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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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 intrepid adventurers to Tough Travelling with the Tough Guide to Fantasyland! That’s right, we’ve dusted it down and brought back this feature (created by Nathan of Fantasy Review Barn, revived by our friends over on Fantasy Faction, then dragged kicking and screaming to the Hive). It is a monthly feature in which we rack our brains for popular (and not so popular) examples of fantasy tropes. Tough Travelling is inspired by the informative and hilarious Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones. Fellow bloggers are absolutely welcome to join in – just make your own list, publish it on your site, and then comment with the link on this article! This month…
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Today, Matthew Ward returns to the Fantasy Hive for our stop on the Blog Tour for the spectacular conclusion to his Legacy trilogy, LEGACY OF LIGHT. Do be sure to check out the rest of the tour! Tragedy is the engine of a great story. It’s the promise that actions have consequences, and that triumph is fleeting. Inasmuch, tragedy is prevalent across storytelling, speculative or otherwise, and a cornerstone of Grimdark fiction, which proudly rejects happily ever afters. Tragedy’s also a big part of my Legacy Trilogy. So many of the characters are carting around the means of their own destruction … whether they realise it or not. Tragedy’s hardly a new weapon in the sto…
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On Wednesday, we announced our second three eliminations and revealed that our two quarter-finalists are ILLBORN by Daniel T. Jackson and LEGACY OF FLAME by Rebecca Bapaye. Of course epic encompasses a range of styles and contexts and our two quarter-finalists certainly made for a sharply contrasting pair, listed below in alphabetical order! Illborn by Daniel T Jackson Theo: I’ve read up to 20%, I like the diverse cast of characters, the engaging prologue with a twist, the sense of a theme drawing the characters together. The world religion has so much of a Christian feel to it, with their key prophet having been nailed to a tree, that I wonder if the parallels …
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“The small secrets are easy to keep hidden—easier, say, than the big secrets, the whoppers, the infidelities, and closet addictions that, like some underwater beastie that must ultimately ascend to the surface for a gasp of air, don’t remain secrets forever.” Come With Me by Ronald Malfi is one of the most addictive psychological thrillers I’ve read in such a long while. Strictly speaking it isn’t just a psychological thriller, it’s also part paranormal, with the narrative meandering it’s way through the belief in ghosts and urban legends. This blend is exactly what made me fall in love with this book. Malfi continually kept my mind abuzz with theories, I was kept suspic…
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Ray Star’s debut Earthlings is the opening volume in a planned trilogy examining the realities of speciesism. The theme is not so much cli-fi as eco-criticism, specifically around human’s treatment of animals and the books title reflects the inspiration drawn from the harrowing 2005 documentary film, of the same title. While anthropogenic climate change doesn’t feature as a driver of the plot, the book does share with many examples of cli-fi the idea of an abrupt and catastrophic change in the world’s circumstances that has brought about a new apocalyptic reality for humanity. In its key theme, Earthlings shares an approach with Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses ser…
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M. B. Castle is a Brazilian fantasy and sci-fi writer. Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1998, he began writing screenplays at the age of sixteen. At seventeen, he began working on his first book, THE NEW CROWNED, an epic fantasy novel, volume one of THE ETERNAL SAGA, published on August 1st, 2021. Instagram: @therealmbcastle Twitter: @therealmbcastle Synopsis of THE NEW CROWNED: “Three kingdoms. Three royal heirs. Two wars. Following ancient tradition, the Three Kingdoms have been experiencing new transitions of power, with the old handing over their crowns to the young. But for this new generation of rulers, a grave danger is emerging. After centuries confined to…
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Welcome to our Second Eliminations post for SPFBO 7. This week, we have grouped our five brave entrants together into an “Epic” 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 second batch of eliminations, listed in alphabetical order. The Klindrel Invasion by Jason A Holt Theo: This is a bit different, and I sort of like the narrative style. It almost feels like a second person narrative because the sense you get is of a historian/storyteller telling the tale of the eponymous invasion from the point of view of its victims, the small brown skinned people of the Redwood valle…
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Now, if you are like me, and have been reading the Green Rider series at least since the publication of First Rider’s Call, then you are going to be happy. Ms. Britain does take many years to write her novels, causing fans to cry in the interim and read fan-fiction, but boy howdy, this book was worth the wait. Mirror Sight (book 5) threw me for a loop, so I was happy to get back to “normal” in Firebrand (book 6). But my happiness about book 6 was far surpassed by Winterlight, the upcoming book 7. It was as if Ms. Britain heard all of our cries, and was just patiently waiting to release this book. We meet up with Karigan on the road, returning from meeting with the Ph’ed…
