Marc Aplin's Blog, page 35
March 10, 2021
The SFF Content That Got Me Through 2020 – YouTube & Podcasts
[Editor’s Note: As the author relays below. Last year was A YEAR. Turns out this year has also been A YEAR. Which is why this article is going out in March instead of January. (Completely my fault.) Someday reality will return to a semblance of normalcy. Until then thank all that is good in the […]
March 7, 2021
Lost Gods edited by Joanne Hall and Dolly Garland
They have slept for centuries. Buried. Forgotten. Lost. Until they awake. Or are awoken… When the deities of old return, will they bring blessings or destruction to a time that no longer remembers them? Should they be left to lie in peace, or used for our own ends? Are they gods, or monsters? What lies […]
February 28, 2021
Nether Light by Shaun Paul Stevens – SPFBO #6 Finals Review
Take a journey through a world punished by a dark, imprisoned magic. A world where children are given poison. A world where your talent is decided by the state. A world where reality is breaking down. When refugee Guyen washes up in the land of his enemy, he knows he will fight, but soon finds […]
February 24, 2021
God of Gnomes by Demi Harper
“eSports meets Civilization” I never understood the appeal of eSports, and my every attempt to read LitRPG could be described by Thomas Hobbes: brutish, nasty, and short (the attempts were not solitary, since the other LitRPG books I tried to read were otherwise popular). Enter God of Gnomes, by Demi Harper (aka, Laura Hughes), which […]
February 21, 2021
Last Memoria by Rachel Emma Shaw – SPFBO #6 Finals Review
Sarilla has learnt one thing from stealing memories. Everybody lies. There’s nothing Sarilla hates more than stealing memories, but the king forces her to, just so he can keep his subjects in line. She wants to escape to where nobody knows what she is or what she can do, but her plans go awry when […]
February 18, 2021
The Memory of Souls by Jenn Lyons
Epic stories—especially epic fantasy (the term “saga” is used for science fiction)—are known for their long narration. Epic fantasy stories consist of a slew of characters, layered and complex plots and subplots, and A LOT of worldbuilding—which often includes family trees and timelines of historical events. In the midst of these factors is the recollection […]
February 16, 2021
Oh, That Shotgun Sky by Sarah Chorn
The other night I caught the Cohen Brothers’ remake of True Grit. When I saw it in the theater, I thought it a profound meditation on the price of freedom—that fabled freedom of the Old West, which comes at such a high cost that most of us would choose the safety and strictures of “civilization.” […]
February 10, 2021
On Writing Flash Fiction
December was a really fun month for us nerds here at Fantasy-Faction. In October 2020, we had a call for microfiction submissions from our existing pool of contributing writers as a present for all of you. And as one of the writers who submitted a piece—“The Clockwork Bee”—it was a lot of fun! This wasn’t […]
February 8, 2021
Infernal by Mark de Jager
A man called Stratus wakes up paralysed in the middle of nowhere. He has no memory of how he got there or of anything else, except his first name. Vultures are preparing to eat his unmoving body. Stratus is ‘rescued’ by a group of soldiers, led by a Deacon who heals him with magic. His […]
February 3, 2021
The Children of D’Hara by Terry Goodkind – Excerpt
Last year we lost one of epic fantasy’s biggest names, Terry Goodkind. Goodkind appeared on the scene in 1994 with the first book in his world-famous Sword of Truth series, Wizard’s First Rule. Since then, the series has been translated into 20 languages and sold 26 million copies. The Children of D’Hara series picks up […]
