While fantasy, science fiction, and their subgenres are no stranger to mystery, it is a fairly rare occurrence to see them combined with noir. So when Patty Loofbourrow told me that her steampunk book, Jacq of Spades was also a noir, I was intrigued. Noir has its own special requirements, some of the most important…
Author: Fantasy Focus
Sword of Ruyn by RG Long: a Review by E.G. Stone
There is something impossible to describe about the older epic fantasy novels, like Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, or The Sword of Shannara, or other books of the same era. Modern fantasy books can be equally epic in scale, but they read differently; not badly, just differently, much as older science fiction reads differently from…
Soulship: First Orbit by Nathan Thompson: a Review by E.G. Stone
Cultivation genre is a sub-set of the speculative fiction umbrella that has only recently started gaining in traction. It arose in China, from the Xanxia tradition, which has many elements of the Qigong technique philosophy about energy. In general, cultivation genre focuses on peple who are cultivators of energy that helps them grow and become…
The Dark Yule by R.M. Callahan: a Review by E.G. Stone
Have you ever wondered about cats? Why they sleep for so many hours at a time? What it is they do at night? Why they stare at things that aren’t there? Sometimes it seems that just about everything cats do is a mystery—a possibly unsolvable one. Well, unless, that is, you start looking at cats…
The Wolf We Feed by P.A. Sheppard: a Review by E.G. Stone
The story goes that there are two wolves living inside us. One is good, encouraging us to do honourable things and work for a better future. The other is bad, encouraging us to work for the selfish urges and our own future. The wolf that wins is the wolf you feed. Under dire circumstances, which…
Silent Pantheon by Eric Nierstedt: a Review by E.G. Stone
Terry Pratchett and Niel Gaiman have undoubtedly changed the way people look at fantasy novels. They have added the element of the irreverent and the humorous while still very much taking the genre seriously. (Most of the time.) As such, they have inspired a whole slew of writers to look at the world in a…
Shattering Dreams by Catherine Walker: a Review by E.G. Stone
Many fantasy books deal with the Otherworld in various different forms. It comes in a myriad of names—Avalon, Faerie, the ether—and forms, but one thing that is fairly always clear is that the rules there are different and things are not what they seem. Catherine Walker’s Shattering Dreams, book one of the Being Of Dreams…
Outpost by F.T. McKinstry: a Review by E.G. Stone
Have you ever read a book where the characters seemed to jump off of the page? Where you get weirdly invested in their journey and exclaim out loud (much to the annoyance of the cat) when they finally do what you’ve been waiting for the entire book? Yeah… That book for me was Outpost by…
Lux by MJ Vieira: a Review by E.G. Stone
There are some books out there where you read part of it, go “WHAT IS GOING ON?!!” and then toss it aside in frustration. Then, there are books where you read part of it, go “WHAT IS GOING ON?!!!” and can’t stop reading because you have to know all the things. MJ Vieira’s Lux is…
Broken Throne Series by Jamie Davis: a Review by E.G. Stone
For people who like to see what the world would be like if it had magic in it, then the world of urban fantasy is like candy or chocolate or socks (with Star Trek patterns, of course). Within the world of urban fantasy, there are always those few stand out series that catch your attention…