The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith
JC Kang
If Game of Thrones was isolated to the French wine country. I confess, the cover for The Vine Witch didn’t grab my attention, nor did the premise particularly interest me.…
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Richard Marpole
Zachary Ezra Rawlins, the son of a fortune-teller, is studying for his Masters in Emerging Media (video games). His peaceful, semi-solitary, existence is thrown off course when he checks an…
Sorcery Reborn by Steve McHugh
Julia Kitvaria Sarene
Sorcery Reborn is the first in a new series by Steve McHugh. At the same time, it’s sort of a direct sequel to the end of his first series, The…
The Cardboard Box: Women as Protagonists – Guest Blog by R.W.W. Greene
R.W.W. Greene
Gentle readers, I will be using wide strokes to paint the picture following. The end work could even be dubbed an abstraction. If you stand back from it and see…
Talk Like A Man by Nisi Shawl
Jonathan Thornton
“She would have to do something. Something else besides living. Something more.” PM Press’s Outspoken Authors series, edited by Terry Bisson, is part of the radical indie press’s politically engaged…
Asian Fantasy: SPFBO Edition
With Lunar New Year around the corner, I joined a group chat with SFPBO past and present finalists Rob J. Hayes (Never Die, 2019), Virginia McClain (Blade’s Edge, 2019), M.…
Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko – Translated by Julia Meitov Hersey
L. A. Young
Readers who enjoyed The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins must read Vita Nostra—the first book in the Metamorphosis series. If not,…
Books to Read in Fantasy: A Look at Lists
Geoff Matthews
Recently a question was asked in the Fantasy-Faction Facebook Group. This is that question and some of the reasons why its answer looks the same, every time the question is…
Fantasy-Faction’s Best Fantasy Books of 2019
Jennie Ivins
Hello Factioners! I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season full of family, friends, food, and fantasy books! We spent a lot longer working on our Best Of…
Mark Lawrence Interview – The Girl and the Stars
S. H. Paulus
Today we are very happy to have back Mark Lawrence! Lawrence is the author of multiple bestselling series: The Broken Empire, The Red Queen’s War, The Book of the Ancestor,…
Figures Unseen: Selected Stories by Steve Rasnic Tem
Raymond K. Rugg
Figures Unseen by Steve Rasnic Tem is a collection of horror tales for grownups. Oh sure, if a reader really wants to find them, there are ghosts and werewolves and…
Year in Anime 2019
Rakib Ahmad Khan
2019 is coming to its end. Anime has reached new heights in popularity in the Western Hemisphere and now even popular streaming services like Netflix have taken up producing original…