Browsing all articles in Reviews.
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
I never enjoy describing things with, “It’s like X meets Y!” since I always felt it was a rather lazy way to describe something. No one says, “Hamsters are like if Rats met Gerbils!” or “Oranges are like if Apples met A Different Color!” (At least, I hope no one has ever said that.) Yet […]
Twilight of the Gods by Scott Oden
The climax of Twilight of the Gods begins on a misty morning with characters as blind to their fate as the gods they fight for, and against. The mist hides surprises not only for the combatants but for all fans of Grimnir, Oden’s immortal orcish antihero, whom we first meet in A Gathering of Ravens. […]
They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Role-playing Game Review
Written by: Larry Blamire, Jacqueline Bryk, John Burke, Matthew Dawkins, Steffie de Vaan, Susann Hessen, Danielle, Lauzon, Myranda Kalis, John Kennedy, Bianca Savazzi, Hilary Sklar, Michael F. Tomasek Jr, and Eddy Webb Developed and Conceived by: Matthew Dawkins Storypath Line Developer: Eddy Webb Creative Director: Richard Thomas Editor: Dixie Cochran Art Director: Michael Chaney Interior […]
The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
Dragons are one of the most familiar—and overused—tropes in fantasy. These mystical beings intrigue and fascinate all who have heard of them. However, since oral tradition, dragons were either an Eastern or a Western entity. This is strange because if most dragon species can fly, then why could they be found in just two regions […]
Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
Inspiration and influence comes from anything from an ephemeral moment to a persistent belief; from one line in a song to a passage in a story to a scene from a movie. The Birth of a Nation remains as one of the most infamous films ever made. Praised for its cinematography and belittled for its […]
Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off #6: Our Round One Winner
When we began posting our semi-finalist reviews at the beginning of this week, we didn’t know which book we would be sending on to the finals of the sixth annual Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off. In fact, the deliberations went on until late Thursday evening for our US team members, early Friday morning for the Europeans in […]
Where Shadows Lie by Allegra Pescatore – SPFBO #6 Semi-Finals Review
Today we review the last book of our thirty-book batch in the sixth annual Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off with our fourth semi-finalist Where Shadows Lie. How this book stacks up against the other members of our final four will be revealed on Friday, October 30th. The Chosen One is dead. Magic is going haywire. Time is […]
Shadow of a Dead God by Patrick Samphire – SPFBO #6 Semi-Finals Review
Among the coincidences of topics and titles in the sixth annual Self-Publishing Fantasy Blog-Off, Fantasy-Faction had not only four books with dragon in the title and five titles containing shadow, we also had three that played with noir tropes in a fantasy setting: Blood Under Water (reviewed here), Tales of the Thief-City (another semifinalist; reviewed […]
Shields in Shadow by Andy Peloquin – SPFBO #6 Semi-Finals Review
Today we present the second of four semi-finalists in the sixth annual Self-Publishing Fantasy Blog-Off. The order of reviews posted this week does not indicate any rank or likelihood of being named the finalist, which will be announced on Friday, October 30th. In a weird, one might even say, fantastical, coincidence, three of the four […]
Tales of the Thief-City by Gareth Lewis – SPFBO #6 Semi-Finals Review
We close out the sixth annual Self-Publishing Fantasy Blog-Off with four semifinalists, the highest rated books in our batch. We will share the scores when we name the finalist on Friday, October 30, and the order of the reviews posted this week should not be taken to imply the rankings of our final four. Today […]
Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off #6: The Fifth Five Fall + Our Picks for Semi-Finalists
Now is the winter of our discontent… All right, it’s not winter, and whether contented or not with today’s outcome, the nine authors still in the Fantasy-Faction batch can stop biting their nails, for today they learn their fate—or at least whether they’ve made the semifinalist cut. Once again, the experience of art is subjective, […]
The Worth of Hair by A. A. Freeman
In their original forms, fairy stories were often bloody and almost always filled with grim suffering. The grimmest of all were not the folk tales captured by the famous brothers of that name, but rather Hans Christian Andersen’s original fables. His “Little Match Girl” isn’t rescued by a fairy godmother or industrious talking mice from […]
