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expansive worldbuilding

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REVIEW: The Mermaid’s Tale by D.G. Valdron

D.G. Valdron’s The Mermaid’s Tale merges familiar story elements like classical fantasy races and murder mystery plots and infuses them with philosophy and sociology to create something uniquely its own. A graphic and horrifying...

REVIEW: Barrow of Winter by H.M. Long

Barrow of Winter is the third book set in H.M. Long’s Hall of Smoke world. Although Barrow of Winter could be viewed chronologically as the third book in the series, it feels more like...

REVIEW: Death Rider by Zamil Akhtar

Death Rider is a prequel novella for the Gunmetal Gods series by Zamil Akhtar, which is a Middle Eastern inspired grimdark fantasy with heavy eldritch overtones. We see the world from Darya’s point of...

REVIEW: The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi is an incredible book that gripped me from the very start and didn’t let go…and it still hasn’t, days after I finished it. It is an African and...

REVIEW: Soulkeeper by David Dalglish

Soulkeeper is the action-packed first volume of David Dalglish’s dark fantasy series, The Keepers. The novel opens with the reaping hour, a religious rite for the recently deceased, calling upon deities known as the...

An interview with Kian N. Ardalan

Kian N. Ardalan’s new novel, Eleventh Cycle, is a tour de force of grimdark fantasy, featuring epic worldbuilding, well-realized protagonists, and a hauntingly beautiful aesthetic. Eleventh Cycle is the first volume of Ardalan’s Mistland...

REVIEW: Deathless Beast by Andrew D. Meredith

Andrew D. Meredith combines maximalist worldbuilding with a nuanced character-driven plot in Deathless Beast, the first volume of his epic fantasy series, The Kallattian Saga. With Deathless Beast, Meredith has created a marvelously complex...

REVIEW: The Hunter’s Kind by Rebecca Levene

In the second book of The Hollow Gods, The Hunter’s Kind, Rebecca Levene continues to surprise her readers with unexpected outcomes as she opens up the familiar world of Smiler’s Fair. The sequel surpasses...

REVIEW: Redspace Rising by Brian Trent

Redspace Rising is Brian Trent’s intelligent, action-packed science fiction thriller set in a universe where human memory is a tangible commodity which can upend the permanence of death itself. From its well-developed cast of...

REVIEW: A Dance with Dragons by George R.R Martin

After the uneven A Feast for Crows, George R.R. Martin is back in peak form with A Dance with Dragons, the fifth book in A Song of Ice and Fire. Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow,...