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(Spoilers present for Tales of Xillia) Tales of Xillia is a sci-fi fantasy Japanese role-playing game. It was released in Japan in 2011 and brought to the west in 2013. The Playstation 3 game follows two lead protagonists, Jude Mathis and Milla Maxwell as they discover a hidden weapon central in a plot to overthrow a nation. The uncovered weapon threatens to disrupt the balance between humans and spirits, and jeopardize peace within the entire world of Rieza Maxia. Jude and Milla’s quest take them all over Rieza Maxia, uncovering secrets and plots posing a danger to the very fabric of the world, all while encountering colorful individuals who join their efforts, a…
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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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The Pantheon is a world-wide game, funded by the wealthy elite and talked about in hushed whispers by the general population, a source of unending speculation and entertainment. For the players, however, it is life and death. In the streets of Edinburgh, the Titans rule the roofs, while the Horde of Valhalla make the tunnels and underground spaces of the city their own. At appointed times of the year, the two forces meet, and blood is spilled as they each battle for dominance. Tyler Maitland and Lana Cameron do not seem obvious candidates to join the ranks of the horde. Tyler has not fully recovered from a brutal beating that almost cost him the use of one arm and leg, …
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On Wednesday, we announced our first three eliminations and revealed that our two quarter-finalists are DOWNCAST by Cait Reynolds and IN THE JADED GROVE by Anela Deen. Having eliminated three books on Wednesday, the auspicious date of Friday 13th brings us to the Hive’s first quarter-final. Read on to find out (in alphabetical order) what our judges thought of these two contenders and which one made it to the coveted semi-finalist stage. Downcast by Cait Reynolds Theo: The epub-file came with a rather revealing/spoilerish subtitle that I’m glad I didn’t read before charging into the first 20% or so. This presents as a YA paranormal romance where the geeky prota…
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The Lord of Stariel opens with our main character, Hetta Valstar, returning home to her family’s estate after a long absence, so that she can attend her father’s funeral. As he was the Lord, there’s also another reason to come home; for the Choosing ceremony, where the land itself will pick the new Lord. Hetta doesn’t fit in with the traditional society at Stariel any more – she’s a modern woman who’s been working with a theatrical company in the capital city. Oh, and she’s an illusionist, which her family disapproves of. The world of Stariel is on the brink of technological advances – there are electric lights and cars, but they are not commonplace yet. The capital, whe…
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I’ve already got lists up for favourite Self Published books, and favourite Women in SFF. Another question I get frequently is about books by authors of colour. This list isn’t nearly as long as it should be, and I have plenty more already waiting on my shelf. So please understand that this is in no way meant to be a list of all, or even most POC SFF authors out there. Nor is it meant to be a list of the best that exist. It is simply a list of those I have read so far, and really loved! I’ll attach my reviews for book one in each series, so you get an idea if they might be for you as well. So here we go, a list full of highly recommended titles! At the end I put som…
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Welcome to our First Eliminations post for SPFBO 7. This week, we are looking at the “Our World” batch. You can find out more about this week’s posts in our Meet the Batch post. In the best traditions of Highlander (and Grandslam Tennis Tournaments like Wimbledon) there can be only one ultimate winner/champion and the whole SPFBO process is one of whittling down 300 bravely submitted books to just one SPFBO champion. The path to that final announcement is littered with elimination posts like this – The Hive’s first of SPFBO7. However, we hope that the judges comments will shine a bit of light on the entrants and maybe give others some reasons to pick up these books…
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Note: This review includes mild spoilers for the prologue and first few chapters of The Maleficent Seven. A ruthless necromancer trapping souls to forge the ultimate weapon. A bloodthirsty shapeshifter who eats human hearts and tears people to shreds. A mass-murdering alchemist who has already poisoned and murdered hundreds of innocent men, women, and children. And finally, their demon-summoning leader, a woman who consigns hundreds of souls to endless demonic torment without any remorse. In any other story, any of these immoral horrors would be a sufficient threat for a brave party of heroes to face, but in this case of Cameron Johnston’s The Maleficent Seven, none of t…
