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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Please note this review will contain spoilers for A Little Hatred and The Trouble with Peace, but it is spoiler free for The Wisdom of Crowds. ‘Wisdom is not a premium, madness is the fashion, the balance sheets are all torn up and the friends that were assets have become liabilities.’ Vic kept walking, ‘Threats for tomorrow don’t cut very deep when today is so damn threatening.’ The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie is the last book in the Age of Madness trilogy, and for now at least, marks the end of our time within the world of the First Law. Before I began this book I was apprehensive about what kind of ending these beloved characters would meet, but I needn’t hav…
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The seventh Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) is underway! Check out our introduction here | meet this year’s judges here | read all about the contest’s origins here | and keep track of phase one here We have divided the 30 books into 6 batches of five books each, with each batch loosely grouped around a common theme or motif. For the next six weeks our SPFBO posting pattern will be: Monday introduce a new batch of five Wednesday eliminate three of them and identify two quarter finalists Friday post the decision as to which quarter finalists which is our pick for semi-finalist and why The chosen semi-finalists will then each get a full read from all ou…
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Hello, mae govannen, and welcome to the first in a series of guided walks around the post-scouring Shire with your host, Everard Took. Each walk will feature a map and a description of the route pointing out places of interest (and local gossip). As Everard’s official scribe and map-maker, I can only hope to do the great hobbit justice. Thanks to the Fantasy Hive for inviting us in! Cheers, Kai Greenwood (@LostDunedan) Hobbiton Hike: A gentle stroll around the heartlands of the Shire, visiting Bag End and Sam’s mallorn tree. Distance: 2 miles Difficulty: Easy Dangers: The Gaffer’s Ire Since the War of the Ring, a new spirit has infused through the hobbits of th…
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OK – I know the expectation of competitions is that there should be FOUR quarter-finals, but if Douglas Adams could write five books in the (increasingly inaccurate) Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, then the Hive can definitely have 6 quarterfinals. On Wednesday, we announced our fifth trio of eliminations and revealed that this week’s two quarter-finalists from the “Starting Anew” batch are THE SPEAR OF AKVALOON by Toby Bennett and WINDWARD by S. Kaeth. While many fantasy characters have to start afresh after some life convulsing event, they are not always able to do so with some implicitly trustworthy Obi-Wan Ben Kenobi figure, nor are the new recruits to…
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“Give me your unknown hand, since life is hurting me, and I don’t know how to speak – reality is too delicate, only reality is delicate, my unreality and my imagination are heavier.” “Humanized life. I had humanized life too much.” Clarice Lispector was a Ukranian-born Brazilian writer of fantastically weird and strange fiction. The Passion According to G.H., written in Portuguese in 1964 but not translated into English until 1988, is a short novel – the edition I have comes to 189 pages – but what Lispector achieves in this short space is nothing short of remarkable. The book is essentially a mystical experience, brought on by the protagonist’s encounter with a cockroa…
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Ray Star is a Fantasy author from Essex with a passion for animal rights and eco-living. She can often be found writing, exploring nature and occasionally stargazing underneath a full moon with a tarot deck in one hand and a strong cuppa in the other. Earthlings was conceived from a love for the environment and inspired by her father, whose passing was a catalyst in leading a greener lifestyle. Ray’s dream is to one day open an animal sanctuary and wildlife reserve in memory of her father. Earthlings is Ray’s debut novel and the first book in the Earthlings trilogy. #Earthlings | www.raystarbooks.com | @raystarbooks Many thanks for joining us here at the Fantasy-Hi…
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Welcome to our Fifth Eliminations post for SPFBO 7. This week, we have grouped our five brave entrants together into a “Starting Anew” batch. You can find out more about this week’s posts in our Meet the Batch post. Read on to find out which three of them fell in our fifth batch of eliminations, listed in alphabetical order. Dive Endless Skies by Chris Reign Theo: This is the third year in a row we’ve had a litRPG book in the Hive’s batch. This one is very resonant of my World of Warcraft experience – even down to a starter quest to kill a troublesome boar. However, it also manages to convey a sense of a real story in there as low level Eyre bypasses the tuto…
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Earlier in the year, Will from Gollancz invited me to take part in a read-a-long for A Little Hatred, the first book in Joe Abercrombie’s Age of Madness Trilogy, to build up to the release of the final part of the trilogy, The Wisdom of Crowds, this month. At the time, I was mad-busy, apologised and declined, sulked for a bit… But then Will invited me to take part in the second part of the read-a-along – for The Trouble with Peace – and this time I knew I had to take part. There is so much love out there for Abercrombie’s books, so not only was I looking forward to diving into his new trilogy and returning to Midderland; but I couldn’t wait to chat about Trouble with th…
