Marc Aplin's Blog, page 26

Toxic mother-daughter relationships are uncommon in fantasy. All too often, mothers are already dead on page one, or if Mama lives, she’s warm and nurturing. Even Cersei Lannister dotes on her children, and many—if not most—of her evil deeds are motivated by a mother’s love. In the Coraidic Sagas, the mothers are not so nice, […]

Dune (2021) is an adaptation of the first half of Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction novel. The film, directed by Denis Villeneuve, tells the story of Paul Atreides, the son of Duke Leto, who is the head of a powerful clan in the far future. When House Atreides is sent to the desert planet of […]

It’s that time of year again! Time to vote on the best books of 2021! I decided to push this back, both because December is always crazy because of the various holidays and end of year preparations. But also, because I always felt bad for all the books that come out super close to the […]

Back in 1984, David Lynch made an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s science fiction classic Dune. It was a troubled production, and Lynch’s original version ran to three hours, which was then edited down to a two-hour film, resulting in a dense and awkward film being released in cinemas. Lynch would later distance himself from Dune. […]

A little more than a month ago, I reviewed Quenby Olson’s Regency-era fantasy, Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons on this site. In the review I totally gushed about the book—and I gave it a full 10 stars. Naturally, I had to investigate the source of such brilliance with […]

Every year several books are released and there are some that receive more attention than others. This doesn’t mean these other books are not worth reading. On the contrary, many of them are underrated titles that deserve to be read. A book that fell victim to this is The Mask of Mirrors—the first book in […]

Today, I get the amazing opportunity to interview fellow fantasy author Barbara Ashford [Barbara Campbell] about her books and being an online class instructor at the Odyssey Writing Workshop. Enjoy! To start, tell us a little bit about yourself. I grew up in Delaware and now live outside New York City. I started my professional […]

In the Northern Hemisphere the weather is getting cold, the trees are bare, snow is in the air (or at least I wish it was!) and it is slowly coming—Christmas is just around the corner! As a full on Christmas addict, I especially love fantasy and sci-fi stories that pick up on the theme. Over […]

“If Arya Stark were a mecha pilot” Xiran Jay Zhao’s debut YA science-fantasy, Iron Widow, is the first book I’ve read in a very long time that I didn’t want to end. It included so many fresh insights I just hung on to every word. While the publishers marketed it as Pacific Rim meets A […]

A pair of roleplaying game (RPG) supplements this time, filling in some of the character options that didn’t fit into the Soulbound core book. (You’ll find these reviews a lot more comprehensible if you read my review of the Soulbound core book first.) Champions of Order expands on playing characters from the Grand Alliance of […]