Category: Graeme Stirling

Stubborn Swordsmanship – Mumblings on History and Fantasy Fiction

7/21/2014

by Graeme Stirling

A few days back, we took a look at Fiona McIntosh’s Betrayal, a muddy, sometimes grim fantasy tale with some apparent references to the Reformation and violent segregative politics. Last week, we pondered over the link between fantasy fiction and the adventure novels of the Victorian era, in particular how the legacy of the former has transformed into the latter. Thanks to a certain bearded, bespectacled gent with the same two middle initials as fantasy forefather Tolkien, the genre is presently big news.

From The Lost World to Westeros – How Fantasy Replaced the Adventure Novel

7/14/2014

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By Graeme Stirling

As his twilight years began to dawn on him and to cast a shadow over a hugely successful career, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle went a bit mad. The Scots-born physician-turned-author had run into a stroke of horrible luck, losing his son in the First World War just over a decade after the death of his first wife, and turned to spiritualism as a means of solace. He was the key defender of the Cottingley Fairies hoax and remained adamant that the mystical winged creatures were real. He did his level best to convince fellow spiritualists to edit their faith system around his original Christianity. He titled his only memoirs The Wanderings of a Spiritualistand in them claimed as irrevocable fact that he could talk to the dead and had done so several times before an audience.

Book Trailer: Corpus Christi

6/30/2014

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By Graeme Stirling

Look out internet, here comes another self-published ebook. What’s more, it’s a supernatural horror story with angelic wings on the cover shot. When it comes to drops in oceans, you’ll struggle to find a smaller speck in a bigger sea, category wise, than this. The spread of direct publishing and the popularity of the genre has flooded Amazon and elsewhere with so many such titles, you could probably drown in them.

Interview: William J. Meyer

6/25/2014

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By Graeme Stirling

Fire on the Mound is a novel with a difference. With the help of a narrator, animator and composer, this high fantasy tale has been turned into a free podcast now numbering 42 episodes across 2 seasons. Last month, we caught up with author and producer William J. Meyer and quizzed him on his characters, views on contemporary publishing, and how he hatched his novel (see what we did there?) idea.

Competitions: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

6/21/2014

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By Graeme Stirling

Twenty-two years after the publication of her first novel, Donna Tartt is enjoying a prosperous 2014 after being awarded the highest honour in American letters: the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

The book in question, The Goldfinch, was published last year and follows on from Elanor Catton’s Man Booker Prize-winning The Luminaries in throwing brevity to the wind, clocking it at close to 800 pages. Unsurprisingly, the doorstop novel is an ambitious one, combining the sprawl of a lifelong bildungsroman with some curiously original plotting and a relevant, contemporary feel.

News: Bridget Jones' Diary #3

6/18/2014

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By Graeme Stirling

Just when you thought you were safe, Helen Fielding strikes again. Should you be unfamiliar with the author, you’ll doubtlessly have heard of her protagonist, Bridget Jones. In fact, if her social media-embracing publishers get their way, you’ll be hearing that name a lot more in the coming days.

In Absentia: Fiction Without Fathers

6/16/2014

by Graeme Stirling

To follow on from Father’s Day, the best and worst dads and variations on the father figure rule, we go full one-eighty and take at two landmark fictional worlds where the protagonists – willingly or otherwise – got by without one.

Father's Day: Breaking Dad - Fenton Hardy and the Father Figure Rule

6/15/2014

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By Graeme Stirling

Father figures have always played an important role in fiction. Almost every literary character has a mentor, whether seen frequently or merely mentioned, and, though they don’t have to be a blood relation, their role is a paternal one that has shaped the protagonist in the same way parents help to shape their own children. This is such a standard dynamic as to be expected. Every so often, however, an author takes a different approach.

News: A Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones

6/9/2014

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By Graeme Stirling

George R. R. Martin is an endearing character. Maybe it’s the beard, suspenders, 1980's glasses and cadet cap combo that make him resemble a wise old lighthouse keeper. Maybe it’s his way of throwing an oily great bucket of dirty realism over fantasy fiction and dragging it out of its stale corner. On top of these, as well as his cordial relationship with his fans and his reluctance to disappoint them, it’s really about two things: his seemingly unbridled imagination – childlike in contrast to his appearance – and his seriously staunch work ethic.

D-Day: All Quiet on the Western Front

6/6/2014

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By Graeme Stirling

Regularly billed as the world’s bestselling war novel, Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front is a very different beast from most of the heroic tales of gallantry and adversity that will pepper our TV screens and the promotional shelves of the major book shops on the anniversary of D-Day: a slow, sombre novel narrated by a German soldier in the front line trenches of the First World War.

<<Previous

Stubborn Swordsmanship – Mumblings on History and Fantasy Fiction

From The Lost World to Westeros – How Fantasy Replaced the Adventure Novel

Book Trailer: Corpus Christi

Interview: William J. Meyer

Competitions: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

News: Bridget Jones' Diary #3

In Absentia: Fiction Without Fathers

Father's Day: Breaking Dad - Fenton Hardy and the Father Figure Rule

News: A Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones

D-Day: All Quiet on the Western Front

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