Marc Aplin's Blog, page 233

Fantasy Book Club – May 2014: Mayhem by Sarah Pinborough

For May, our members voted to read Mayhem by Sarah Pinborough. I’ve seen some great reviews for this one, including on here on Fantasy-Faction where it earned a 10 star rating. I look forward to reading it myself hope a number of people join us. A new killer is stalking the streets of London’s East […]

The Collapse of the Star Wars Expanded Universe

“I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.” Darth Vader to Lando in The Empire Strikes Back or Kathleen Kennedy, in a recent press release scuttling the Expanded Universe as we know it? I suppose only time will tell. For those not aware, the Star Wars universe—and the stories in Episodes […]

Pokémon – What Kind of Journey Is This?

Twitch Plays Pokémon changed a lot of things for a lot of people. Mostly it changed the website imgur into a paradise of pseudo-religious iconography for a Bird Jesus and a Helix Fossil, and created a community entirely unique for representing the crazed voices of a schizophrenic poké-trainer. But since the people of Twitch completed […]

Keeping Characters Realistic In A Fantasy Setting

The fantasy genre is about the imagination, so it might seem strange to talk about realism in your work, but hear me out. Your characters are what sell your story, especially in the fantasy genre. When the world is utterly bizarre, it is the characters that ground the story in something the reader can relate […]

David Gemmell Legend Awards Shortlist & Lunchtime Thoughts

It’s my lunch break and I’m sat here looking over the David Gemmell Legend Award shortlist. It’s truly great to see that in just a few years of the Gemmell’s being set up the three awards that it comprises have become some of the genre’s most sought after. Why? Well, firstly, to make the longlist you need to have been nominated […]

David Gemmell Legend Awards Shortlist

It’s my lunch break and I’m sat here looking over the David Gemmell Legend Award shortlist. It’s truly great to see that in just a few years of the Gemmell’s being set up the three awards that it comprises have become some of the genre’s most sought after. Why? Well, firstly, to make the longlist you need to have been nominated […]

Brandon Sanderson’s ‘Firefight’ Cover, Blurb & Release Date Revealed!

Fantasy-Faction really enjoyed Brandon Sanderson’s super-villain epic, Steelheart. In addition to Sanderson’s fantastic worldbuilding and cinematic writing, the story of average citizens rising up and administering justice as they see fit really appealed. The book was marketed to a ‘YA audience’, but, as with most YA, it was picked up by readers of all ages and quickly […]

Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen

If you want a fantasy where two teens in an arranged marriage struggle to love each other, then read Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen. First Cecile is kidnapped. Then she’s taken underground into a labyrinth that’s slick with the slime of slug beasts that sweat antimagic. Next she’s thrown into a city of human-hating […]

Creating Shanghai Sparrow. Guest Post by Gaie Sebold

The germination of a novel is a peculiar process. It seemed particularly so, for me, in the case of Shanghai Sparrow. When I first considered the possibility of a steampunk novel I had only written two short stories set in steampunkish universes, both of which I’d enjoyed doing, both of which had a rather sepia-soaked, […]

Faeries and Folklore – Part One: An Introduction

We’re going to talk about faeries. For the purposes of both my sanity and authenticity, leave any and all notions of Disney’s Tinker Bell at the door. Tinker Bell is a pretty fiction dreamed up in order to invite little girls to dress in frilly gowns that glitter and sparkle in the sun. Faeries are […]