-paced, fun adventure novel that somehow manages to be all of that without ever […]
