Magic, Faith and Fiction

Introduction Fantasy fiction has long been linked to the mystical, the unknown, and the extraordinary. This genre contains a unique strand of storytelling. It draws from rich cultural and spiritual traditions. This is known as Muslim fantasy fiction. Combining elements of magic, faith, and folklore, these stories explore new dimensions of the fantastical through a […]

Ink and Algorithms: AI vs. Human Writing

I wanted to test the mettle of AI, so as an experiment I fed Microsoft Copilot the blurb from my novel, The Changeling King. Here is the original prompt complete with the text of my blurb: Write me a chapter of a fantasy story using this blurb: At the height of the Age of the […]

The Miraculous Resurgence of Books

Clearly, books are not dead. Nor has the book apocalypse (bookopalypse?) taken place as predicted when ebooks started popping as PDFs, ePubs and .Mobi files. If anything, book sales are experiencing a healthy upswing again. The only people that seem to be reading ebooks is Gen-Xers like me. According to Nielsen Book Data (2022), 80% […]

Book Review: Healer’s Touch by Deb E. Howell

Howell’s Healer’s Touch is an interesting twist on a stock fantasy character class. Instead of Healers being gentle and mild-mannered clerics, they are highly feared by the populace and coveted by military powers for their destructive abilities. Healer’s Touch title character, Llew is a street urchin who has suffered abandonment by both parents at a […]

Book Review: A Kingdom Besieged

A Kingdom Besieged by Raymond E. Feist My rating: 4 of 5 stars With Kingdom Besieged, we are returned to Midkemia and back to where the saga began; Crydee. Though this is a new trilogy (?) it picks up threads from the previous Midkemian volumes and makes full use of their history and lore. The […]

Book Review: Teddy Jacob’s Wicked Hunger

Wicked Hungry by Teddy Jacobs My rating: 2 of 5 stars Wicked Hungry is about a boy (Stanley) coming to terms with a sport’s injury that has taken away his ability to compete as a runner. The need to run gets worse as full moon draws near and a terrible gnawing hunger that his vegan […]

Review: Elizabeth C Mock’s Shatter

Shatter by Elizabeth C. Mock My rating: 3 of 5 stars Shatter is the first book in the trilogy, The Children of Man. When magic of Light was misused by the sorcerers, in order to safeguard it from being abused again, magic was split into different colours and each colour became championed by colleges and […]

Review: J Eathen Satterwhite’s Vanguard Society

The Vanguard Society by J. Eathen Satterwhite My rating: 2 of 5 stars The cover of The Vanguard Society is a black and white affair. A woman’s face peers out, drawn in black ink and effecting a kind of negative image of a women standing in the dark with a little light spilling over her […]

Review: John Lenahan’s Prince of Hazel and Oak

The Prince of Hazel and Oak is the sequel to Shadowmagic. Conor’s return to Earth wasn’t as joyful as he expected. His home looks like a disaster movie set, his girlfriend isn’t interested in him anymore and besides, doesn’t measure up to his Tir Na Nogian girlfriend Essa and the Police have questions about his […]