Hidden Realms of Muslim Fantasy

The mind stills. The body relaxes. The spirit rises up, tethered to its mortal shell with a gossamer tendril. Free to wander the spiritual realm but tentatively connected to the physical world. The aim is to lose oneself in the awe of the Almighty. In my last post, I looked at the bestiary available to […]

Clash of Mythologies

The troll hefts its makeshift club and advances cautiously towards the glowing blue figure. He roars a challenge at the strange creature to show his dominance. But the blue figure is uncowed. She just smiles as she hovers above the ground and raises a single hand. The earth rumbles in response. In my last post, […]

When Folk Tales Collide

Western fantasy fiction is heavily influenced by Greco-Roman and Norse mythologies. From pantheons of fickle deities to mischievous fae folk, from great dragons to tunnel crawling wyrms. Over the decades, since fantasy’s emergence as a genre, more and more European folklore has made its way into fantasy fiction. Orcs, goblins, elves, dwarfs, etc., are well […]

Review: Sawyer Jackson and the Long Land

Sawyer Jackson discovers that the world is a tapestry version of the matrix and that he is the One, destined to defeat a dark Lord. Sawyer has been raised by his grandparents and kept away from others. Aside from one traumatic experience during his childhood, he has lived an otherwise mundane life. But one day […]

Book Review: Resa Nelson’s Dragonfly

A Viking girl raised among Native Americans must overcome her desire to have a family of her own in order to fulfill her destiny. Greeta has known all her life that she is different. Her pale skin, blue eyes and blonde hair sets her apart from her darker skinned people, the Shining Star Nation. Then […]

Book Review: Raven Oak’s Amaskan Blood

A long lost princess turned assassin returns to her kingdom to protect her sister. The Amaskan Order is an ancient and secretive society of assassins, trained from childhood to serve justice to those who are beyond the law. Master Adelei is the Order’s best assassin, but she is plagued my memories of a stolen childhood […]

Book Review: The Queen’s Blade by T C Southwell

One of the most accomplished assassin’s in the world presents himself to the Queen of the Jashamari with an offer she can not refuse; his services to kill the enemy of her people, the King of the Cotti. Queen Mina-Sattu has inherited her mother’s throne and the Endless War that stretches so far back in […]

Book Review: The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss

In a backwater town, a man with a hidden past spends his days running a well-kept inn. But then a traveller known as The Chronicler comes upon him one night and recognises him for who he really is; Kvothe, the Kingkiller. The book (and the series) opens with Kvothe passing himself off as a humble […]

Book Review: Robert Crane’s The Girl in the Box (Box Set)

My rating: 3 of 5 stars Warning: May Contain Spoilers Sienna Nealon has spent most of her childhood and her teen years a prisoner in her own home. The only person in her life is her mother. A mother who doesn’t show her affection, who rarely talks to her except to teach her something, trains […]

Book Review: Undercaffeinated and Overexposed by Andrew G Schneider

Undercaffeinated and Overexposed: The Tale of a Coffee Shop Princess by Andrew G. Schneider My rating: 3 of 5 stars The Fair Folk have walked straight out of the pages of fiction into the real world. Now they are struggling to survive in the modern world, under threat from immigration officers, each other and would […]