Writers spend a good deal of time fretting about the opening sentence of their novel, just as readers enjoy quoting first lines from their favourite books. This is understandable, given so much is riding on that first impression. But what about closing lines? What about the final words that resolve the story and linger in a reader’s mind after they shut the book?
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Books
Why I Write Fairy Tales: Wee Folk and Wise
Wee Folk and Wise: A Faerie Anthology
This guest post is brought to you by Deby Fredericks, whose blog Wyrmflight has taught me many an interesting dragon-related fact and myth. She recently edited an anthology of fairy and folk tale-inspired stories called Wee Folk and Wise, and has shared some reflections from Matthew Timmins, one of the collection’s contributors, on the age-old appeal of fairy tales: Continue reading
Crows and Ravens in Fantasy
Dragons are strongly associated with fantasy fiction, so much so that they have become a symbol for the genre. Given that these imaginary beasts only inhabit the realms of fantasy, fairy tale and legend, and thrill many a reader, this makes sense. However, I’d argue the humble crow or raven pops up in fantasy books and films just as often, even if it is sometimes in a more symbolic or background role.
Since I love crows, and recently changed the look of my blog to feature a crow rather prominently, I thought this might be a good excuse to take a closer look at these sometimes under-appreciated birds and their prevalence in speculative fiction. Continue reading
How Long Should a Fantasy Book Be?
It’s a question often asked by aspiring authors wondering if their manuscript is several thousand words too long or short, but it’s also an intriguing one for readers to consider: is there an ideal length for a fantasy novel?
Every book is different and for any suggested word or page count you see, you are likely to encounter several popular fantasy books that are outside of it. Nonetheless, as someone who reads a lot in the genre and has also submitted work to competitions, agents and publishers, I thought I’d tackle this topic from three different perspectives:
- how long popular published fantasy novels are,
- how long the industry (agents, publishers, competitions) prefers them to be,
- how long readers prefer them to be.
The Goodreads Book Tag
I’m off on a holiday tomorrow, but before leaving I thought I’d finally catch up on some tags and (very belatedly!) do this Goodreads Book Tag. Thanks to Kirsty @ Kirsty’s Book Reviews for tagging me! I’ve been looking forward to this one because I’m a massive Goodreads fan, so here goes: Continue reading
The Magic of a Brilliant Book Brilliantly Read: The Gentleman Bastards Audiobooks
Book cover segment from The Republic of Thieves, Random House, 2013. (NPR Books)
The Gentleman Bastards is a much-loved fantasy series that is particularly popular in audiobook format. Fans who’ve listened to the audiobooks regularly recommend them, the narrator Michael Page has won awards for his performances (including his narration of The Lies of Locke Lamora), and author Scott Lynch has made no secret of the fact he thinks Page does a brilliant job: Continue reading
Book Stats for 2016
I love bookish statistics, and what they reveal about people’s reading habits. I enjoy it when I come across them on other blogs (for example on Magic of Books), so even though I didn’t read a huge number of books in 2016 compared to other people I know, I thought it might still be fun to see what the stats on the humble selection I did read look like… and to satisfy my nerdy appreciation for graphs and charts. Continue reading
My Favourite Fantasy and Science Fiction Books in 2016
Well it’s that time of year again – the time when bookworms set their reading challenges, make a bookish resolution or two, and muse on what novels they enjoyed most during this particular loop around the sun. So to join in the New Year’s spirit, here are the 6 best fantasy and sci-fi books (and/or series) that I read in 2016: Continue reading
The Quirks of Buying Books in Germany: Fixed Pricing and the ‘Buchpreisbindung’
‘Fantastische Welten’ – Fantasy Shelves in a German Book Store. Photo by Nicola Alter (CC BY SA 4.0)
I regularly receive promotional offers from a German book store chain called Thalia for discounts on their products (e.g. “12% off everything today!”). However, there’s always a little asterisk, and in the fine print you see something to the effect of:
*Not valid for use on books or ebooks due to the Buchpreisbindung.
Given this is primarily a book store, it seemed pretty strange they never sent me discount vouchers to tempt me to buy actual books. Continue reading
When Evil Characters Switch Sides
I like a plain old dastardly villain I can hate, but a seemingly evil character who gradually discovers their soft, gooey core, and crosses over to join the good guys? No matter how many times I see it, if it’s done well it still gives me the warm and fuzzies.
I was thinking of this because I’ve recently been reading the Throne of Glass series, which is full of villains that change their colours and show their softer sides, as well as morally questionable heroes and heroines in general. I’ve also finished the Red Rising trilogy, which has so many characters crossing back and forth it’s hard to tell who’ll be left standing on the “good” side in the end. Clearly, it’s something many readers, myself included, enjoy.
So what is it that’s so compelling about this ‘crossing over’ from evil to good? Here is my attempt at breaking it down: Continue reading
