Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis
Jo Niederhoff
In my life, I’ve found that there are a few different sorts of books I wind up reading. Some are gifts. Some are books I explicitly sought out. And some…
Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off #2: One Reader’s Initial Thoughts
A.F.E. Smith
I’m one of Fantasy-Faction’s readers for this year’s Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO). And now that I’ve read the first chapters of all the books in our set, I thought…
Learning from Script and Screen
Aaron Miles
It’s important for a writer to learn about their craft wherever they can, for most this takes the form of studying the work of successful authors or flicking through a…
When Good Turns Bad: The Reversed Hero’s Journey
Nicola Alter
The typical “hero’s journey” is a structure that can be found not only in fantasy fiction but also in many other genres. You can analyse the twists and turns of…
Hidden Treasures: Azanian Bridges by Nick Wood
Hidden Treasures is a series that reviews small press and digital first SFF. Okay, so this is technically science fiction rather than fantasy. But even if you’re a die-hard fantasy…
Harry Potter Should Have Kissed Some Boys: An Argument For Queer Characters In Main Stream Fantasy
Leo Elijah Cristea
Harry Potter should have kissed some boys. Or Hermione should have kissed some girls. Even just some passing lip-action between any of the main cast would have been sufficient. Even…
Dominion Cover Reveal & Extract
Overlord
A lot of Fantasy-Factioners will have read and enjoyed Peter McLean’s Drake by now. If you’ve not, it’s about an anti-hero named Don Drake who is forced to carry out…
Saint’s Blood by Sebastien De Castell
Charlie Hopkins
How do you kill a Saint? Falcio, Kest and Brasti are about to find out, because even Tristia’s most powerful Saints are turning up dead and the entire country is…
The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson
Jonathan Thornton
Tor’s novella series was started in 2015, with the aim of promoting this shorter medium. The line includes both established authors and those just making their debut, and has included…
Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off #2: Cover Up?
Geoff Matthews
We’ve had a look at the covers to all 30 books on the Fantasy-Faction list for the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off and picked our favourite three. Why did we do…
Foundations of Fantasy: The Epic of Gilgamesh
Ryan Howse
More than any other genre, fantasy tends to examine ancient epics. Whether it’s the study of archetypes and ectypes, or a historical understanding of narrative itself, or simply a desire…
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, Translated by Ken Liu
Sonia Grace
The Three-Body Problem is about aliens. It’s also about Revolutionary China, Communism, and human nature. There’s a fair bit of philosophy thrown in, some well-explained math, and a computer game…