Rather uncharacteristically, I read this international best seller soon after its release (following a binge of childhood-era fantasy, cause hey! squirrel!). I was drawn by several factors: Aussie author (a neighbour, one suburb over), worldwide success, and — not in the least — Moriarty’s hilarious author’s bio. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting […]
News / Blog
Amazon is Evil. Authors are Starving. We’re All Gonna Die! (A rant)
I’ve come across this article, and I’d like to call bullshit: The Disastrous Decline in Author Incomes Isn’t Just Amazon’s Fault, which in turn is based on this survey: Authors Guild Survey Shows Drastic 42 Percent Decline in Authors Earnings in Last Decade. Go ahead. Go read it (at least the first link) and come back, […]
Encouragement
Last year, I’ve posted my review of Wizard of Earthsea around the net, and this happened: This was on BookBub. Ms Le Guin (the author of Earthsea) was an accomplished and prolific Sci-Fi & Fantasy author and an outspoken advocate on social issues, whose books deeply influenced my adolescence. So, naturally, this was all very […]
Writers of the Future
Writers of the Future is a respected Science Fiction and Fantasy short-story contest for new authors, that has been running since the mid 1980’s. It’s free and open to authors who have not been professionally published. Some very well known authors in SF&F have started their way with wins there (Patrick Rothfuss, anyone?), and the […]
Book Series Review: God Stalk / Chronicles of the Kencyrath, by P.C. Hodgell
God Stalk is another book I remembered very fondly from my teenagehood (I even had a limited-edition hardcover), and recently re-read to see how it withstood the test of time (as well as comparing older and contemporary young-adult fantasy). I enjoyed it tremendously — and kept reading through the series. Some of those volumes I’ve […]
Book Review: The Compleat Traveller in Black, by John Brunner
This is a little-known fantasy gem, by one of Sci-Fi greats. It contains five short stories (the original 4 written between 1960 and 1971, and published as “The Traveller in Black”, and the fifth written in 1979 and later published in the Compleat collection). I loved the premise and style of the stories when I […]
Felix Novus Annus
Thank you for being part of this past amazing year! May next year be just as wonderful, filled with books and goodies. This post offers a bit of reflection on the past year, and announcements about what’s coming.
Book Review: Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse #1), by Charlaine Harris
I read this book on my wife’s urging that I read some best-sellers in a related genre (aka paranormal sex fantasies romance) and due to my own interest in reading works from perspective other than mine (in this case, by and for women). Being in a somewhat related genre (paranormal mixed with mystery) this was […]
Roman Trinkets and Small Finds
A collections of links for some funky finds from Ancient Rome. First is this Roman army multi-tool. One can envisage it as a precursor to the Swiss — sorry, Helvetican — army knife. It has a knife, spoon, and fork, a spike, spatula and small pick. Though since it’s made of silver it might have […]
Book Review: Where Loyalties Lie, by Rob J. Hayes
I’ve been meaning to read Rob Hayes’ works for a while (especially considering his record-breaking win in the SPFBO 2017), and so jumped into Where Loyalties Lie. It is an excellent story of piracy set in a fantasy world based on the Age of Sail, though not for the faint of heart. What to expect […]
