Five Things To Consider Before You Write An Epic Fantasy
Epic fantasies are always cool. But these aren’t easy to write.
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Earthsea – a rival to Tolkien
In A Wizard of Earthsea, published in 1968, Usula K Le Guin created one of literature’s most fully formed fantasy worlds.
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Alternate titles for the same book are evil
Different titles for the same book (American and UK editions), are evil. This is the second time recently, I’ve accidentally ended up buying a book I already have. This time, it’s book 2 in the Obsidian Mirror/Chronoptika series, by Catherine Fisher. I already had The Box of Red Brocade and wrongly assumed that Slanted Worlds was book 3. Unfortunately, it’s still just book 2 and I could already have owned book 3. Also, apparently, it’s not a three but a four books series. How confusing. Or is it just me being stupid?
Rockets, robots, and reckless imagination
How reading science fiction and fantasy helps create a better society.
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NPR’s Top 100 Science-Fiction & Fantasy Books – How many have you read?
How many have you read?
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Some favorite books I recommend
I thought I’d do a post about some books I’d like to recommend. It’s a mix of new and old, e-books and printed books and several different genres.
E-books (that I’d love to buy in print):
Wattpad books:
* Kidnapping in Kaua’i by Ava Easter (mystery/fantasy),
* Feyland: The First Adventure, Feyland: The Dark Realm, Feyland: The Bright Court by Anthea Sharp (fantasy)
From other sites, such as Smashwords and Amazon:
* The Backworlds by M Pax (Science fiction)
* The Rune House by L J Hutton (fantasy)
* Housewife with a Halflife by A B Wells (fantasy)
* Cut Crop and Die by Joanna Campbell Slan (scrapbook mystery)
* The Night Also Rises by C B McCullough (SF)
* Fatal Boarding and Deep Crossing by E R Mason (SF)
* Defying Fate by D L Morrese (fantasy/science fiction)
* Bonds of Fire by Sophie Duncan (fantasy slash romance)
* The Glass Wall, Behind the Mirror by Madison Adler/Carmen Caine
Print books:
Mysteries:
* Eliot Pattison’s Tibet mysteries
* Barbara Nadel’s Turkey mysteries
* Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum comic mysteries
* Susan Russo Anderson’s historic mysteries set in Sicily (one of them only available as e-book)
* Jean François Parot’s French historic mysteries (in French and English, maybe other languages)
* Michael Innes’ mysteries
* Denise Mina’s Garnet Hill trilogy
Fantasy:
* Shadowbridge, Lord Tophet by Gregory Frost
* the Old Kingdom series about Sabriel by Garth Nix
* The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams
* The Blue Girl, Dreams Underfoot by Charles De Lint
* Kelly McCullough: science/tech/fantasy series starting with Webmage
* Eccentric Circles by Rebecca Lickiss
* The Invisible Ring by Anne Bishop
* Diana Wynne Jones’ books (all of them)
* Ursula K LeGuin’s Earthsea series
* Frances Hardinge’s books, especially The Lost Conspiracy (Gullstruck Island) and Well Witched (Verdigris Deep)
YA:
* Tattoo the Awakening by Toni Leland
Historic romances
* Penelope by Anya Wylde (comedy)
* Kitty by Catherine Chapman
* The Only Gold by Tamara Allen (slash)
Science Fiction:
* Majestrum, The Spiral Labyrinth, Hespira by Matthew Hughes (sort of science fiction/fantasy)
* To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (time travel story)
* The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K LeGuin
This is really a post about books, but I can’t resist adding some of my current favorite tv series:
Endevour, Grantchester – historic cop series
Shetland, Fortitude – cop series in rather unusual settings
The Circle
I just went to see the movie The Circle. Since I haven’t reviewed the books, I’m not going to go into too many details about my thoughts. However, I did like the movie as much as I liked the books. The actresses closely matched the looks of the characters, at least most of them. I hope that the other two books in the trilogy will be made into movies and that I’ll like them as much as I liked the first one (though I must admit I always did like book 1 the best.) It was also quite cool (I’d never have thought of that ten years ago) to actually be in a movie theater though there were only four people watching the movie, that is counting me and my sister. That might have been because it’s been on for about two weeks.
Just one thing, if you do read the books, bear in mind that the translation isn’t all that great. In my opinion it’s a mistake not to get a professional translator to do the translating.
The Rune House by L J Hutton
I recently read The Rune House by L J Hutton. The book starts in 1574
when a strange house in the shape of a rune is built somewhere near the border between England and Wales. Strange and tragic events begin to occur near the house. In the present day two police officers begin to investigate an old case from one of the officers’ past. It leads them to the strange house where they begin to unravel the mystery connected to the building.
The book is quite well written (but as usual, these e-books would benefit from more proofreading.) Sometimes the plot gets a little too gruesome for my taste, but I see the necessity for it. I love this type of mysterious story. Another thing I’m rather fond of is sympathetic characters and a happy ending, both of which I get in this book. If you like fantasy, with a rather dark twist, then this might be a book for you.
It’s available on, among other places, Amazon.com, (Amazon.co.uk for those who live in the UK) and Smashwords.
On Naming: Vol. 2, the Quest for the Name
Read more here.