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“But human society wasn’t built on rock and roll. No, it was cobbled from the commodified poor. When in doubt, the species creates itself something to beat up, beat down, bludgeon into grease for the gears of society. All the Minds did was ensure that people like Maya were made. And people like Maya, well, they were born without fucks to give out.” Cassandra Khaw has made their name as one of the most exciting voices out there writing short fiction, from their darkly lyrical short stories to the brilliant and disturbing Lovecraftian Persons Non Grata series of novellas. The All-Consuming World (2021) is Khaw’s debut novel, and shows that they are just as powerful and ad…
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The seventh Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) is underway! Check out our introduction here | meet this year’s judges here | read all about the contest’s origins here | and keep track of phase one here We have divided the 30 books into 6 batches of five books each, with each batch loosely grouped around a common theme or motif. For the next six weeks our SPFBO posting pattern will be: Monday introduce a new batch of five Wednesday eliminate three of them and identify two quarter finalists Friday post the decision as to which quarter finalists which is our pick for semi-finalist and why The chosen semi-finalists will then each get a full read from all ou…
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Welcome to my first review on The Fantasy Hive! Westu hal to you, I am delighted to being reviewing for the Hive for the first time and what a book I have been able to read and review. The Boy with Fire by Aparna Verma is one of the most interesting and original books that I have been able to read. Firstly I would like to say how wonderful Verma’s writing is, it’s accessible and flows, and pulls the reader into this wonderful world. It’s a world inspired by Indian myth, and what a wonderful story of redemption is in store for you. Verma seamlessly blends fantasy with sci-fi, so with the secondary world, the magic system, you also get hover cars, cameras and guns.…
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On Wednesday, we announced our fourth trio of eliminations and revealed that this week’s two quarter-finalists from the “Kick Ass” batch are BLOOD BOUNTY by Liza Street and THE NAMELESS AND THE FALLEN by Scott Kaelen. Kicking ass is what many fantasy protagonists do best. Interestingly though, our two quarterfinalists both upped the ante a bit by giving their leading characters some pretty hard to kick antagonists. See the judges’ comments below, with the books – as before – listed in alphabetical order! Blood Bounty by Liza Street Theo: This is one of the first entries I sampled for this year’s competition. As in previous years I tend to get wordier in my …
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Greetings to you, pestilent proliferating peasants. It is I, Ulesorin the Green, returned to serve you with wisdom once more. Do I do such kindness because I am a kindly old soul? Do I do it because of my immense love for all mortals? Do I do it because it is community service mandated by the court and my kobold lawyers are the absolute worst? I mean, just the absolute worst. Don’t ever hire kobolds folks. Definitely one of those reasons. Regardless of the cause for my generous donation of time, my crystal ball and attached interdimensional storm stand ready to receive your mail. So send me your woes that I may be their salve. Please. If I don’t keep doing this they’re g…
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Ashley Stokes is the author of Gigantic (Unsung Stories, 2021), The Syllabus of Errors (Unthank Books, 2013) and Voice (TLC Press, 2019), and editor of the Unthology series and The End: Fifteen Endings to Fifteen Paintings (Unthank Books, 2016). His recent short fiction includes Subtemple in Black Static; Hardrada in Tales from the Shadow Booth, Vol 4, edited by Dan Coxon; Evergreen in BFS Horizons 11; Two Drifters in Unsung Stories Online, and Black Lab in Storgy. Other stories have appeared in Bare Fiction, The Lonely Crowd, the Warwick Review and more. He lives in the East of England where he’s a ghostwriter and ghost. Welcome back to the Hive, Ashley. Let…
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Piranesi, by award winning author Susanna Clarke, is a novel which left me awed by its charm and beauty. I had heard much praise for her previous novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell, but I hadn’t actually read it myself. However, with Piranesi being rather short, at around 245 pages, I thought this would be a perfect read to sample the author’s work, and I was not left disappointed. Clarke whisked me away on a surreal, magical and somewhat sinister journey, written with such grace. Piranesi begins with Clarke throwing us into the middle of the story. Our main protagonist, Piranesi, is a man who believes he is in his thirties, and we immediately see he’s confined insi…
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Welcome to our Fourth Eliminations post for SPFBO 7. This week, we have grouped our five brave entrants together into a “Kick Ass” batch. You can find out more about this week’s posts in our Meet the Batch post. Read on to find out which three of them fell in our third batch of eliminations, listed in alphabetical order. Gathering of the Four by A.E.Bennett Theo: It’s an interesting premise – a far future America where amber eyed magic using aliens (Xanthi) live alongside humans in a realm that has echoes of the founding fathers. The aliens have become subjugated, an indentured form of service known as servantry evokes strong parallels with slavery. An illega…
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Today we welcome JE Hannaford to the Hive. Her debut novel The Skin, the first book in the The Black Hind’s Wake duology, will be out on October 18th! We are lucky to be allowed to share the gorgeous cover – but before you get to feast your eyes, and get to read what Jenny has to say about her book and the cover art, here’s the blurb: You cannot fix this world alone, selkie.’ ‘I know. But, when we die, all that is left are shadows of our lives preserved in the memories of those who remain. I plan on leaving an exceptionally long shadow, filled with ripples of moonlight for those I helped, and darker than the worst of nightmares for those who wronged us.’ – How far wou…
