The Name of All Things by Jenn Lyons
L. A. Young
Many fantasy stories tend to focus on a set of characters within one central setting. Then, there are the stories that take place across generations and various locations. The former…
Reviews
The Brightest Shadow by Sarah Lin
JC Kang
“When Epic Fantasy Meets Cultivation” Sarah Lin is best known for revolutionizing the English-original cultivation (or xianxia) subgenre with her late 2019 release, Street Cultivation. Instead of cultivators wearing flowing…
The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons
Stories are told as entertainment, and we all become familiar with certain tropes: the lost heir, the fulfillment of the prophecy, the quest for a mythical sword, etc. Nowadays, some…
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
A. A. Freeman
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…
Twilight of the Gods by Scott Oden
A. M. Justice
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…
They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Role-playing Game Review
Richard Marpole
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…