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Reading My Namesake: Guest Post by Titus Chalk
Titus Chalk finally reads the book after which he was named – Mervyn Peake’s gothic classic Titus Groan. “Your name is TITUS,” said Sourdust very simply, “TITUS the seventy-seventh Earl of Groan and Lord of Gormenghast. I do adjure you hold each of the cold stones sacred that clings to these, your grey ancestral walls. […]
The Writer’s Plague
If you are a booklover who didn’t die before 1997, I would wager you have difficulty finding a decent story among the piles of…muck. In the past twenty years, authors—henceforth known as the Infected—have emerged, plague-ridden, with what we will collectively call the writing bug. While I try to remain optimistic, I cannot say this […]
David Gemmell Awards for Fantasy: Ravenheart Award
The saying goes: don’t judge a book by its cover. No… Put it down. Don’t make me get the hose! The Ravenheart award, one of three categories in the David Gemmell Awards for Fantasy, does just this. It invites you, anyone and everyone, to judge a selection of books by their covers and vote for […]
A Beginner’s Recommendation Guide to Fantasy Manga: Shonen (Adventure Fantasy)
You know, it’s interesting to take a look at genres from different perspectives. Here in the West, we have a very particular view of the Fantasy genre, one forged by hugely influential works such as Lord of the Rings, Conan the Barbarian and, more recently, A Song of Ice and Fire. But what about other […]
Tabletop Tuesday: It was the Dead of Winter…
I could see them. Even in the growing dark, I could see them. Flickers of flame from the fire threw their shadows against walls of peeling paint. Stupid. Really stupid. The old school was not a place of refuge. It was a haven for them. They gathered here and we’d never tried to clear them […]
Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale (Movie Review)
If you’re anything like me (and gods help you if you are), you’ve spent a lot of time playing video games and watching anime. If that’s the case, you’ve probably already seen Sword Art Online, the immensely popular anime based on a light novel about a group of people trapped in a virtual reality MMORPG […]
Marc Aplin’s Dog Walk
This coming Saturday, Fantasy-Faction’s founder Marc Aplin will be walking from Bristol to London (around 120 miles) non-stop to raise money and awareness for dog rescues across the United Kingdom. It is expected to take around 35 to 40 hours. In the UK, around 50,000 dogs are given up as ‘unwanted’ each year. With our support, […]
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 […]
Plot Twists That Defy Genre Expectations
Most of us love a good plot twist. We’re always trying to predict where a narrative is headed, but we’re usually thrilled when it takes an unexpected turn, surprises us, and makes us re-evaluate the assumptions we’ve made about the characters and the story. However, some of these sudden turns knock the wind out of us more than others, because […]
An Introduction to Anime and Manga
In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in anime and manga by Western cultures. Before, mentioning the terms anime or manga in casual conversation would have been met with confusion, but more and more it’s met with “What do you watch?” or “Which one are you reading right now?” Most anime and […]
The Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off 3: So It Begins . . .
Last week saw the exciting kick-off of the THIRD 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! (Edited to add: the contest is full and submissions […]
Small Press, Big Stories: Luna Press & A.J. Dalton Cover Reveal
Small Press, Big Stories is a monthly column focusing on small and independent presses from around the world. This month’s featured publisher is Luna Press. Back in March I popped up to the York Pubmeet (find them on Twitter @YorkPubmeet) for AJ Dalton’s talk on his PhD thesis, The Sub-Genres of British Fantasy Literature. Not only […]
