Marc Aplin's Blog, page 207

Fantasy-Faction’s Short Story Podcast on its way!

If you are interested in joining our Podcasting team we would love to hear from you. You can e-mail me on Marc@Fantasy-Faction.com I’ve been floating the idea of bringing back the Fantasy-Faction Podcast for a while now. The thing is, I’ve not been too sure about how to do it. Part of me thought perhaps […]

Fantasy Worldbuilding – Build a Guild

In worldbuilding, there are many pieces that are outlined and developed before being incorporated into the big picture. Maps are drawn, nations are sectioned out, and the culture and overall way of life is designed. A lot of consideration is given to religion, government, technological advancement, and militaries. But economies are usually glossed over in […]

The Villain With A Thousand Faces – Part One: Cardboard Cut-Outs

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 […]

There and Back Again: A Novice Con-Goer’s Tale

Prologue No, I don’t live in a hole in the ground, but I do live in Devon, which bears a remarkable resemblance to the green and sheltered Shire. But even before Gandalf came calling, I’d heard tell of a land beyond the, erm, Salisbury Plains, a land containing vast treasures of tote bags and books, […]

An Exiguous Exploration of Exposition in Expansive Epics

Thousand-page fantasy novels… a ten-volume series… appendices of historical detail… characters who feel the need to blow hot wind across the pages of every third chapter… what do these have in common? Exposition. Ah, exposition. Glorious, infuriating exposition. Whether you love it or hate it, read it or write it (or both), exposition is a […]

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

The YA trilogy that started with Shadow and Bone concludes with Ruin and Rising – with quite a few unhappy readers. Apparently, the uproar is over a relationship that didn’t pan out. You can’t please everyone, obviously, but the process did keep you guessing until the very end. After all, isn’t that what contributes to […]

Powder Mage Short Stories and Novellas by Brian McClellan

For those awaiting The Autumn Republic, the third and final book in Brian McClellan’s Powder Mage trilogy, February 2015 feels as though it’s a long way away. Fortunately, McClellan has supplemented his trilogy with three short stories (“Hope’s End”, “The Girl of Hrusch Avenue” and “The Face in the Window”) and two novellas (Forsworn and […]

The Crippled God by Steven Erikson

The carriages have chugged up to the top of the roller coaster, and the anticipation has built for that first downward plunge into g-force turns, and yet, because you’ve been let down once or twice before, you ask yourself, “Will this be ‘meh’?” Well, will it? Hella no! In The Crippled God, book ten of […]

Medical Science reveals why Gollum & Smaug lost to Hobbits…

So, this is a strange one! A paper appeared in this month’s Christmas edition of the Medical Journal of Australia with a theory as to why, in fantasy novels, the bad guys tend to lose: Vitamin D deficiency! I will include a copy of the paper below (it is open access), but, for those who […]

Maplecroft by Cherie Priest

I love a good creepy story. I don’t run across them nearly as often as I’d like since all too often “creepy” gets mistaken for gross-outs and the unexpected bucket of entrails slopped over somebody. Furthermore, with the case of monster-type horror, one’s initial apprehensions are usually curbed a little by finding someone who knows […]