Marc Aplin's Blog, page 241

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

I’ve always found that the best examples of children’s literature are those that don’t try to be for children, they don’t pander to a younger reader, but rather just aim to be a piece of literature in their own right. Pullman drew his inspiration for His Dark Materials from Milton’s Paradise Lost, Blake’s Songs of […]

10 Ways To Up Your Word Count

Writing takes time, and in the case of novels, a lot of time. I don’t think there’s a writer out there who doesn’t wish they could write quicker. If you’ve ever attempted to write a novel you’ll know just what a huge investment it is. Personally, as much as I love writing, there are times […]

Toastmaster for Nebula Awards Named…

Whilst we wait to see who replaces Jonathon Ross as the host of the Hugo awards, the SFWA – who have also struggled with their own bout of controversy lately – have announced theirs. Not wanting to keep you in suspense, we’re pleased to pass on the news that the Toastmaster for the 49th Annual […]

Shift Omnibus by Hugh Howey

This review contains spoilers for Wool. If you haven’t read Hugh Howey’s Wool, stop here and go do so immediately. You should do this first because Wool is one of the best science fiction books to come out in recent memory, and second because it’s very much a big-reveal kind of book—one I can’t help […]

A Monster Calls Movie: 2016 Release.

A few years ago I reviewed and raved about a remarkable book, A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. Well, having been ‘optioned’ by Hollywood quite some time ago, it seems that the film is pretty close to actually being made. It was announced earlier today that the award-winning director of The Orphanage and The Impossible, […]

Is Fantasy for Gardeners?

At some convention in the distant past on some panel about something or other, someone once asked me whether I was an architect or a gardener. I had really no idea what they were talking about but replied that, as a physicist and an engineer, I was probably more of an architect with everything laid […]

Fantasy-Faction & Gollancz team up to bring you Chapters 1-7 of Words of Radiance

With just one more sleep until the publication of Words of Radiance, Fantasy-Faction have teamed up with Gollancz Books to bring you a special treat to celebrate this week’s edition of our weekly Way of Kings read along! Together, we’re sharing an audio extract and the first seven chapters of Words of Radiance. Not bad, aye? If you CLICK […]

Introduction to Visual Novels

Interactive fiction games have been around for some while now: the original grandparents being the old-fashioned, non-linear game books and their more recent, upbeat offspring called text adventures. Whilst the latter only allows software-based text to forge your own path (most often through puzzles), and game books require the reader to choose set options to […]

Swords of Haven by Simon R. Green

Swords of Haven introduces us to Hawk and Fisher; they’re husband and wife, the only truly honourable cops in Haven, a violent and corrupt city filled with monsters, wizards, thieves and politicians. This volume from 2006 collects the first three stories – Hawk & Fisher, Winner Take All, and The God Killer – published between […]

Game of Thrones deaths recreated as 8-bit GIFs

An absolutely incredible pixel artist, Antonia Heslop, has recreated the top 14 most brutal deaths of The Game of Thrones series as 8-Bit GIFs. The author has put them in order of what they consider the most brutal, but here are our two favourites by way of the ‘pixelated-awesomeness’ scale: The moment we realise no […]