Browsing all articles tagged with steampunk.
The Last Page by Anthony Huso
I must admit I started reading The Last Page years ago and got distracted, eventually abandoning it to gather dust in a corner of my flat. Now, like many bookish people, I’ve found myself digging back through my shelves and TBR pile to find ways to pass time in lockdown. And I’m glad I did. […]
Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
In a gorgeously painted world, humans and arcanics exist in an uneasy truce. The war between them isn’t over, merely on hold. And since the humans have a habit of harvesting the arcanics for parts, you can see why they don’t get along. One arcanic, Maika Half-Wolf, allows herself to be captured by human slavers […]
Spire – Role-playing Game Review Part Two: Expansions, Supplements and Adventures
All products created and owned by Rowan, Rook and Decard. This is the second half of my review of Spire and describes a number of supplements and adventure modules that can be used to expand the main game. For an explanation of the setting and rules of this RPG please check out Part One, which […]
Spire – Role-playing Game Review Part One: Core Rulebook
What is Spire? Created by Rowan, Rook and Decard, it’s a weird, dark fantasy RPG about waging a morally grey war of resistance against an oppressive and demented regime. It’s a game of espionage, horror and impossible choices. It’s a bubbling stew of fantasy, steampunk, pulp and sci-fi. Most importantly, it’s bold, bloody and beautiful. […]
Guns of Liberty by Jamie Mauchline – SPFBO Review
“First rule of piracy: be in the wrong place at the right time.” Guns of Liberty is an age of sail fantasy where airships rule the skies, pirates stalk the misty main, and occultists dabble in profane magics left behind by dispossessed gods. Join Rachel Masters, Inquisitor of the Liberty Empire and the Holy Church […]
Quill by A. C. Cobble
Quill is the first book in a new series, The Cartographer, by A. C. Cobble (author of the Benjamin Ashwood series). It is a fantasy wrapped in steampunk, inside a buddy cop story—except that in this universe sorcery (spirits) is present alongside the industrial revolution. Duke Oliver Wellesley, the youngest son of the king, and […]
Symphony of the Wind by Steven McKinnon – SPFBO #4 Finals Review
*Disclaimer* Writing and reading is a subjective art. What some folks will absolutely love, others will dislike. It is a bit like Marmite in the UK—normal people dislike it intensely, but some weird folks actually enjoy the taste of warm road surface and fresh roadkill upon their tongue. To each their own, I suppose. Symphony […]
Monthly Short Story Winner: Fire
This month we asked our entrants to write about fire. The beauty of fire is its ambivalence. On the one hand we need it to survive (cooking our food, keeping us warm, protecting us) on the other hand it’s dangerous, maybe even diabolical (arson, battle magic, forest fires, household accidents). A fire—no matter if it’s […]
The Hod King by Josiah Bancroft – Review + Fan Theories!
Spoiler Warning: If you haven’t read books one and two in The Books of Babel series then go and read them now, and/or check out Fantasy-Faction’s reviews of both books here and here. Not reading this series is a bad life-choice, there’s simply no other way of putting it. If you’ve somehow skipped both books […]
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 […]
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
Robert Jackson Bennett’s Foundryside combines the action scenes and snarky banter of a summer blockbuster with the complex characters and keen-eyed societal critique of an Oscar-winner. What begins as a heist and chase adventure becomes a richer story that asks big questions about power, exploitation, and revolution. Foundryside is a fun, thought-provoking, and wondrous tale. […]
Urskuul’s Reading Circle: The Lost Plot by Genevieve Cogman
Everyone likes libraries, don’t they? They’re normally fair-sized buildings which are chock-full of books. And the main rule that guides most libraries? Other than the normal ones. You know like: – Don’t steal the books. – Don’t burn down the library. – Don’t stage an over-elaborate murder designed to implicate one of your political rivals […]