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Today G.R. Matthews stops over at the Hive for a guest post! He tells us all about his journey from struggling to finish one whole book, to succeeding at getting a traditional publishing deal. So without further ado, we’ll let him take over the keyboard: Reading. That’s what started it all. Books from the library when I was a teenager – luckily, my village in Wiltshire (UK) had a well-stocked one that was even featured on a popular children’s TV show (how’s that for fame?). Once I had a little money from the Saturday job, I started to buy books from the popular chain store that just happened to be on my walk from college to the bus station. RPGs. It started ther…
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The seventh Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) is underway! Check out our introduction here | meet this year’s judges here | read all about the contest’s origins here | and keep track of phase one here We have divided the 30 books into 6 batches of five books each, with each batch loosely grouped around a common theme or motif. For the next six weeks our SPFBO posting pattern will be: Monday introduce a new batch of five Wednesday eliminate three of them and identify two quarter finalists Friday post the decision as to which quarter finalists which is our pick for semi-finalist and why The chosen semi-finalists will then each get a full read from all ou…
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On Wednesday, we announced our third trio of eliminations and revealed that this week’s two quarter-finalists from the “Leaving Home” batch are HIS SECRET ILLUMINATIONS by Scarlett Gale and THE NINTH SCRIPTURE by D. Wolfsbane. Of course there are many ways to leave home and many experiences to be had along the way, and again our two quarterfinalists approach this theme in sharply contrasting ways. See the judges’ comments below, with the books – as before – listed in alphabetical order! His Secret Illuminations by Scarlett Gale Theo: I like the idea of “monastic protagonist taken out of his comfort zone by warrior woman.” The writing is engaging, the set-up su…
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“You know it’s wonderful to see another world. It’s entirely unlike anything that has ever come to your thoughts. And everything in it fits. You couldn’t have dreamed it up yourself, but somehow it all seems to work, and each tiny part is related. Everything except me. If I had known I was only going to stay a short while, this would have been the most exciting thing I could imagine – a marvel in my life. But to know that it’s for ever, that I’ll always be here where I’m not able to belong, and that I’ll never be able to get back home, never…” Rachel Ingalls’ Mrs Caliban (1982) is a gloriously strange novella. A dark feminist fairy tale that marries the domestic with the…
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I’m back with my Cruising the Cosmere feature! Now that I’ve completed all the published Stormlight Archives novels until Brandon Sanderson releases book five, I’m moving on to The Mistborn saga. This is a series which is split into two different eras with the first era consisting of The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages, and the second era consisting of The Alloy of Law, Shadows of Self, The Bands of Mourning and an upcoming fourth novel, set to be released in 2022. My journey through the Mistborn novels therefore begins with The Final Empire which I’ll be reviewing here. I’ve decided to split this review into sections where I’ll discuss the plot…
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Welcome to our Third Eliminations post for SPFBO 7. This week, we have grouped our five brave entrants together into a “Leaving Home” batch. You can find out more about this week’s posts in our Meet the Batch post. Read on to find out which three of them fell in our third batch of eliminations, listed in alphabetical order. The Burial by Drew Montgomery Theo: The fantasy is rather light in this one (so far). We do have a secondary world with a kind of early medieval setting, and a protagonist Eira haunted by dreams even before her husband Gwil is summoned away on a crusade to the holy land. The story is very focussed on Eira’s experience as the wife and mother…
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This is an occasional series of posts drawing on my excursion into the academic side of creative writing, as I pursue a PhD project at Queen’s University Belfast with the catchy title “Navigating the mystery of future geographies in climate change fiction.” So the Hive has kindly given me space to post reviews of climate fiction books as well as blogging thoughts and articles on other aspects of my PhD experience. Climate Change Fiction (or Cli-fi) is not a discrete genre so much as a broad spectrum of books in different styles and genres tackling a common theme. Arguably the theme of our age, Amitav Ghosh – in The Great Derangement – felt climate change had been negle…
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“But there you are wrong, for this is no longer the world you knew, the world any of us knew. That world is dead, everything is divided, Before-Auschwitz and the Now, for there is only now, even to think of a life beyond is to indulge in fantasy. But to answer your question, to write of this Holocaust is to shout and scream, to tear and spit, let words fall like bloodied rain on the page; not with cold detachment but with fire and pain, in the language of shund, the language of shit and piss and puke, of pulp, a language of torrid covers and lurid emotions, of fantasy: this is an alien planet, Levi. This is Planet Auschwitz.” “I believe in law, in order. There must alway…
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