Marc Aplin's Blog, page 156
December 14, 2015
The Ciftci Case: Is Gollum Good or Evil?
Almost 80 years after Gollum appeared in The Hobbit, and 60 years after Frodo first suggests that it may have been better if Bilbo had killed Gollum when he first had the chance, the question is once again rising in a Turkish court – is Gollum good or evil? If you aren’t familiar with the […]
December 13, 2015
Unquenchable Fire by Rachel Pollack
“By its own reality, ecstasy makes people see that suffering is real. And without purpose. Ecstasy is a light that illuminates pain.” In Unquenchable Fire (1988), Rachel Pollack imagines an America transformed by a spiritual and religious Revolution, led by a group of shaman called the Founders, who spread spiritual enlightenment and first discovered the […]
December 12, 2015
The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman
I loved Cogman’s first novel, which introduced us to the Library, a vast repository of books collected from multiple alternate worlds. Irene is one of its agents, posted to a version of Victorian London, awash with chaotic fae, werewolves and vampires. The opening of The Masked City picks up where we left off, with Irene […]
An Ember In The Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
An Ember In The Ashes has landed with a huge splash in an ocean full of Hunger Games-esque titles; perhaps due to the incredibly favourable 5* reviews amongst the usually hard to please reviewers at mainstream publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian, and so on. But does it deserve the hype? Is it really more than […]
December 11, 2015
The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher
I should, in the interest of fairness, begin with two disclaimers. The first is that I freaking love Jim Butcher, to an extent that would make both him and my wife uncomfortable were it ever discovered. The second is that I really, really dislike steampunk. Of all the subgenres in fantasy, it is the one […]
December 9, 2015
Sídhe in Fantasy: From Gaelic Origins, To The Modern Market
Recently on Fantasy-Faction, Janie wrote an excellent article on some of the origins behind faeries in mythology. This piece will both go a little further back, and a little farther forward: I’m going to talk about fae in a less conventional sense in regards to modern SFF, as well as exploring their origins in Gaelic […]
December 8, 2015
Time Salvager by Wesley Chu
It’s always an exciting time when an author you follow releases something new. Not new, as in the next book of an established series, but something brand new. Something you have never experienced before from that writer. Something you didn’t even know you wanted until you had it, then look back and wonder how you […]
The War of the Worlds – Sequel Signed!
Gollancz have announced that they are set to publish The Massacre of Mankind in 2017, an ‘official’ sequel to The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. The book will be written by multi-award winning author Stephen Baxter who, in addition to writing plenty of his own bestselling novels, wrote The Long Earth series of […]
Women Dominate Graphic Novels in 2015
Looking at the Goodreads Choice Awards for 2015, of the top 8 Graphic Novels, 7 of them have women on their covers. It’s also worth noting that Attack on Titan, which is the the eighth cover that does display a male, actually stars the incredibly strong willed, skilled and determined woman – said to be as deadly as one hundred soldiers by […]
December 6, 2015
Writer’s Den: Describing the Indescribable
Hoglers don’t exist. You’ve never heard of them, and I’ve certainly never heard of them. As an object of the imagination, they defy description. This is a challenge that faces all science fiction and fantasy writers. How do you go from an idea of an object, creature, race or place that only exists at the […]
