Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri
It isn’t much of an exaggeration to say that I grew up on epic fantasy. One of the earliest book series I remember (aside from a series about Girl Scouts that I only had three books of) is The Chronicles of Narnia. My mother read me the whole series, and when I learned the Pevensie […]
Sword of Kaigen by M. L. Wang
The Poppy War’s darkness meets The Last Airbender’s elemental magic. Being a second world conflict between China and Japan, M. L. Wang’s Sword of Kaigen brought to my mind R. F. Kuang’s meteoric debut, The Poppy War. With all the hype surrounding it, The Poppy War was my most anticipated release of 2018, but one […]
Taking Comedy Seriously
From Geoffrey Chaucer to Raymond Chandler—and a lot of people in between—all kinds of writers have used comedy to entertain and inform in their writing. Comedy can form a useful distraction from a darker story, or can take the form of a sly comment on the main action—or it can be the backbone of a […]
Lela Gwenn Interview – Bad Luck Chuck
An intriguing new comic mini-series is heading our way in March from Dark Horse Comics. Billed as ‘slapstick noir’ from the writer, Lela Gwenn, it’s about the cursed Charlene “Chuck” Manchester who decides to monetise her own bad luck. With art by Matthew Dow Smith, colours by Kelly Fitzpatrick, and letters by Frank Cvetkovic, it […]
Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng
“So desperate are you to speak to us that you see us everywhere. You look across your borders, your walls, and instead of your neighbours, you see us. As your ships sail further and countries and continents discover each other, you see not each other. You see us. You want to see us.” Jeannette Ng’s […]
The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee
Spoilers Warning: This review contains minor spoilers for The Forgetting Moon. Please read with caution if you have yet to finish the book. “Bloodwood assassins have hunted us your entire life, boy!” Brian Lee Durfee is an epic new force in the dark fantasy genre and one I feel that can stand alongside the likes […]
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens. The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction–but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she […]
The Blighted City by Scott Kaelen
The Blighted City begins with a quest and ends with a beautiful contemplation of filial love, loyalty, duty, and grief in a story that blazes a trail out of standard epic fantasy into a really fresh, original science fantasy narrative. The novel starts with an engaging first chapter in which Maros, a retired mercenary and […]
The Coilhunter Chronicles by Dean F. Wilson – Spoiler Free Series Review
Steampunk Batman meets A Fistful of Dollars (and later, the Borg). Despite Fantasy-Faction originally being a British website, I am pretty sure that everyone knows Americans romanticize the Wild West: the freewheeling setting, the gunslinger vigilante who stands up to the bad guys when the government can’t. It might as well be the bedrock of […]
We Want You: To Write for Fantasy-Faction
Do you read fantasy, science fiction, horror, steampunk, or any other of the many subgenres of SFF? Are you writing the next great epic fantasy novel or are at least trying to? Do you have some free time to share your love of genre fiction with others? Then Fantasy-Faction wants you! We are a fan […]
Is Voltron: Legendary Defender Worth Watching?
The final season of Dreamworks’ Voltron: Legendary Defender dropped on 14th December 2018. Originally launching on Netflix in 2016, this re-boot of the 80s sci-fi adventure cartoon captured the hearts of both new and old fans alike. With a fluid animation style similar to Avatar: The Last Airbender and with a phenomenal voice actor cast, […]
Seven Deadly Swords by Peter Sutton
For every sin, a sword For every sword, a curse For every curse, a death Reymond joined the Crusades to free the Holy Land from the Saracens and win glory for himself. Instead, with six others, he found himself bound under a sorcerer’s curse: the Seven Sins personified. Doomed to eternal life and with the […]