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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 A bit like the proverbial swan (serene to the point of inactivity on the surface, but paddling like crazy out of sight) the Hive SPFBO team have been silently busy over the last couple of months. The team of five, me (Theo), Belle, Peter, Scarlett and Calvin have been working our way through our 30 SPFBO books, making sure we have each read up to about 20% or so and made a decision about how keen we are to read on. With some books, some of the team have been so enth…
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“The lantern light mocked him, a taunting reminder of the light of the world. He shut his eyes so that he would not have to watch the light of the candle recede, and counted slowly to one hundred. When he opened his eyes, he looked around at the cool darkness, this well of silence, the weight of rock and loneliness, and thought, this is what it is to be emperor” The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison follows our main protagonist Maia Drazhar, youngest son of the Emperor of the Elflands, who, because of a purely political marriage between the Emperor and a goblin princess, is born half-goblin. Scorned by the Emperor himself and the royal court, at just eight years of age…
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Spellslinger is a YA fantasy with a (gasp) male protagonist! Kellen, our main character, is a fairly ordinary teenage boy, whose magic is subpar, and not a feisty redheaded princess or witch! I have to say, what made me pick up this book was its stellar cover design ( well done to the artists, Dale Halvorsen and Sam Hadley!) and the tag line “Magic is a con game”, because I definitely prefer my books to have female protagonists. But, I am so so glad I did try it, because this is one of the cleverest, funniest YA fantasies I’ve ever read. I instantly warmed to Kellen, who we first encounter prepping for a magical duel with one of his bullies – who doesn’t love an underdog…
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Johanna Sinisalo is a pioneer of the Finnish Weird. Her debut novel Not Before Sundown (2000, translated 2003) won the prestigious Finlandia prize in her native Finnish and won the James Tiptree, Jr Award on its translation into English. The novel is a wonderful mix of the speculative and the realist, imagining an alternative Finland in which trolls really exist from the perspective of the gay community in Sinisalo’s hometown of Tampere. Her other novels translated into English include Birdbrain (2008, translated 2011), a masterpiece of the eco-Weird, the utterly wonderful The Blood Of Angels (2011, translated 2014) which happens to be the interviewer’s favourite book, an…
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“That’s what ghosts really are, Aint Melusine had said, the past refusing to be forgot. She’d been helping Aster scrub down X deck with ammonia and bleach, a failed attempt to rub out the stink of what had happened there. Ghosts is smells, stains, scars. Everything is ruins. Everything is a clue. It wants you to know its story. Ancestors are everywhere if you are looking.” Rivers Solomon’s An Unkindness Of Ghosts (2017) is an incredible, powerful and unforgettable debut novel, immediately establishing Solomon as a key new voice in the genre. The novel takes on the tried and tested science fiction trope of the generation ship, but Solomon’s approach encompasses a metaphor…
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Paul Di Filippo is an exciting and unique voice in modern speculative fiction. His short story ‘Stone Lives’ was included in the Mirrorshades anthology, making him one of the original cyberpunks. But Di Filippo has refused to stay still, moving onto steampunk with The Steampunk Trilogy (1995), pioneering biopunk with the linked short story collection Ribofunk (1996), and moving to the forefront of the New Weird with his classic A Year In The Linear City (2002). His other titles include Lost Pages (1998), which imagines Di Filippo’s favourite authors in a variety of alternate history contexts, and Fuzzy Dice (2003) which plays Rudy Rucker-esque games with mathematics and h…
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Welcome to our Women In SFF Read-along! For this year’s Women In SFF, the Hive have been hosting a read-along of S. A. Chakraborty’s The City of Brass. Although it’s been on our TBR’s for some time, it’s the first time reading Chakraborty’s magical debut for Nils and myself (Beth). We’ve (somehow??) reached the final week of our read-along, and it has been epic! Thank you so much, all of you, who have joined in and made our first ever read along such a great success. Also, a huge thank you to my partner in crime Nils – this has been SO much fun <3 If you want to join in with the conversation, or if you’ve missed the read along so far, check the links below: You can…
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We’ve made it to the final week of Women in SFF 2021! It’s been an incredible month, packed full of content. We’ve been completely floored by the incredible response from the community; we can’t tell you how much we love seeing all your responses to our photo challenge prompts, or how properly excited we get to see blog posts inspired by them! If we’ve missed you, please comment and link below! We’d love to see the ways you’re taking part. So, what have you all been up to…? Reviews We’re going to kick the wrap-up off with reviews, as that’s what we’re all here for really, right? Finding those books to add to our TBR! J L Brown @ the Hive: A Terrible Fall of Angels by…
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