Marc Aplin's Blog, page 74

The Hyena and the Hawk by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Spoiler Alert: This review contains minor spoilers for the previews books. Please read with caution if you have yet to finish them. The Hyena and the Hawk is the third and final book in the Echoes of the Fall trilogy. It begins soon after the events of the previous book, The Bear and the Serpent, […]

Elements of Fantasy: Owls

Of all the bird species, owls have a unique talent for scaring the dickens out of people. They hide during the day and bellow haunting hoots throughout the night. Owls can have a panoramic view of the landscape by rotating their necks like possessed teens. They can stare down the fiercest creatures, which makes them […]

Cabaret of Monsters by Tansy Rayner Roberts

I read this novella after trying out Kickstarter for the first time to back Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Creature Court bundle. I’m a sucker for an original setting, so when the world of the Creature Court was described as a Romanesque, Roaring 20s style city where shapeshifters engage in a nightly battle with the sky, I […]

Magic Triumphs by Ilona Andrews

Spoiler Warning: This review contains spoilers from the previews books. Read with caution if you have yet to finish the series. Here we are, at the culmination of more than a decade of Kate and Curran’s Magic. This urban fantasy series has become one of my absolute favorites. Despite a bit of a rough start, […]

Steve McHugh Interview – A Thunder of War

Last time we spoke with author Steve McHugh, he had just released the fifth book in his urban fantasy series the Hellequin Chronicles. Three years, and many publications later, he has returned to catch up with us and let us know what the future holds for him and his writing. When did you know you […]

The Queen’s Poisoner by Jeff Wheeler

Game of Thrones meets Charlotte’s Web. Despite Jeff Wheeler’s Muirwood and Kingsfountain books dominating the top of Amazon’s fantasy lists for the last couple of years, it was a total accident that I bought The Queen’s Poisoner. Its cover looked so much the Books of the Caledan Trilogy by Meg Cowley (or I should probably […]

Monthly Short Story Winner: Maiden, Mother, Crone

The depiction of women in fantasy is a controversial, fascinating, and ongoing topic. This month we had our entrants write a story about women. Specifically, we wanted a story with at least two main characters/POVs and those two had to be picked from the aspects of the triple goddess: maiden/virgin, mother, and crone. This didn’t […]

Self-Publishing Fantasy Blog-Off #4: The Fall of the First Five

* Disclaimer * Writing and reading are subjective arts. What some folks will absolutely love, others will dislike. It is a bit like Marmite in the UK – normal people dislike it intensely, but some weird folks actually enjoy the taste of warm road surface with fresh roadkill upon their tongue. To each their own, […]

Fantasy Worldbuilding: From the Bottom Up – Guest Blog by Cameron Johnston

Falling down wiki-holes of research in the cause of plausible worldbuilding, and why magic shit is such an important resource. We’ve all seen those hefty articles on building fantasy worlds, the ones that discuss how to draw maps and invent the geography, trade and economies, the details of rulers, peoples and politics, and of course […]

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

Robert Jackson Bennett’s Foundryside combines the action scenes and snarky banter of a summer blockbuster with the complex characters and keen-eyed societal critique of an Oscar-winner. What begins as a heist and chase adventure becomes a richer story that asks big questions about power, exploitation, and revolution. Foundryside is a fun, thought-provoking, and wondrous tale. […]