https://youtu.be/hZGIqxieCRU Necrod is a place of nightmares vanquished and persevering. This city, covered by the "eternal greenish gloom" of its necromiasma, makes for the central locale in Gareth Hanrahan's The Sword Defiant, an ambitious and trope-defying fantasy novel that will appeal to fans of Tolkien, role-playing gamers, and fantasy enthusiasts well outside those two groups. If... Continue Reading →
Tsalmoth is an exciting new addition to the perennial urban fantasy series Vlad Taltos.
Today is May 1, which is not only Labour day across much of the world but also the first day in the fantasy blog event Wyrd & Wonder! It's great fun, that one, and I thought I'd pitch in with a post that would put FEAR back into everyone's fantastical Wyrdness and Wonderness! https://youtu.be/oC58_iV7lWw Inscryption... Continue Reading →
https://youtu.be/H14T15uIspU Fonda Lee's Green Bone Saga has gained the status of a modern classic over its publication between 2017 and 2021. I haven't read it yet, and so can tell you, hand over heart, Untethered Sky is a triumphant introduction to Lee's work. Chock-full of compelling characters, this novella exudes a love and respect for... Continue Reading →
https://youtu.be/ClaEXVuFo4Y Eskara Helsene has been many things: an angry teenager, the victim of brainwashing and abuse, queen and villain and an enemy to the gods themselves. In Death's Beating Heart, she aims for the stars by trying to save the world from Sevorai's nightmarish hunger, Norvet Meruun. The issues with that are numerous: first among... Continue Reading →
https://youtu.be/9OJ8tWgmLQA K. J. Parker is a master of voice. His Siege Trilogy accents this mastery, providing the reader with narrators with personalities large enough they threaten to drown out most other voices. How to Rule an Empire and Get Away With It, the middle book in this trilogy, has to contend with a difficult task:... Continue Reading →
https://youtu.be/tiysvCXILfw Another fast-paced novella courtesy of Alastair Reynolds, Slow Bullets makes for one of those reads you can't step away from. After reading the first scene in the library, where I picked this title up, I sat down in the evening and didn't stop reading until there was no more Slow Bullets left to read.... Continue Reading →
Because all you needed was another Unsouled review https://youtu.be/RAVjoVfBWMI How about literature as comfort food? Sometimes you need to unwind in-between serious, demanding reads, to lose yourself in a world whose stakes, while not low by any means, don't hit quite as deep as they otherwise might. For me, Unsouled, the first book in Will... Continue Reading →
https://youtu.be/OdxQfs0QnFM Every time Steam sets up one of its Next Fests promises to be busy - and this latest one was no different. Join me as I do a quick run-down of the demos that left an impression on me one way or another--and if you'd like more content like this, don't forget to let... Continue Reading →
https://youtu.be/J6boXx9LpLQ System Shock is the granddaddy of immersive sims, a game nearly thirty years old by now, known by every hardcore gamer but experienced by an increasing minority; after all, we're being babied by gamer-friendly systems and few of us have the appreciation for the rough'n'tumble design principles of yesteryear, right? Right! The demo of... Continue Reading →
The Grimoire Reliquary 