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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Genevieve Cogman started on Tolkien and Sherlock Holmes at an early age, and has never looked back. But on a perhaps more prosaic note, she has an MSc in Statistics with Medical Applications and has wielded this in an assortment of jobs: clinical coder, data analyst and classifications specialist. Although The Invisible Library is her debut novel, she has also previously worked as a freelance roleplaying game writer. She is also the author of The Masked City and The Burning Page, both in The Invisible Library series. Genevieve Cogman’s hobbies include patchwork, beading, knitting and gaming, and she lives in the north of England. Welcome back to the Fantasy Hive, G…
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Welcome to our Women In SFF Read-along! If you caught our Read-along Announcement, you’ll know that for Women In SFF, the Hive are 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’ll be sticking to a reading schedule, which I’ll post below; we’ll be posting discussion points and questions every Wednesday via social media, and then Nils and I will be sharing our responses to these every Saturday. Be sure to follow our Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to catch our Wednesday posts. You can also now join us on Discord! Week 1:…
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We’ve reached the end of our second week for this year’s Women In SFF, so let’s see what’s been happening in the feature this week! 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! Each week, we’ll try and round up all this wonderful content into one summary-wrap-up post – 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 a…
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Today, we welcome back Timandra Whitecastle to the Hive to discuss story structures. Before we launch into Tim’s post about the Heroine’s Journey, check out Tim’s latest novel, our SPFBO 6 Semi-Finalist Queens of the Wyrd: Raise your shield. Defend your sisters. Prepare for battle Half-giant Lovis and her Shieldmaiden warband were once among the fiercest warriors in Midgard. But those days are long past and now Lovis just wants to provide a safe home for herself and her daughter – that is, until her former shield-sister Solveig shows up on her doorstep with shattering news. Solveig’s warrior daughter is trapped on the Plains of Vigrid in a siege gone ugly. Desperate to…
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Lord of Secrets manages to pull off a great adventure, some awesome worldbuilding, and some brilliant character work, all in a lighthearted romp that is exciting and joyous to read. It’s The Mummy of fantasy – and that’s high praise coming from me. This kind of fantasy is so rare: it’s not ‘funny’, per se (not in a Terry Pratchett/Piers Anthony/Terry Brooks sort of way, anyway), but it’s unapologetically fun. It feels like playing Dragon Age or even a D&D game where you’re all a bit drunk and someone fails a roll and accidentally kisses an orc… The core of the story is a fairly simple series of quests: Gray wants to rescue his grandfather, so he needs a magical gizzi…
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Grady Hendrix is the author of the novels Horrorstör, about a haunted IKEA, and My Best Friend’s Exorcism, which is like Beaches meets The Exorcist, only it’s set in the Eighties. He’s also the author of We Sold Our Souls, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, and the upcoming (July 13!) Final Girl Support Group! He’s also the jerk behind the Stoker award-winning Paperbacks from Hell, a history of the 70’s and 80’s horror paperback boom, which contains more information about Nazi leprechauns, killer babies, and evil cats than you probably need. And he’s the screenwriter behind Mohawk, which is probably the only horror movie about the War of 1812 and Satani…
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Rachel has a PhD in neuroscience and delights in using the limitless realms of fantasy to explore the nature of life. Her first published novels were Last Memoria, a finalist in SPFBO 6 (2020-21), and Scars of Cereba. The two books together form the Memoria duology, which uses memory to explore what makes us who we are. Alongside her writing and publishing, Rachel also works as a science communicator for a UK charity, runs a London-based writing group and has more plants than can be considered normal. Welcome to the Hive, Rachel! Let’s start with the basics: dazzle us with an elevator pitch! Why should readers check out your work? Because how else will you k…
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“I wasn’t surprised this time. My body wanted him. My body sought to please him. What would happen to me when I had two or more mates? Would I be like the sky, constantly changing, clouded, clear, clouded, clear? Would I have to be hateful to one partner in order to please the other? Nikanj looked the same all the time and yet all four of my other parents treasured it. How well would my looks please anyone when I had four arms instead of two?” Imago (1989) is the final book in Octavia E. Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy. If Adulthood Rites (1988) recontextualises our understanding of the Oankali and Human relationship introduced in Dawn (1987), then Imago goes even further. …
