Marc Aplin's Blog, page 158

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens – Spoiler Free Review

Writer’s Note: This is truly a spoiler-free review. And while normally I’d never ask for anyone to censor themselves, allow me to issue this simple plea: don’t spoil the movie in the comments section. The Force Awakens is one of those watershed moments in nerd history that deserves to be experienced fresh, as the filmmakers […]

Elements of Fantasy: Brownies

Hidden in the forgotten rooms of a house and in cluttered corners are little supernatural children who perform chores in exchange for food and treats. Even though they are personable and happy on their good days, they are considered to be evil spirits called brownies. Brownies aren’t just the girls who knock on your door […]

Writing The Other Other

Writing the other can be a challenge, it’s often difficult to convincingly portray a character that greatly differs from your experiences. Without a personal frame of reference the writer is forced to work harder to make sure their character is accurate and believable. For many writers the challenge is writing in a different gender, a […]

Fantasy ‘One-Shots’

Fantasy. It’s our genre: we love it! But… trilogies… quartets… quintets… septologies… decalogies… and all those other ‘ets’ and ‘gies’, they take so much time to read, don’t they? Well, our good friends over at Reddit recently held a discussion on the best fantasy ‘one-shots’ – that is fantasy novels without any kind of sequel / spin-off / etc […]

The Shores of Spain by J. Kathleen Cheney

J. Kathleen Cheney’s trilogy about an alternate Portugal secretly populated by sereia (better known as sirens), selkies, and otter people comes to a conclusion in The Shores of Spain. The first book, The Golden City, introduced us to this world, bringing us into a tale of political intrigue and murder sprinkled liberally with magic and […]

Interview with Alison Littlewood

I first heard of Alison Littlewood back in 2012 when one of her Editors, Jo Fletcher, was proudly telling me that her debut novel – A Cold Season – had been selected for the Richard and Judy Bookclub (similar to Oprah’s Bookclub, for you readers from the US). Here in the UK that’s a really big […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]