Browsing all articles tagged with historical fantasy.
Frances Hardinge Interview – A Skinful of Shadows
Frances Hardinge is one of the finest fantasy authors around. Her inventive and beautifully written YA novels, the most recent of which is A Skinful of Shadows (2017), are widely loved by readers of all ages and have received many awards. They run the gamut from richly invented fantasy worlds populated by homicidal geese or […]
The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang
Today is May 4, coincidentally the 99th anniversary of the first popular protest in China’s history. Due to the somber tone of The Poppy War, I am eschewing my usual levity in this review. In my review of Naomi Novik’s His Majesty’s Dragon, I proclaimed to be an avid student of Napoleonic History. If there’s […]
Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
Under Heaven is the first book in the Under Heaven duology. It is set in a fictionalized version of the Tang Dynasty of 8th Century China and contains a masterful story of family, intrigue and power. “The world is not something to be understood. It is vanity, illusion to even try.” This was my first […]
Ruthanna Emrys Interview – Deep Roots
Ruthanna Emrys is the author of Winter Tide (2017), first book in The Innsmouth Legacy series, a wonderful subversion of H. P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1936). The series focuses on Aphra and Caleb, two Deep Ones who are the only survivors of the internment camps where the inhabitants of Innsmouth are shipped off […]
Jade City by Fonda Lee
Aficionados of Hong Kong Cinema, hear me out: Imagine Chow Yun-Fat in one of his classic ‘90s Triad movies, but give him the superhuman martial skills from the Show Brothers’ Golden Age of Wuxia. Add in the complex plotting and backstabbing of Game of Thrones, and you have Fonda Lee’s Jade City. I stumbled upon […]
Tiger Lily by K. Bird Lincoln – SPFBO Review
Lily isn’t supposed to hunt game in the Daimyo’s woods. She’s just the cook’s daughter. It isn’t her place to talk to nobility. And she definitely isn’t supposed to sing the old Jindo religious songs. But Lily was born in the year of the Tiger, and can’t ever be like other village girls. In the […]
The Tale of Shikanoko by Lian Hearn – Spoiler Free Series Review
Depending on which edition of these books, you will either have four books or two bind ups containing two books each. The four books are Emperor of the Eight Islands; Autumn Princess, Dragon Child; Lord of the Darkwood; and The Tengu’s Game of Go. This series is set in the same world as the author’s […]
Miles Cameron Interview – The Fall of Dragons
Five years ago The Red Knight came into the world to high acclaim. This year The Traitor Son Cycle concluded with The Fall of Dragons. We at Fantasy-Faction have been following this series since the beginning and are lucky enough to have here today author, re-enactor, outdoors expert, and weapons specialist Miles Cameron to tell us […]
Creatures of Will and Temper by Molly Tanzer
When I first heard of Creatures of Will and Temper, I read descriptions calling it a gender-swapped, lesbian The Picture of Dorian Gray with swords and demons. While that was enough to get my attention (and it helped that I was a fan of Tanzer’s Vermillion), that description is both right and wrong. Yes, there […]
The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
Katherine Arden’s debut novel, The Bear and the Nightingale, was as charming and magical a debut novel as you could hope to find in 2016. Drawing comparisons to Neil Gaiman, Naomi Novik, and Robin Hobb, Arden’s debut became a bestseller, but more importantly, it marked the introduction of an incredible new voice, one that repackaged […]
MJ-12: Shadows by Michael J. Martinez
Following an outstanding start to his new superhero spy series with last year’s MJ-12: Inception, Michael J. Martinez is back to continue the thrilling adventure with MJ-12: Shadows—and it’s a belter. The Official Blurb It’s 1949, and the Cold War is heating up across the world. For the United States, the key to winning might […]
Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys
“It’s one thing to say that humanity is ultimately unimportant in the face of the cosmos. It’s another to stand before someone who believes, deep down, that your pain is trivial.” “We’re all monsters, or related to monsters, one way or another.” H. P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1936) is one of the writer’s […]
