Marc Aplin's Blog, page 236

Winner of the January 2014 Writing Contest

We’ve been getting such good feedback for the short stories our members have submitted in our Monthly Short Story Competition that we have decided to post them on the main site at a rate of about one a fortnight. Today we will be looking at the winner from our January 2014 contest. “Et tu, Brute?” […]

Writing Is Like LEGO and It’s Awesome

Somewhere out there, in the aether of time and space, is a scientific report waiting to be written about the links between writers and LEGO. Just about every writer I know loves LEGO, many rewarding themselves for new book deals with those huge expensive sets (I’m looking enviously at you, Adam Christopher, and your Star […]

Sanderson’s Mistborn gets Hunger Game’d for YA Audience!

A few months back we brought you the news that Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy had some pretty awesome new covers made up for its Brazilian release this year. Well, with the recent success of the young adult series The Hunger Games and movie-goers picking up books that they feel may give them a similar experience, […]

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

This review contains some spoilers. Read with caution if you have yet to finish the book. After thoroughly enjoying The Northern Lights I was eager to get onto The Subtle Knife and I was instantly intrigued by Pullman’s approach at opening with an entirely new set of characters. As well as new characters Pullman throws […]

Winners of the 2013 Aurealis Awards

This past Weekend saw the award ceremony of the Aurealis Awards in Canberra, Australia. For those who haven’t heard of them before, the Aurealis Awards were established in 1995 by Chimaera Publications, the publishers of Aurealis magazine, to recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror writers. And, although a fair amount of us Brits and Americans […]

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

The year is 2044. Planet Earth is entering the third decade of a colossal energy and employment crisis. Cities are going up in superheated mushroom clouds, and people are packed together in slums like sardines. The world is in a bleak time in its history. A time when nearly everyone is looking for an escape […]

Winner of the December 2013 Writing Contest

We’ve been getting such good feedback for the short stories our members have submitted in our Monthly Short Story Competition that we have decided to post them on the main site at a rate of about one a fortnight. Today we will be looking at the winner from our December 2013 contest. Your challenge this […]

The Curious Case of Game of Thrones

Show of hands: how many people believed, back in 1997, that George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire would become a full-blown cultural phenomenon? Anybody? I didn’t think so. And yet, here we are. In one week, the fourth season of Game of Thrones will premier on HBO. These ten hours of television […]

Traitor’s Blade by Sebastien de Castell

The world isn’t a romantic stage play; it’s not all love and glory. And a swordfight isn’t always about skill or strength; sometimes – maybe even most times – it’s about who’s willing to take a blow just to make sure he delivers a worse one to his opponent. Traitor’s Blade was one of the […]

Mark Alder reads from the highly anticipated ‘Son of Morning’

I first heard about Son of Morning at a convention back in 2012… It was, as so often the case, one of those moments where your instant reaction is ‘Argh! Why didn’t I think of that!?’ The author explained the premise to me as a historical fantasy novel set during the Hundred Years War between […]