Originally published at Juliet E. McKenna. Please leave any comments there.

I’ve always loved reading fantasy books, and a huge part of the attraction has always been the settings for these stories. The rolling hills and woodlands of Narnia. The peaks and valleys in Cinda Williams Chima’s Seven Realms series. The rugged, empty beauty of the plains ( Read more... )

Originally published at Juliet E. McKenna. You can comment here or there.


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Originally published at Juliet E. McKenna. Please leave any comments there.


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Originally published at Juliet E. McKenna. Please leave any comments there.

With a week away now in sight at the end of the month, I’m stockpiling holiday reading. One book I’m very much looking forward to is Gaie Sebold’s ‘Shanghai Sparrow’. I really enjoyed her Babylon Steel books - an entertaining and intelligently different take on epic fantasy ( Read more... )

Originally published at Juliet E. McKenna. You can comment here or there.

Getting the final volume of The Aldabreshin Compass out in ebook has set me thinking about the challenges for a writer when it comes to concluding a series. Since I’m always interested to know what other authors think about a topic that’s got my attention, and noticing her ( Read more... )

Originally published at Juliet E. McKenna. Please leave any comments there.

You’ll recall how much I enjoyed reading Zen Cho’s debut novel, Sorcerer to the Crown. (If you missed my review, click here) So I’m extremely pleased to host this illuminating and thoughtful post reflecting on that story’s origins and her experiences as a newly published ( Read more... )

Originally published at Juliet E. McKenna. You can comment here or there.


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Originally published at Juliet E. McKenna. Please leave any comments there.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m very much enjoying Jacey Bedford’s Psi-Tech novels, namely Empire of Dust and Crossways, which are thoroughly good space-opera ticking all the boxes that first made me love SF while also thoroughly satisfying to me as a contemporary reader. ( Read more... )

Originally published at Juliet E. McKenna. You can comment here or there.

Tricia Sullivan has a new book out this week, Occupy Me, and I think it’s fair to say her award-winning, idea-driven SF is worlds away from my own style of epic fantasy fiction. And yet, as is the case with a good many writers whose work is nothing like mine, we have a good ( Read more... )

Originally published at Juliet E. McKenna. You can comment here or there.

As is so often the way, a few things cropping up in rapid succession got me thinking. One was interviewing Brandon Sanderson at Fantasycon last month, when (among many other things) we talked about the way you need to wait until a story idea is ready to be written.

This was ( Read more... )