Marc Aplin's Blog, page 247

Matt Rhodes, the Lead Concept Artist on Dragon Age: Inquisition, has digitally created a pretty damned awesome portrayal of Patrick Rothfuss’s Kvothe. Matt explains: “Process wise, this was a self-inflicted exercise in patience. This image has been sitting in my head for months, but I’ve avoided it, knowing how much work would be required to […]

For those who haven’t seen it, a very good fan-made movie set in The Wheel Of Time universe has been making it’s way around the web, Flight From Shadow. The movie chronicles the events in the “Four Kings in Shadow” chapter from The Eye of the World, the first book of Robert Jordan’s bestselling series. […]

As part of his promotional efforts for his latest novel, Breach Zone, Myke Cole spoke recently at the Library of Congress as part of the “What If Science Fiction and Fantasy Forum”. Among many other topics, he spoke about how his books were a combination of working inside the military bureaucracy, asking “What if” questions, […]

We got an e-mail yesterday saying that the proof versions of Brandon Sanderson’s second book in the Stormlight Archive, Words of Radiance, series have hit and we should soon be expecting one in the mail – obviously pretty damned exciting! Anyone who has read the first book will undoubtedly be dying to get their hands […]

Procrastination – it is the bane of all writers, something we all struggle with. How many times have we sat there ready to write and then find ourselves distracted by social media or cat memes on the internet? How many times have we said we’ll start work on that new chapter right after we’ve baked […]

I know, I know… you’ve heard it before, right? But, Neil Gaiman himself has said that American Gods is now REALLY in development for television. The company who now own the rights and are set to produce the series is FremantleMedia, best known for reality television like Amercian Idol, The X Factor, America’s Got Talent and game shows like The Price […]

A couple of days ago, SFSignal e-mailed me to ask whether I’d be willing to lend my voice and thoughts to the opinion that ‘something is wrong with epic fantasy‘. This all came about following a podcast, where one of SFSignal’s podcasters, Sarah, said: ‘I think a lot of the problem with epic fantasy, especially […]

Very cool montage of clips from the winning films in the ‘Best Visual Effects’ category of The Oscars. All credit to Nelson Carvajal who put the video together. This year’s Best Visual Effects nominees are as follows: Gravity (Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, Neil Corbould) The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Joe Letteri, Eric […]

In 2014, I’ll be wading into the river of indie sci-fi and fantasy, panning for gold. If you’ve read a great indie book, one that’s every bit as good as mainstream titles, and you think I should cover it, let us know in the comments. Moth is the story of a world of light and […]

If you live in the UK and are involved in the SFF Community, you’ve no-doubt come across Paul Cornell at a convention or two. If you’re a reader of Comic Books or watcher of television series like Doctor Who, Robin Hood or Primeval then you’re certain to have enjoyed something by this diverse writer. And, […]