The Fantasy Hive - A U.K. Wonderland
A hub for all things fantasy (plus some SF). Book reviews, games, author interviews, features, serial fiction- you name it. The Fantasy Hive is a collaborative site formed of unique personalities who just want to celebrate fantasy. Btw, the SFF novel to the left by one of our members, Warwick Gleeson, was a "Top 150 Best Books" Kirkus pick in 2019.
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‘I’m more interested […] in the past than the future’ Adam Roberts is the author of 23 science fiction novels, many short stories and a number of critical and non-fiction books, including The Palgrave History of Science Fiction (2nd edition 2016) and H G Wells: a Literary Life (2020). He is a professor in English and Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London, and is FRSL. His most recent novel, The This (Gollancz 2022), is a pulp-sf novelisation of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. Adam Roberts is a renowned Science Fiction Writer, Critic, Historian and Professor. His 2014 novel Bête, is an important contribution to the field of science fiction and consid…
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The Storyteller by R.R. Virdi What inspired me in part for Tales of Tremaine was learning how Tolkien wanted to create a new mythology for England and go back to a pre-Arthurian time and source for that. So he turned to what he studied and knew well: the Norse epics. Things like the Prose Edda and Beowulf, of which you can see the influences all through Lord of The Rings. For me, I wanted to dial back South Asian history and mythology back to the cradle of Proto Indo-European myths, put it in a secondary world so people from the eastern parts of the worlds can see like/similar things and myths evolve in a new place, and then let them all evolve to their iteration…
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‘Being seen was more beautiful than anything I had ever known’ Instagram: @joethestillman Twitter: @JoeStillman1 Huge THANK YOU to Saichek Publicity for my review copy Joe Stillman’s writing credits include “Shrek,” “Shrek 2,” “King of the Hill,” “The Adventures of Pete and Pete,” “Beavis And Butthead,” “Planet 51,” and “Gulliver’s Travels,” among others. For “Shrek” he was nominated for an Oscar and won a BAFTA award. For “King of the Hill” he was nominated for two Emmys. His first writing job in college was the movie trailer for Frank Zappa’s, “Baby Snakes.” As a copywriter, Joe worked on over 200 movie campaigns. Eventually that led to TV promos and…
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‘Hello, and thank you for expressing an interest in Her Majesty’s Royal Coven.’ Her Majesty’s Royal Coven Juno Dawson Both history and future are fictions. Only the present is real Inst: @junodawson @harpervoyager_uk Twitter:HarperVoyagerUK @jundawson Juno Dawson is a bestselling novelist, screenwriter, journalist, and a columnist for Attitude Magazine. Juno’s books include the global bestsellers, THIS BOOK IS GAY and CLEAN. She won the 2020 YA Book Prize for MEAT MARKET. Her first adult fantasy trilogy HER MAJESTY’S ROYAL COVEN arrives in July 2022. To the mother I swear To solemnly uphold the sacred sisterhood Her power is mine to wield The secret ours to kee…
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“Look at her. She is stunningly gorgeous. Superhuman. I should be intimidated. I should feel like a hideous troll walking beside someone so insanely beautiful, but I don’t. I’m just content to soak in her glow. And she’s so nice and open and warm and funny. It’s that rumored phenomenon I never believed in; I feel like I’ve known her my whole life. So why are these people who know her acting so weird around her?” Cackle by Rachel Harrison is a cosy, peculiar witchy tale, centred on heartbreak, friendship, and small-town drama. When I began reading this I was enveloped in a mellow warmth, captivated by a melancholic narrator, and enchanted by a close-knit, seemingly …
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The phrase climate fiction and its abbreviation cli-fi was coined by journalist Dan Bloom[i] in a 2011 Press release for a novel Polar City Red (2012). Since then, the appellation has expanded to encompass a genre-transcending sprawl of works addressing the theme of anthropogenic climate change. Both authors and activists may still hope for that single silver bullet of a novel which will focus and energise public attention in the way that Nevil Shute’s On The Beach (1957) did to stimulate a drive for nuclear disarmament, or Anne Sewell’s Black Beauty (1877) moved people to address the cruel working conditions of horses in Victorian times. However, the wicked complexity o…
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Today we’re joining the blog tour for J.T. Greathouse and we’re extremely excited to be sharing with you all an exclusive bonus chapter from the release of his sequel The Garden of Empire. Please note there will be SPOILERS FOR THE HAND OF THE SUN KING. A Turning Point Harrow Fox Harrow Fox, Sun King of Nayen, crouched at the edge of a cliff, looking down through the gentle fall of snow on the fortress of Greyfrost Keep, the last bastion of his rebellion against the Empire of Sien. A conjured storm of wind and flame had scoured a ring of smoking ash through the winter-dusted forest, where imperial banners moved in steady, unhurried retreat. The boy was power…
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“She calls them messages from the deep. Not the voices of individuals. These are the voices of cities. Cities sometimes speak through people. Did you know that cities speak through people? Well, of course you do. You’re always trying to feed yours lines… I suppose, even I can hear the cities talking, sometimes…” Nikhil Singh’s Club Ded is a remarkable and original work of near-future post-cyberpunk science fiction. Set in a media-saturated South Africa inhabited by washed-out movie stars, prescient drug cults and itinerant pickpockets, Singh’s novel is a hallucinogenic masterpiece and a brilliantly brutal dissection of neo-colonialism. Operating in a cyberpunk milieu rem…
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Nils and Beth were very kindly sent proofs of Claire North’s upcoming novel Ithaca from Nazia at Orbit Books, so we thought it was the perfect opportunity for another buddy read! From the multi-award-winning author Claire North comes a daring reimagining that breathes life into ancient myth and gives voice to the women who stand defiant in a world ruled by ruthless men. It’s time for the women of Ithaca to tell their tale . . . . Seventeen years ago, King Odysseus sailed to war with Troy, taking with him every man of fighting age from the island of Ithaca. None of them has returned, and the women of Ithaca have been left behind to run the kingdom. Penelope was barely in…
