Category: Fantasy

A Blade to the Heart — Gaie Sebold

By 5t4n5

A Blade to the Heart -- Gaie SeboldAvailable in the anthology, Legends.

So far i’ve really enjoyed reading Gaie’s books but, sadly, i just feel this short fell a little short.

While i do think the redemption thing can be good fodder to build a story around, i just think in this case it’s all got a bit too rushed.   Probably would have been much better as a novella, at least.

But, ho hum, every favourite writer has to write at least one thing that just doesn’t work for the fangirl/fanboy reader: does anyone remember The Girl in Red?

Gaie’s Page

#fantasy #gaiesebold

Pan’s Labyrinth — Guillermo del Toro & Cornelia Funke

By 5t4n5

Pan's Labyrinth -- Guillermo del Toro & Cornelia FunkeThis is one super good, dark fantasy/fairy-tale.

Set in 1944 at the end of the Spanish Civil War, with Franco’s troops continuing their brutal repression of anyone and anything that stood in their way.   It gets rather violent, brutal and nasty, and caught in amongst all of this is our protagonist, Ofelia, a young girl who has grown up with the horrors of war all around her.

This is not a book for children, or for the faint of heart looking for a nice fantasy/fairy-tale read, but it’s certainly worth a read if you can handle a fair bit of brutality.

Guillermo’s Page Cornelia’s Page

#guillermodeltoro #corneliafunke

Walls — Gaie Sebold

By 5t4n5

Walls -- Gaie SeboldAvailable to read in the anthology, X7.

Wow, that was a weird trip.   This short story starts really strangely, and gets even stranger, as our protagonist, Chrys, who suffers from agoraphobia and can’t go out, gets worse and worse to the point of having what seems to be a total psychotic melt down.

And then everything comes crashing down, and boom!   What an ending.

Ever more wonderful writing and story telling from Gaie, a master of the writing craft.   If you haven’t yet read any of Gaie’s writing then i really suggest you get started, it’s real good fantasy for grown ups who love real good fantasy.

Gaie’s Page

#fantasy #gaiesebold

Shattering the Spear — P. Djèlí Clark

By 5t4n5

Shattering the Spear -- P. Djèlí ClarkAvailable in the anthology, The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly: Vol 1.

Having just read Djèlí’s Dead Djinn books and totally enjoyed them, i had no choice in my good book reading avarice but to go hunting for everything i could find by Djèlí and start reading it all in publication order, and you guessed it, Shattering the Spear is, i think, the first story published.

Shattering the Spear seems to me to be based upon an African tribal warrior, in a land that reminds one of those vast pictures of African grasslands.   It’s also full of Animist religious ideas, which, being an Animist myself, is really nice to find in a book these days.   There’s also some good fight/action scenes, with the same great writing that you find in the Dead Djinn books.   In fact, there’s quite a lot packed into this short story.

Next up on the Djèlí list is Skin Magic, but before i get around to that i’ve got a few other writers and their books to catch up with and read first.

P. Djèlí Clark’s Page

#fantasy #pdjeliclark