Monthly Short Story Winner: Young Love
Xiagan
This month’s stories are about people experiencing true love (or what they believe to be love) for the first time. I know that writing about feelings – and especially love…
fantasy
Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft
T. O. Munro
This is an exceedingly rich book. A depth of imagination married with a poetic turn of phrase and an engaging cast of characters (both those we meet and those who…
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
Richard Bray
This review contains spoilers for the first book, Six of Crows. Please read with caution if you have yet to finish the first book. “Ketterdam is made of monsters. I…
Brent Weeks Interview – The Blood Mirror
Overlord
Having met Brent Weeks and chatted with him a few times via email, I can tell you he is one of the nicest guys out there. Yes, he tortures us…
The Emperor’s Railroad by Guy Haley
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…
Star Wars: Life Debt by Chuck Wendig – Spoiler Free Review
Zachary A. Matzo
The second volume in Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath trilogy—filling in some of the timeline between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens—Life Debt differs from its predecessor in tone, scope…
An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows
“It’s all right to be lost. How else can we find ourselves?” “Apathy breeds more evils than defeat. Keep fighting.” An Accident of Stars (2016) is the new portal fantasy…
Paternus by Dyrk Ashton – SPFBO Review: And Then There Was One!
Geoff Matthews
The SPFBO team have completed their search for a finalist! Today, only one book remains, and that is Paternus by Dyrk Ashton! Congratulations Dyrk! You are moving on to round…
Ravenmarked by Amy Rose Davis – SPFBO Review: And Then There Were Two
The SPFBO team have completed their search for a finalist! Today, only one book remains, as we say farewell to Amy Rose Davis and Ravenmarked. You can read our review…
Vampires: Origins, Evolution, and Role in Fantasy Fiction
Leo Elijah Cristea
The vampire: a figure whose folklore origins date back as far as the cradle of civilisation, is one of the major mythic figures bequeathed to us by the English Romantics.…
Pretty Little Dead Girls by Mercedes M. Yardley
Pretty Little Dead Girls was the first of Ms Yardley’s books I ever read. I sort of flirted with the idea of buying it for quite a while. The title,…
The Raven by Aderyn Wood – SPFBO Review: And Then There Were Two
The SPFBO team are making steady progress in our search for a finalist. To avoid cruelly stretching things out, we’ll be posting (in no particular order) individual reviews for those…