Marc Aplin's Blog, page 164
October 23, 2015
For Your Consideration: Fantasy Podcasts
If you’re anything like me, you spend a considerable amount of time commuting to and from work. And while satellite radio, streaming music and audiobooks can alleviate some of the boredom that comes with epic amounts of “windshield time,” the rise of the podcast is what has truly made my time behind the wheel bearable—if […]
October 22, 2015
What Makes A Good Protagonist?
From the humble page all kinds of fantastic characters can spring to life: dashing heroes, devious villains and everything in between. But only a few of these creations will reach the elite position of main character. A good central protagonist is the core of the story, it doesn’t matter how spectacular the world is, or […]
October 21, 2015
The Use of Drugs In Fantasy
As fantastical as our genre is, there has always been some leakage from the real world to the ones lodged between the pages we devour. Love, war, anger, sex, despair, greed, politics, disease, mythology…After all, it is hard to forge a book 100% removed from ours. My question today is if real-world elements sneak into […]
October 20, 2015
The Golden City by J. Kathleen Cheney
Historical fantasy is something of a weakness of mine. I love anything that combines magic and history, especially when that magic actually has an effect on history. My first reviews for this site were about a series of books set during the years preceding the American Revolution, and now I’ve stumbled across a series set […]
October 18, 2015
Bloodmoon by Ben Galley
“Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of bloodrushing.” In the opening book of the Scarlet Star Trilogy, readers get to immerse themselves in an alternative Wild West, complete with deadly railwraiths, fairies and blood magic. In the sequel, Galley immerses us in circus life, even as he builds upon our understanding of Tonmerion Hark’s […]
October 17, 2015
Tower of Thorns by Juliet Marillier
In the second book of the Blackthorn & Grim trilogy, we hunker down with the two main characters as they wait out the seven-year condition set by Blackthorn’s benefactor, Conmael, a fey who freed her from a death sentence in Dreamer’s Pool. Now, I’m not usually a fan of Marillier, but the synopsis of Dreamer’s […]
October 16, 2015
The Weight of a Crown by Tavish Kaeden
In The Weight of a Crown, Tavish Kaeden may have written the most ambitious book to appear in Mark Lawrence’s Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off. Told primarily from the points of view of four characters, book one of the Azhaion Saga features a realm that is finally enjoying peace after centuries of conflict. But under the surface, […]
Wolfhound Century TV Series?
OK, so this week’s news is not likely to cause the kind of mass-excitement that the recent announcement of a Kingkiller Chronicles Movie/TV/Video Game production did, but we think that the signing of Peter Higgins’s Wolfhound Century by a television studio is at very least something to keep an eye on. Interestingly, the production company that has signed the series […]
October 15, 2015
Genre of the Impossible
For a while now there has been an emphasis on realism in our fantasy, which has created some exciting new stories and series, including some personal favourites. However, as the trend for ever more ‘real’ fantasy grows stronger, I hope there will always be a place for the impossible and the mysterious in our genre. […]
3rd Book by Peter Newman signed!
Fantasy-Faction has made no secret of our love for Peter Newman and his work. We’re not entirely sure how such a delightful fellow writes such dark novels, but we’ve theorised that because he is so nice he needs to spend about 2/3 hours a day acting quite the opposite, evil almost, and it is during this […]
