Marc Aplin's Blog, page 204
October 16, 2014
Mortal Instruments not right for Box Office, but TV…?
Did any of you see The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones movie? It was supposed to be a movie that would pick up a fan base along the same lines of Twilight or The Hunger Games, but instead bombed in the same way that The Golden Compass did in 2007. If you didn’t see it, it’s […]
October 15, 2014
The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard
Long before ‘cli-fi’ was a thing, long before the issue of climate change had really impacted on popular consciousness, there was J G Ballard’s The Drowned World. Ballard’s 1962 debut novel (or rather his second – his first novel, The Wind from Nowhere, he went on to disown) was a product of its time, yet […]
October 14, 2014
Illusions of Fate by Kiersten White
Illusions of Fate pleasantly surprised me with its depth. The blurb on the back suggests merely another “girl goes to court, girl feels like an outcast, girl meets boy, TRUE LOVE,” story, but instead I found a story that follows the same framework but focuses instead on a black woman’s struggle in a racist, white […]
The Providence of Fire – UK Cover Revealed
Tor UK have released the cover for Brian Staveley’s upcoming The Providence of Fire. Before we show it you, though, here’s the blurb accompanied by the US cover (for comparison in just a moment). Brian Staveley’s Providence of Fire, the second novel in the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, a gripping new epic fantasy series in […]
October 13, 2014
The Good Shabti by Robert Sharp
The Good Shabti is a story that spans thousands of years. In ancient Egypt, Pharaoh Mentuhotep is on his deathbed; in the present, a team of scientists are setting out on the final stages of their experiment to revive an ancient mummy. Anyone who’s ever watched a mummy film, old or new, will know that […]
October 12, 2014
So What’s The Fuss About Scapple?
If you have been writing for any length of time it is inevitable that you have come across those writers who treat the act of writing as if it is bound in the realms of magic and mysticism rather than just being a lot of hard work and a case of bashing out one word […]
October 11, 2014
A Plunder of Souls by D. B. Jackson
A Plunder of Souls, the third book in the Thieftaker series, takes place shortly after Thieves’ Quarry. It is July of 1679, British troops still occupy Boston, and there is a smallpox epidemic sweeping through the city. The main plot of the book, however, concerns something far more sinister: Graves all across Boston have been […]
Good news: Angry Robot here to stay.
It has been a pretty scary few months for fans of Science-Fiction and Fantasy imprint Angry Robot. Earlier this year news surfaced that the publisher’s owners were going through tough times and as a result ended up dropping their Strange Chemistry imprint – which published a vast array of young adult and young adult fantasy […]
The Villain with a Thousand Faces (Part Two): The One-Line Backstory
About the author: Her Holiness the Dragon Queen Zafir, Speaker of the Nine Realms, has played both pro- and antagonist roles in her career as a fictional character. She is either the aloof fist of authority to be respected and feared, a liberator of the oppressed and enslaved, or a dragon-riding genocidal psychotic tyrant bitch-queen […]
October 9, 2014
Art Imitates Life, Life Imitates Art: Where will SFF Go Next?
Genre has a strong history of leading to invention in the real world. From Star Trek’s influence in a whole myriad of ways, to Iron Man’s suit (Yes, this is really happening!). Science fiction and fantasy also do a great job of incorporating and playing with the tech and science of our day. They make […]
