Browsing all articles by Laura M. Hughes.
Tough Travels: Adepts
At the start of every month, Fantasy-Faction will lead you (yes, YOU!) on a tour of the fantasy genre. From high to low, from classics to new releases, from epic to urban; each month, we will guide you in search of a different trope, theme or cliché. Lest we become lost, we’ll be referring to The […]
SPFBO3: Cover Contest!
The Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (#SPFBO) 3 is set to begin on July 1! Read all about it on Mark Lawrence’s blog, or check out our rundown of how Fantasy-Faction will be handling Round One! Last year’s cover contest was a huge success. Each of the ten bloggers nominated the top three covers from their batch […]
Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng – Cover Reveal
Fantasy-Faction is excited to host the cover reveal for Jeannette Ng’s Under the Pendulum Sun! Due out in October 2017 from our friends at Angry Robot, Under the Pendulum Sun is a creepy, dark gothic fantasy in which missionaries visit fairyland to spread the word of the Lord. What they don’t bank on however, is […]
The Blood-Tainted Winter by T. L. Greylock
“Dark are the hearts of men, and easily tempted.” Raef Skallagrim is not a happy bunny. All he wants to do is go on a sea trip with his mates. He’s been looking forward to all it entails for ages: drinking, raiding, pillaging, ‘boys will be boys’ fun and games. Making memories, y’know? But Raef […]
The SPFBO: Introducing Round One!
So, here we are again. The Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (#SPFBO) 3 is set to begin on July 1! Read all about it on Mark Lawrence’s blog, or check out our own announcement here. For now, here’s a rundown of how Fantasy-Faction will be handling Round One. As you know, 300 competing titles have now been […]
The Emerald Blade by Steven Kelliher
Eight months ago, I wrote a (fairly critical) review of Valley of Embers, the first book in Steven Kelliher’s Landkist cycle. Kelliher’s debut, I felt, had a solid and interesting premise which was somewhat let down by its execution. However, I also felt that: ‘. . . the more successful indie authors are those who […]
Tough Travels: Non-Human Heroes
At the start of every month, Fantasy-Faction will lead you (yes, YOU!) on a tour of the fantasy genre. From high to low, from classics to new releases, from epic to urban; each month, we will guide you in search of a different trope, theme or cliché. Lest we become lost, we’ll be referring to The […]
Cold Counsel by Chris Sharp
A troll, a night-hag and an undead goblin walk into a bar. What? Oh, it’s not a joke. It’s how the post-credits scene would look if Chris Sharp’s novel were a Marvel movie instead of a book. Slud of the Blood Claw Clan, Bringer of Troubles, was born at the heart of the worst storm […]
Spiderlight by Adrian Tchaikovsky
So, that Adrian Tchaikovsky is a clever bloke. He tricked me (and plenty of others, no doubt) into thinking Spiderlight was a tropey, cliched, rose-tinted throwback to the ‘good old days’ of D&D. You know the days: when men were men and spiders were spiders and women were damsels in distress and mages were all […]
Self-Published Fantasy: How the SPFBO is Revitalising SFF
With the exciting kick-off of the THIRD Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (#SPFBO) already underway, I thought I’d share some thoughts about the complexities of self-publishing and how Mark Lawrence’s SPFBO initiative is shaking up not only the medium, but also the genre itself. (An older, less awesome version of this article can be found here.) Self-published […]
Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off #3: So It Begins…
Last week saw the exciting kick-off of the 3rd Annual Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO), with nearly 250 novels submitted in the first four days of the announcement. As of May 7th, there are still around 50 spots left in the SPFBO3. If you’re planning on entering – HURRY! (Edit: The contest is full and submissions […]
Tough Travels: Assassins
Back in 2014, Nathan Barnhart created a weekly feature called ‘Tough Travels’, which he hosted over on Fantasy Review Barn. Inspired by The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones – a tongue-in-cheek parody of the fantasy genre – it would spotlight a different trope every week, and invite other bloggers to compile their […]