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We’re delighted to be back at the Fantasy Hive to reveal the cover for our upcoming publication, E.J. Swift’s The Coral Bones. Here’s the blurb: This is what it looks like when coral dies. Present day. Marine biologist Hana Ishikawa is racing against time to save the coral as of the Great Barrier Reef, but struggles to ght for a future in a world where so much has already been lost. 1839. Seventeen-year-old Judith Holliman escapes the monotony of Sydney Town when her naval captain father lets her accompany him on a voyage, unaware of the wonders and dangers she will soon encounter. The sun-scorched 22nd century. Telma Velasco is hunting for a miracle: a leafy s…
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Peter McLean was born near London in 1972, the son of a bank manager and an English teacher. He went to school in the shadow of Norwich Cathedral where he spent most of his time making up stories. He has since grown up a bit, if not a lot, and spent 25 years working in corporate IT. He is married to Diane and is still making up stories. He is the author of the War for the Rose Throne series, beginning with Priest of Bones. Welcome back to the Hive, Peter! Congratulations on the release of your final book in The War for the Rose Throne quartet. Can you tell us a little of what readers can expect in Priest of Crowns? Hi, and thank you for having me back! What c…
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So I return to my neglected Unseen Academic feature, with what is (honestly) going to be a book review, honestly, but first some climate change context. Climate change is a wicked problem, as defined by Rittel and Webber,[1] in the sense that is massive in scale, complicated in nature and uncertain in solution. The geo-politics of the issue have only added to that wickedness as we have had decades of prevarication, non-binding targets, unmet commitments and excessively platformed and inexpert climate change deniers. This has been very well covered by Oreskes and Conway in Merchants of Doubt[2]. Their key point – implicit in the title – is not that those who oppose actio…
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We’re very excited to bring you a special cover reveal for the much anticipated next novel by Garth Nix, THE SINISTER BOOKSELLERS OF BATH, set to be released March 2023 by Gollancz. Firstly, let’s find out what the book is all about: A wintry and wonderful return to the alternate 1980s England of The Left-Handed Booksellers of London. There is often trouble of a mythical sort in Bath. The booksellers who police the Old World keep a careful watch there, particularly on the entity who inhabits the ancient hot spring. Yet this time it is not from Sulis Minerva that trouble starts. It comes from the discovery of a sorcerous map, leading left-handed bookseller Merli…
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Thank you @titanbooks for my review copy! Christopher Irvin is the author of the novel Ragged. His debut collection, Safe Inside the Violence, was a finalist for the 2016 Anthony Award for Best Anthology or Collection. He lives in Boston, MA with his wife and two sons. Twitter: @chrislirvin Instagram: @chrislirvin “Cal would deem himself a proud mutt, but when you’re head of the sole family of dogs to make their home in the Woods, you become the dog” Irvin’s Novel Ragged, came out in April 2022 and can only be described as something achingly familiar, whilst being so entirely bizarre I was shocked to have come across such a novel. Whilst authors such as James Bro…
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Salubrious greetings to you, my friends from another world. This is a truly glorious day, though it may not immediately appear so from your stunted vantage point, for today is the very first day upon which my feebleminded ex-lawyer apprentice has shown the slightest ability to channel the arcane powers of the infinite cosmos. In the midst of his instruction, sometime around the midpoint of my usual daily seven-hour degradation speech to ensure that my apprentice’s ego does not too readily swell ahead of his ability, I was struck in the back of my head while illustrating using a blackboard and chalk the myriad ways in which he would never be as capable or beloved as me.…
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And just like that, we’re at our last wrap post! Somehow, we’ve reached the end of the month already, and it’s been another fantastic Women in SFF. As ever, we’re immensely grateful to our contributors for making the site all it is. We owe a huge thank you to all the fantastic women in sff who have written guest posts and answered interviews and agreed to take part in our feature. And finally, we’re hugely humbled by and grateful to the sff community for joining in and supporting the feature. We love seeing your responses and reading your comments! So, let’s take a look at the last week in Women in SFF… Reviews We’re going to kick the wrap-up off with reviews, as th…
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Becky James is the author of The King’s Swordsman series and co-author of the Dark Tides series. Based in the UK, she has a deep love of the British countryside, canals, and all things fantasy; she devours anything that has magic, swords, good friends and good times. She is a massive extrovert, but nearly all her friends are introverts, so she knows how not to energy vampire them. She will still talk your ear off though. Her series can be found wherever books are sold, and she is often floating around the socials! Website | Amazon.co.uk | Goodreads | Bookbub | Facebook | Instagram Welcome to the Hive and our Women in SFF feature, Becky. Let’s start with the basic…
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FrmaleMy last Update for this list has been in February, and as can see I have been busy reading since then! I found new gems as well as more from authors I previously featured. I again did my best to sort them in a way that made sense, though some books fit more than one of these categories! Without further ado, here’s all the new books I highly recommend when looking for Women writing SFF! I’m an audioholic, so I put a little ⊕ symbol next to the ones available as audiobook. Grimdark / Dark The Hand that Casts the Bone by HL Tinsley ⊕ And hell hath no fury like a girl who remembers. Book two in the series brings us back to the characters and city we alrea…
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