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characters

Loud as a Whisper

One of the freeing – and terrifying – things about writing a novel is when the characters take over.  In The Darkness Before Them one character in particular made it very, very clear that...

Let the Characters Take the Wheel

Every now and then (eerily it’s often around the time of a book launch) I’m asked a question that boils down to “What Comes First, Plot or Character?” The answer – at least for...

The Witcher III

How to Make a Grimdark Setting

I’m a huge fan of Andrjez Sapkowski’s The Witcher novels. While most fans are familiar with the series through CD Projekt Red’s video game trilogy, the novels are an excellent grimdark series of their...

The Grimdark Villain

The Grimdark Villain

Many fans of grimdark literature, film, and games might argue that the term villain is an inappropriate one for the genre. It conjures an image of the mustache twirling evil-doer whom the square-jawed hero...

Who is the Grimdark Hero?

Who is the Grimdark Hero?

Grimdark is a relatively new subgenre in the world of fantasy and science fiction, having emerged as the grittier, morally ambiguous side of fantasy in the 1970s and ‘80s with the likes of Karl...

Darklands by M.L. Spencer

Interview: M.L. Spencer

Recently, C.T. Phipps had a chance to chat with M.L. Spencer about her novel series, The Rhenwars Saga. You can also read a review of Darkstorm, the first book of The Rhenwars Saga. [CTP]...

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson

How Thomas Covenant Changed Fantasy

Stephen Donaldson’s The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever is an epic fantasy trilogy first published in 1977. Its titular main character, Thomas Covenant, is from a 20th century town in our world. He’s...

Game of Thrones: The Show vs the Books

Game of Thrones: The Show vs the Books

Warning: spoiler alert. With the seventh season of Game of Thrones nearly finished, and now well beyond the source material, the show is a distinctly different beast from the books. For the first couple...

Is Bigger Really Better?

In the fantasy genre, across novels, movies and games, there’s a tendency to go big. We’ve got a brand new world to explore, with fantastic beasts, powerful magic and unique cultures, so we have...