The Last Smile in Sunder City by Luke Arnold – Review
Julia Kitvaria Sarene
... a moody, character-driven urban fantasy with a capable, sarcastic protagonist and a city full of strange, broken, and dangerous inhabitants. It’s a story that is clever, darkly funny at…
noir
Murder in Absentia by Assaph Mehr – Review
Felix himself is a strong lead. He is clever, snarky, and knows when to keep his mouth shut. He is refreshingly aware of his limits and hires muscle or gets…
Planetside by Michael Mammay – Books 1-3 Series Review
It’s not flashy space opera, it’s smart, character-focused storytelling with just enough grit, action, and intrigue to keep you hooked from page one.
SPFBO 10 Champions’ League: The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble’s Braids by Michael McClung – Review
...a clever, gritty little gem. A witty, tightly written fantasy adventure with a phenomenal lead, great humor, surprising emotional depth, and just enough chaos to keep things unpredictable.
The Hallows by H. L. Tinsley
The Hallows by H. L. Tinsley is a 1920s urban fantasy, which was a very nice change in pace! It’s not as dark as her previous series, but it still…
Shadow of a Dead God by Patrick Samphire – SPFBO #6 Semi-Finals Review
A. M. Justice
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,…
Lela Gwenn Interview – Bad Luck Chuck
Dan Hanks
An intriguing new comic mini-series is heading our way in March from Dark Horse Comics. Billed as ‘slapstick noir’ from the writer, Lela Gwenn, it’s about the cursed Charlene “Chuck”…
Candy by Lavie Tidhar
Jonathan Thornton
“A long buffet table on the other side was laden with sweet pastries, chocolate and cream, in flagrant violation of Prohibition. They must have been brought in from out of…
Chaos Trims My Beard by Brett Herman – SPFBO Finalist Review
Laura M. Hughes
The SPFBO team here at Fantasy-Faction (G. R. Matthews, James Latimer, Kitvaria Sarene, Michael Everest and myself) have been through something of a turbulent decision-making process during these past few…
Hammers On Bone by Cassandra Khaw
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…
The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble’s Braids by Michael McClung – SPFBO Review
Richard Bray
At 210 pages, The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble’s Braids isn’t trying to be the next bookshelf-bending epic fantasy that changes the way you think about the genre. Instead, it’s…
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The back cover and inside jacket of American Gods would have you believe this is a novel about gods, carefully hidden amongst American mortals, gathering their forces for a bloody…