Recently I saw a TikTok of a booktube reviewer taking his friend to a bookstore with $100 and picking out a bunch of starter books for the friend. It was a cute video and it got me thinking what books I might try to buy with a set budget of $100 and the only goal…
Continue reading ➞ Booking On A Budget: Andrew’s $100 Book Buy
Happy March Madness, everyone! Every year in March, I find myself roped into all sorts of fantasy and sci-fi fight conversations. “Who would win in a fight between X and Y” is a constant topic among fans as everyone wants to make an inane argument about who would win in fisticuffs. Boring. This year I…
It took me about ten years of reading Science Fiction and Fantasy novels as an adult before I started to venture into the novella space. Since the short-form stories often don’t flow through traditional big publishers in the same way, most readers tend to move through the SFF genres without engaging with them much, which…
Let's talk about one of my favorite lesser-known subgenres, Eco-Fantasy (short for ecology fantasy). Right off the bat, I want to mention I am playing hard and loose with genre definitions here, and Eco-Fantasy in my mind is less strict definitions and more vibes. Generally, Eco-Fantasy is about fantasy worlds with strong scientific foundations and,…
Continue reading ➞ Eco-Fantasy – Magic Can’t Solve Everything
Every year the members of The Quill to Live gather together to plan out our reads for the next year and flag the books we are most looking forward to in order to ‘claim’ reviewer status among ourselves. We figured it might be fun to share our list of choices in case you were curious…
Continue reading ➞ The Quill To Live Most Anticipated Watchlist: 2024
Worldbuilding is a fascinating subject rife with arguments and factions. It’s obviously a topic that the SFF community will never be quiet about (not that it should ever shut up about it), and I’m here to do my part screaming into the void about it. Most folks are probably familiar with the large, beautifully written…
Every year the members of The Quill to Live gather together to plan out our reads for the next year and flag the books we are most looking forward to in order to ‘claim’ reviewer status among ourselves. We figured it might be fun to share our list of choices in case you were curious…
Continue reading ➞ The Quill To Live Most Anticipated Watchlist: 2023
This article originally appeared on Tor.com. Hello there, and welcome to The SFF Rival Academy! We’re thrilled you’ve enrolled in our educational program for youngsters of the generic magical/scientific arts. Did you know a courageous avatar of pure goodness will be joining you this year? How amazing! They may draw all manner of evil entities…
Continue reading ➞ Every Young Hero Needs An Archrival: Do You Have What It Takes?
This post originally ran on Tor.com. There’s a lot to be said about the intersection of fantasy and the insanely large pantheon of anime content, to put it mildly. Today, I’d like to focus on Death Note and its smart, if a bit on-the-nose, use of a hard magic system to tell its story. My anime sample size…
Continue reading ➞ Death Note Is The Perfect Beginner’s Guide To Hard Magic Systems
Every year The Witcher seems to increase in popularity because it’s a fantastic IP and because it has shown up in a multitude of forms and mediums. However, unlike the more centralized efforts like Sanderson’s Cosmere, or the MCU, these cross-medium takes on the property are mostly self-contained and have seemingly different objectives. This can…
