Books tagged with: forest

The Beginning of the Axis Trilogy by Australian fantasy author Sara Douglass, Battleaxe is also the first novel of The Wayfarer Redemption in the USA. This first book revolves around Axis, Battleaxe of the Axe-Wielders, and Faraday, daughter of Earl Isend of Skarabost. The story begins with in the w...

Back in May last year I reviewed a novel by Peter Koevari, a promising new Indie author who has been creating an epic fantasy series known as Legends of Marithia. This is the second novel in that series and follows straight on from the events of the previous book - Legends of Marithia: Prophecies Aw...

James Barclay is undoubtedly one of the finest heroic fantasy authors writing today, his Raven series are incredible novels with some really exceptional battles and fight scenes. Rise of the TaiGethen is the second novel in his series that feature those immortal forest dwellers, the Elves - and foll...

The Blood Witch is the 8th volume in the Jason Dark: Ghost Hunter series of Novellas by Guido Henkel. An ancient curse re-surfaces and from deep within England's dark forests comes a hideous terror, stronger than ever and stalking the fog wrapped streets of Victorian London. Young girls are disappea...

Viking Dead is a dark fantasy novel by Toby Venables, part of the "Tomb of the Dead" collection published by Abaddon Books. Bjolf, son of Earling is the captain and leader of the Viking raiding ship "Raven" who after reluctantly fleeing from a raid gone wrong find themselves sailing into very strang...

There is always a good audience for traditional fantasy. The components are familiar and authors (like myself) who elect to write something that appeals to readers who want to settle down into a story loaded with magic, Elves, wizards and warriors where a plucky underdog or two wins the day against...

Heroic Fantasy doesn't always get the credit it deserves, but when done well can be powerful, energetic and immersive fiction.  Sky in the Deep is one of the best examples of recent times and an equal to Gemmell's past stories. The story follows Eelyn, a member of the Aska clan. She's been raised as...

I love Fantasy, I believe it creates a sense of the epic better than any other genre. Not only do big events happen but you often get a manifest destiny. The issue can be that too much might happen. Our heroes come across so many monsters, pitfalls and dead ends that even the most ardent of Fantasy...

The best villains have depth; a reason why they became villainous. There are few maniacs that comes out of the womb thus, they must be moulded into the cackling psychopaths that you love to hate. In the Minecraft Dungeons game, you go up against the Arch-Illager; a diminutive enemy who has the power...

People moan about the rain, but I don’t always mind it. Many of my best memories of childhood are of sleeping under canvas and listening to the patter of rain, safe in the knowledge that I am all snuggly in my sleeping bag and close to loved ones. These fond memories would have quickly turned to ter...

The legend of Robin Hood has changed over the years. I know it is hard to believe but he was not always imagined as a mullet haired Kevin Costner trying to save Nottingham with a dodgy English accent. One element of the story that has fallen out of fashion is Robin Hood’s links with the world of Fae...

If you go down to the woods today, you are in for a big surprise. Something far worse will be waiting for you than a few bears holding sandwiches. These are the ancient woods that our ancestors grew up near, pockets of civilisation surrounded by darkness and danger. When myths and folklore were bein...

The relationship that humans have with the land has always been critical for our survival from the hunter gatherers to the farmers, to the post-industrial world we live in today. Living as one with the planet will help it sustain itself and us, but in recent decades it does not take much more than a...

Epic fantasy novels are filled with fellowships from the OG to the 700-page opuses of today. What differs across all these books is how close the fellows are. Multiple character perspectives do not a fellowship make if they never meet each other, you want a close group of people all setting out on t...

I love fantasy, from the low to the high, but I love it even more when it is tackled in an interesting way. The Last Phi Hunter by Salinee Goldenberg has all the elements of High Fantasy, packed with more magic than a Paul Daniels Appreciation Society AGM, but this is not a book of wizards and elves...

There is a perfectly sensible reason why the concept of Fairy Woods exist. Back in the day, the land was covered in thick forests, any person that travelled too far from the village or well-trodden tracks could easily get lost and become victim to one of several predators from wolves to wild boars....

I love Fantasy and read enough to know that there are so many layers to the genre; from high to low, from Tolkien, through the Golden Age to modern darker fantasy. The genre twists and turns through the ages. A lot of modern Fantasy is shorter and darker, and I miss a stonking big slice of High Fant...

What is Fantasy if it is not epic battles against elves and orcs? Fans of the genre know that it can be a lot of other things than just that. Some of the best modern fantasy that I have read have been smaller stories set in fantasy worlds. How about a Die Hard-like experience set in a castle where a...

There is a long tradition of Folk Horror in the UK, but plenty of other countries bring their own flavour to the genre. American Gothic has all the trappings of classic Folk Horror, but has that distinct US flavour. The woods out there seem different, ancient landscapes unused to the people that roc...

I have not lived in the village I grew up in over twenty years, but I still talk about going home when I am visiting. Where I live now has been my home for longer, but there is something about those formative years that make a place always feel like home. I return to see family, but for some people,...

Dealing with major changes in your life is not easy. You can find help in your community, but when you are a Witch who is hunted down, this is not so simple. Any other Witch that you come across is also being hunted or is too young to know what to do and needs a mentor. All Merhrab wants is to be le...

Back in the nineties, Fantasy had a comedic moment. Led by Sir Terry Pratchett, other authors were signed up to produce lighter fantasy with a sense of humour. Whilst none became as popular as Discworld, I still miss those days. T Kingfisher agreed and Nine Goblins is the author’s homage to that era...