Marc Aplin's Blog, page 27

The Mask of Mirrors by M. A. Carrick

Every year several books are released and there are some that receive more attention than others. This doesn’t mean these other books are not worth reading. On the contrary, many of them are underrated titles that deserve to be read. A book that fell victim to this is The Mask of Mirrors—the first book in […]

Barbara Ashford Interview – Odyssey Writing Workshop

Today, I get the amazing opportunity to interview fellow fantasy author Barbara Ashford [Barbara Campbell] about her books and being an online class instructor at the Odyssey Writing Workshop. Enjoy! To start, tell us a little bit about yourself. I grew up in Delaware and now live outside New York City. I started my professional […]

Julia’s SFF Christmas List

In the Northern Hemisphere the weather is getting cold, the trees are bare, snow is in the air (or at least I wish it was!) and it is slowly coming—Christmas is just around the corner! As a full on Christmas addict, I especially love fantasy and sci-fi stories that pick up on the theme. Over […]

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

“If Arya Stark were a mecha pilot” Xiran Jay Zhao’s debut YA science-fantasy, Iron Widow, is the first book I’ve read in a very long time that I didn’t want to end. It included so many fresh insights I just hung on to every word. While the publishers marketed it as Pacific Rim meets A […]

Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound: Champions of Order and Stars and Scales – RPG Supplement Reviews

A pair of roleplaying game (RPG) supplements this time, filling in some of the character options that didn’t fit into the Soulbound core book. (You’ll find these reviews a lot more comprehensible if you read my review of the Soulbound core book first.) Champions of Order expands on playing characters from the Grand Alliance of […]

Spirits of Vengeance by Rob J. Hayes

Spirits of Vengeance is an epic, martial arts, horror fantasy. It follows an ensemble cast of aging martial artists and mischievous spirits as they wander the sundered empire of Ipia, battling a rogue’s gallery of yokai (Japanese spirits or monsters). In this world, yokai are always the result of a human who died an unhappy […]

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

There are some genres that are so similar they tend to blur together. However, there are differences that should be noted. For example, horror can be defined as a story where the protagonist seeks to destroy a supernatural threat in order to save themselves or others. Southern Gothic fiction is a story focused on the […]

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

“West Side Story meets Fists of Fury.” Australian-born-and-raised, American-educated, ethnically Chinese author Chloe Gong became a social media sensation with her TikToks drumming up anticipation for her YA historical fantasy debut, These Violent Delights. With a title taken from a line in Shakespeare, it should come as no surprise that Simon and Schuster marketed the […]

The Nautilus Ark: A Johnson Corp Odyssey – Critical Role One-Shot Review

As many of you know, I am one of the many fans of Critical Role, a show where a bunch of nerdy ass friends play Dungeons & Dragons. I watch pretty much all of their content (Narrative Telephone anyone?), so when they announced the one-shot lead by cast member Ashley Johnson was going to be […]

Empire of Shadows by Alicia Wanstall-Burke – Cover Reveal

Today we are lucky enough to reveal the cover for the last book in Alicia Wanstall-Burke’s Coraidic Sagas: Empire of Shadows! But first the author herself would like to say a few words. – – – 2014—the year I started writing The Coraidic Sagas—in so many ways, for so many reasons, feels like a lifetime […]