Marc Aplin's Blog, page 230
May 27, 2014
Firebox list edible ‘Dragon Meat’
The UK’s leading ‘cool stuff’ shop, Firebox, has recently added ‘Dragon Meat‘ to their list of unique and interesting products. The ‘Flame Grilled Delicacy’ is labelled as ‘freshly slain’ and sold in a can stating that within is 19oz (538g) of the meat. As for how it tastes, well apparently its a little like corned […]
May 26, 2014
New Gemmell Ravenheart Award…
Many of us involved in blogging about Epic Fantasy literature have a special love of the David Gemmell Awards. Not only are they attached to David Gemmell, one of fantasy’s greats, but the longlists seem to include the vast majority of what the blogging community has been speaking about over the last 12 months. For […]
May 25, 2014
Elements of Fantasy: Fairies
The types of spirits known as fairies exceeded the number of ways the word was spelled. Fairy godmothers were given human dimensions, oftentimes without wings. Tinkerbell was tiny with dragonfly qualities. Puck was mischievous and emotional. At a first glance, fairies lacked a particular identity. Many people adamantly believed in fairies. In Scotland, land developers […]
Demons in Fantasy
So, demons in fantasy? A quick (and I mean a super, uber, single) search on Google for “Demon Fantasy” doesn’t yield much: the books that flag on Amazon are all self-published Kindle novels, the covers of which have a definite romance vibe, or at the very least, that kick-ass-chick-glancing-over-one-shoulder vibe, and there’s little joy in […]
May 23, 2014
White vs Grey Heroes
A little while ago, I started a discussion about the grey heroes and the Mr. or Ms. Goody-two shoes. Interestingly, there were a lot of people that supported the entire notion of having grey heroes. I get the whole angle that they are coming from. I mean, all heroes out there in the world are […]
6 Star Wars Films in 6 years?
Between 1977 and 2005, 28 years, the world saw just six Star Wars movies. Well, now Disney has their hands on the franchise they are ready to kick things up a notch or two. In fact, according to The Holywood Reporter, they are ready – and fully intending – to release six Star Wars films […]
Half a King Hardback cover is SLEEK! Map too!
I remember a few months back when Joe Abercrombie’s Half a King cover was released there were a few people who were unsure about it. I think the problem was that seeing a .jpg of the cover ported from Photoshop just didn’t give it justice – the images looked flat, the gradients couldn’t be appreciated […]
Half a King Hardback cover is SLEAK! Map too!
I remember a few months back when Joe Abercrombie’s Half a King cover was released there were a few people who were unsure about it. I think the problem was that seeing a .jpg of the cover ported from Photoshop just didn’t give it justice – the images looked flat, the gradients couldn’t be appreciated […]
May 22, 2014
Alan Baxter Interview
From humble (but rather excellent) self-published beginnings, British/Australian author Alan Baxter has established himself as a widely respected writer—and excitingly has a new series coming out from Harper Voyager in the next couple of months. After reviewing his first two books (RealmShift and MageSign) recently, I have the good fortune to be able to give […]
Tigerman’s Cover Design & Competition
The majority of fantasy readers will be familiar with Nick Harkaway, the highly acclaimed author of The Gone-Away World and Angelmaker – both of which were smothered with awards. This week though comes what many reviewers – and Nick himself – are calling his best work to date, Tigerman. It is a novel about ex-colonies, […]
