Marc Aplin's Blog, page 165
October 14, 2015
Review of Saga: Volume 5
There is so much to say about Saga. It’s a series that transcends multiple genres at once while exemplifying the best of those genres. It’s written in a no-nonsense, funny and modern style that is easy to get in to. There’s no pretention; Saga knows exactly what it is and doesn’t give a fuck. It […]
October 13, 2015
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Illuminae was a good time from beginning to end. The plot itself is fairly straightforward – teenagers break up, teenagers’ planet gets invaded, teenagers barely escape onto improvised evacuation ships with a fraction of their population, teenagers are on separate ships, rogue AI (maybe), plague, hacking, and conscription, and it’s all in SPACE! If you’ve […]
The Cake is a Lie: Why Winning Isn’t Always a Happy Ending
Sometimes I suspect I’m not truly American, because I harbor a dark secret. Unlike most of my countryfolk, I don’t much care for the neat, syrupy, happy ending. It just doesn’t do it for me. Oh, sure, we all need some escapism. Life can be awful, and in reality every life is a tragedy because […]
October 11, 2015
The NaNoWriMo Phenomenon
November is coming. The non-writer (or very, very new writer) may only associate this with the imminent holiday season. However, there is another event that happens every November that can simultaneously cause a Christmas-like excitement as you tremble in fear: National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo is a challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days. […]
October 10, 2015
What Remains of Heroes by David Benem
We’re all well aware that, as the old saying goes, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. But after reading What Remains of Heroes, book one of A Requiem For Heroes by David Benem, I couldn’t help but think back to my first glance at the cover and how it had taken me several […]
October 9, 2015
Has the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off Changed Your Opinion of Self-Published Books?
As you’ll know from Marc’s articles and Mark Lawrence’s tweets, as well as many of the blog posts out there on the subject, there has been, and still is, a ‘competition’ going on for Self-Published books called the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO). A kind of X-factor for fantasy books, but without the sad stories and […]
October 8, 2015
Looking For Jake & Other Stories by China Miéville
Looking for Jake and Other Stories is China Miéville’s first collection of short stories, published in 2005. It’s an imaginative, thoughtful, political and highly original collection of work, a melding of fantasy, science-fiction and horror. Miéville nails this intricate balance, a subgenre some have termed New Weird and even professed him its ‘god-father.’ Miéville mostly […]
Interview with Zen Cho
We’re excited to welcome Zen Cho to Fantasy-Faction today to talk about her debut Fantasy Novel, Sorcerer To The Crown, forthcoming sequels and her life as a writer. Once you’ve checked the interview out, be sure to follow Zen on Twitter and add her book to your to-be-read list on Goodreads — You can’t sit an interview without […]
October 6, 2015
Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King
Onto book 5 of The Dark Tower series and King brings us back to the ka-tet we know and love. After the hectic craziness of The Waste Lands and the foundation-shaking revelations of Wizard and Glass, King decides to calm things down a bit with this entry into the series. The book concerns itself with […]
October 5, 2015
Empire Ascendant by Kameron Hurley
Last year, in my review of Kameron Hurley’s THE MIRROR EMPIRE, I called that book different, difficult, wildly inventive, risky, and provocative. EMPIRE ASCENDANT levels up on all counts. In classic book two fashion, EMPIRE ASCENDANT introduces new threads, existing threads are twisted, earlier actions have consequences, and the bad guys are on the march. […]
