Jo Walton Interview – 2017 Edinburgh International Book Festival
Jo Walton is the Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Award winning author of Among Others (2011), Tooth And Claw (2003), a comedy of manners fantasy novel about a family of dragons, the Small Change trilogy (2006-8) which imagines an alternate history in which Britain capitulated to the Nazis in 1941, the Tiptree Award winning My […]
Death Note – 2017 Movie Review
Death Note is a Japanese manga series created by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata about a teenage genius, Light Yagami, who one day finds a notebook capable of killing any person whose name is written. Choosing to use the notebook to rid the world of criminals, Light comes into conflict with the genius detective known […]
SPFBO3: The Next Five Fall
The Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off officially began on July 1st! In case you missed it, here’s what Fantasy-Faction has posted so far: Our announcement Introducing round one Cover contest winners The first five fall And of course you can keep track of everything relating to round one on the SPFBO page on Mark Lawrence’s blog. HUGE thanks to […]
A Monster’s Place
The terrifying monster has been a staple of the fantasy genre since its earliest origins, when bards told tales around a fire at the dawn of time. They frightened listeners with descriptions of horrifying creatures, they talked of scaled hides, the fearsome length of its claws, of hungry eyes peering out of the darkness. This […]
Fantasy-Faction’s Grim Gathering
We are set to return for our 7th event… And it will be Fantasy-Faction’s Grimmest Gathering yet. So much fun has been had at past events, both by fans and authors, that publishers are trusting us with more authors than ever before…… When and where is it? The event will be held on Monday 25th […]
Ada Palmer Interview – Seven Surrenders
Ada Palmer is the winner of this year’s John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Her debut novel Too Like The Lightning, first in the Terra Ignota sequence, was nominated for the Hugo Award, and its sequel Seven Surrenders is out now. Ada Palmer was attending the Edinburgh International Book Festival and kindly agreed […]
The Silent Shield by Jeff Wheeler
Spoiler Warning: It is difficult to craft a review of the fifth book in a series without spoiling some degree of what has come before. I’ve done my best to limit spoilers to the first trilogy of Kingfountain books but if you’re looking to read the entire saga with little or no foreknowledge, go buy […]
The Creatures We Base Aliens On
One of the interesting things about fictional aliens is that they’re almost never completely alien. We have no real idea what extra-terrestrials would look like, and it’s nigh impossible to imagine an entirely new species unlike anything we’ve ever seen. As such, we usually fall back on earthly species for inspiration, combining known elements to […]
Blackwing by Ed McDonald
Ed McDonald’s debut is an impressive tour-de-force of imaginative worldbuilding, gritty characterisation and absorbing writing. Ryhalt Galharrow’s story comes with the intimacy of a first-person point of view. McDonald gives his protagonist a voice as distinctive and world weary as Daniel Polansky’s Warden from The Low Town trilogy. Like the Warden, Galharrow is a soldier […]
Worlds Within Worlds – Part Three: Old Grey Beards
If you ask someone on the street to name the first three wizards that come to mind, you’ll probably hear the names Gandalf, Merlin, and Dumbledore (or Rincewind, if they’re trying to be clever). The image of the white-bearded old man with a staff is woven into modern fantasy, to the point that Pratchett filled […]
Games Wizards Play by Diane Duane
And so we’ve reached the end of the line. Not for my writing for Fantasy-Faction, of course. That, hopefully, will carry on for a long time. No, I mean my reviews of the Young Wizards series, as this month I read the latest installment, Games Wizards Play. It probably doesn’t surprise anyone at this point […]
The Witchwood Crown by Tad Williams
Spoiler Warning: This is the third and, for now, final* installment in Fantasy-Faction’s Osten Ard retrospective. With the release of The Witchwood Crown, Tad Williams has returned to the land from which his greatest tale was born. What follows contains spoilers for the entirety of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn and The Heart of What Was […]