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This is an (increasingly) occasional series of posts drawing on my excursion into the academic side of creative writing doing 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. R.W.W.Greene’s Twenty-Five to Life follows Julie, a young woman in America around the end of this century. (Date clues sprinkled through the narrative such as the 100th anniversary of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or a near-recent outbreak of Covid-90, …
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Today we’re thrilled to share with you a guest post from self-published author M. L. Wang. Wang is perhaps best known for her Theonite series of novels, with Sword of Kaigen winning SPFBO 5. Currently, Wang is serialising Sazuma on her Patreon (free sample chapter here). There’s also another serial available free through her newsletter, and there will be more Altima books coming out in 2022. To keep up to date on all Wang’s news, please check out her website: mlwangbooks.com Magic is so ubiquitous in fantasy that it’s easy for an author to throw it into a story without thinking hard about what she wants to do with it—or perhaps not thinking past “this would be co…
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Stark Holborn is the author of Nunslinger – the first ever digital serial published by Hodder & Stoughton – as well as the novella series Triggernometry and the SF-western, Ten Low. As well as writing about westerns for Pornokitsch and Screen Queens, Stark works as a games writer for clients like the BBC, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim. Stark is currently a lead writer on the SF-noir detective game Shadows of Doubt. Welcome back to the Hive, Stark. Thanks for having me back! Let’s start with the basics: dazzle us with an elevator pitch! Why should readers check out your work? Do you like Mad Max? Dune? Firefly? Halo Jones? Cowboy Bebop? Philip K. D…
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Aparna Verma was born in India and immigrated to the United States when she was two-years-old. She graduated from Stanford University with Honors in the Arts and a B.A. in English. The Boy with Fire is her first novel. When she is not writing, Aparna likes to ride horses, dance to Bollywood music, and find old cafes to read myths about forgotten worlds. You can connect with Aparna on Twitter and Instagram at @spirited_gal. Welcome to the Hive, Aparna. Let’s start with the basics: tell us about The Boy With Fire! Why should readers check out your work? The Boy with Fire is about a world teetering on the edge of war, and the people who push it over. It has …
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Heather Child has returned to the Hive for Women in SFF with a guest post on the concept of time and how, as a theme, it crops up in fantasy literature – well, time and time again. Heather herself played with the notion of time in her novel The Undoing of Arlo Knott: What if your life had an ‘undo’ button? Arlo Knott develops the mysterious ability to reverse his last action. It makes him able to experience anything, to charm any woman and impress any friend. His is a life free of mistakes, a life without regret. But second chances aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. As wonderful as his new life is, a mistake in Arlo’s traumatic childhood still haunts him and the tem…
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Today, we welcome sci-fi author Ginger Smith back to the Hive. Before we get into her guest post about her Women in SFF influences, check out the blurb for novel The Rush’s Edge, available now from Angry Robot Books: With the help of his commanding officer, a genetically engineered ex-soldier fights back against the government that created him and others like him to be expendable slaves. Halvor Cullen, a genetically-engineered and technology implanted ex-solider, doesn’t see himself as a hero. After getting out of the service, all he’s interested in is chasing the adrenaline rush that his body was designed to crave. Hal knows he won’t live long anyway; vat soldiers like …
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Welcome to our Women In SFF Read-along! If you caught our Read-along Announcement, you’ll know that for Women In SFF, the Hive are 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’ll be sticking to a reading schedule, which I’ll post below; we’ll be posting discussion points and questions every Wednesday via social media, and then Nils and I will be sharing our responses to these every Saturday. Be sure to follow our Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to catch our Wednesday posts. Week 1: Beginning through Chapter 6 Week 2: C…
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