Marc Aplin's Blog, page 79
July 19, 2018
Crafting A Fall: Turning Heroes to the Dark Side
Who doesn’t love to see a character go bad? A man pushed too far pushing back? A loyal but ambitious servant helping themselves for a change? A noble hero broken down into the blackest villain? To watch a character fall into darkness is a fascinating journey, seeing a character’s values crumble and twist, watching their […]
July 18, 2018
A Fantasy Geek’s Guide to YouTube: RPG Let’s Plays Part Two – Honourable Mentions
YouTube is an app, a website and a cultural phenomenon. It’s also a vast and barely-explored wilderness full of content that ranges from dynamic to dire. Whatever your interests are, there’s probably at least one channel out there for you. Still, managing to dig out the channels that cater to your own SFF needs can […]
A Fantasy Geek’s Guide to YouTube – RPG Let’s Plays Part Two: Honourable Mentions
YouTube is an app, a website and a cultural phenomenon. It’s also a vast and barely-explored wilderness full of content that ranges from dynamic to dire. Whatever your interests are, there’s probably at least one channel out there for you. Still, managing to dig out the channels that cater to your own SFF needs can […]
July 17, 2018
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Spinning Silver is Naomi Novik’s second book that retells and elevates classic folklore and fairy tale elements, spinning and weaving them into something deeper, richer, and original. Spinning Silver isn’t a sequel to 2015’s Uprooted, but it could take place in a neighboring kingdom. It begins as a riff on the Rumpelstiltskin tale but ends […]
July 16, 2018
City of Lies by Sam Hawke
City of Lies was entertaining from start to finish. It was incredibly refreshing to see poison front and centre in a book. City of Lies follows the two viewpoints of brother and sister combo, Jovan and Kamini, whose uncle is the poison taster or ‘proofer’ for the ruling chancellor. When they are both killed by […]
July 15, 2018
Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
If ever there was a case to be made for not judging a book by its cover, this is it. The cover sat before me shows the face of a planet in hues of blue. The only thing it’s safe for you to deduce is that the novel is set in space. To be honest, […]
July 12, 2018
Charles Phipps – Interview
If you are wont to spend time in the Fantasy-Faction Facebook Group there is no doubt you have met or at least seen Charles Phipps. But for those of you who don’t, let me introduce you. C. T. Phipps is a prolific author of SFF. From fantasy to sci-fi to horror, he has done, and […]
July 10, 2018
Self-Publishing Fantasy Blog-Off #4: Cover Competition
As ever, with the SPFBO, well, for the past two or three years, there is, at the start, a little cover competition. (And clearly a few overactive commas!) This year, through a process of alchemy, magic, and bribery we, the judges, have decided on our top three covers from the 30 books which Mark issued […]
July 8, 2018
Paternus: Rise of the Gods by Dyrk Ashton
American Gods meets Clash of the Titans. When Sigil Independent offered me free books to review, I felt like a kid going out on Halloween. Offered a mini Hershey’s Bar, I would seize a handful of full-sized ones. Likewise, Sigil offered ebooks, but I wielded the might of Fantasy-Faction’s name to ask for audiobooks. Dyrk […]
July 6, 2018
4th Annual Self-Publishing Fantasy Blog-Off – An Introduction
Hello, to all the followers of the SPFBO – Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off – the competition which began with an idle thought in the shadowed recesses of Mark Lawrence’s mind and is now in its fourth year. Some of the previous winners and finalists have been picked up by traditional publishing houses and some authors […]
