Of all the fantasy novels I read growing up, Deryni Rising by Katherine Kurtz was among the few that affected me the most. Published in 1970, it was a short novel that introduced me to two things that have influenced my writing ever since: a quasi-historical medieval setting and a puzzle-like plot. The novel takes…
The Master’s Apprentice: A Retelling of the Faust Legend was the best historical fantasy novel I’d read this year. However, that distinction did not last long because its sequel, The Devil’s Pawn, is even better. The Devil’s Pawn completes the fascinating story of Doctor Johann Georg Faustus. By the time the novel begins in 1518,…
While perusing Amazon’s bestseller list for Historical Fantasy some time ago, I came across The Master’s Apprentice: A Retelling of the Faust Legend by German author Oliver Pötzsch. What I discovered upon reading it was an astounding tale supposedly based on the real, historical Doctor Faustus who inspired both Christopher Marlow and Goethe. The book…
It’s been a while since I’ve delved into High Fantasy. This type of fiction is the legacy of J.R.R. Tolkien – fantasy tales with an epic scope set in a world of elves, dwarves, and men. It’s the fantasy I grew up with crafted by Tolkien’s successors: Terry Brooks, David Eddings, Robert Jordan, and, more…
Saint Patrick’s Day is one of my all-time favorite holidays, so today, I’m re-posting an article about Stephen R. Lawhead’s Patrick: Son of Ireland. I had little appreciation for Saint Patrick’s story until I began my research for Enoch’s Device. The novel tells the story of two Irish monks who try to prevent the apocalypse at the end…
Robert Masello has become one of my favorite authors of true historical fantasy. The Haunting of H.G. Wells is his fourth novel featuring famous historical figures such as Albert Einstein, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Bram Stoker encountering the supernatural in what always proves to be a page-turner. I’m happy to report that Masello’s new novel…
Guy Gavriel Kay is perhaps the most famous writer of what I call “historical” fantasy – that is, fantasy fiction set in a world nearly indistinguishable from our historical own with characters and storylines modeled after actual history. In Sailing to Sarantium, he brings a fictional version of 6th-century Byzantium to life in the first…
Jeff Wheeler has dominated the bestseller chart for historical fantasy for a while now. He does not write historical fantasy in the sense of a story set in the real, historical world, like my novel, Enoch’s Device, or D.B. Jackson’s Thieftaker series. Instead, Wheeler writes what I call “historical” fantasy, much like Guy Gavriel Kay….
I read very little science fiction these days, but at the end of last year, while getting over COVID, I decided to re-read Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain. In doing so, I quickly discovered there’s a sequel to the novel, though it’s not written by Crichton, who passed away in 2008. Here are my thoughts…
Amazon’s bestseller list for fantasy fiction has long featured books by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, all about his now-famous character called The Witcher. For years, I passed on those books, but once Netflix brought The Witcher to TV, I decided I had to see what all the hype was about. It still took a while,…
I was never a huge fan of H.P. Lovecraft. I’d known about his fictional mythology surrounding Cthulhu and the Great Old Ones since the first edition of Deities & Demigods, but I never got around to reading any of his works until much later in life. What I didn’t know at the time was how…