Tag: Fantasy

Books

Exclusive Interview: “If Wishes Were Retail” Author Auston Habershaw

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date June 17, 2025
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Some professions just seem like they have job security: tenured professor, Worlds Greatest Grandma, CEO of a Fortune 500 company you started and are the sole shareholder…

But apparently being a genie isn’t one of them, as the jinn at the center of Auston Habershaw’s humorous contemporary fantasy novel If Wishes Were Retail (paperback, Kindle, audiobook) finds out the hard way.

In the following email interview, Habershaw talks about what inspired and influenced this story, especially the “humorous” part.

Tags Auston Habershaw, Auston Habershaw If Wishes Were Retail, Auston Habershaw If Wishes Were Retail Interview, Auston Habershaw Interview, Author Interview, Author Interviews, Books, BookTok, Contemporary Fantasy, Fantasy, Humorous, Humorous Contemporary Fantasy, Humorous Fantasy, reading

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Cosmic Love At The Multiverse Hair Salon” Author Annie Mare

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date June 3, 2025
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We all know love can be exciting and new (well, assuming you’ve seen The Love Boat).

But in Annie Mare’s romantic science fiction / fantasy novel Cosmic Love At The Multiverse Hair Salon (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), it’s also multiversal, queer, and well-coiffed.

In the following email interview, Mare discusses what inspired and influenced this stylish story, as well as how romantic it can be.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Rise From Ruin” Author Melissa Olthoff

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date June 2, 2025
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We all have dreams. Sometimes they come true; sometimes, not. And in the case of the latter, the “not” part can come from any number of things: a lack of talent, a lack of opportunity…

But in Melissa Olthoff’s new fantasy novel Rise From Ruin (paperback, Kindle), the main character has her dreams shattered by a prank. Well, sort of shattered.

To find out what I’m talking about, and why I’m hedging, check out the following email interview with Olthoff, in which she discusses what inspired and influenced this novel.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “The Tunnels Of Buda” Author Don Sawyer

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date May 30, 2025
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With The Tunnels Of Buda (paperback, Kindle), author Don Sawyer is completing the urban fantasy story he started last year with The Burning Gem, which was the first book in his Soul Catcher duology.

In the following email interview, Sawyer discusses what inspired and influenced this second half of the story, as well as how it might not actually be the end…

Books

Exclusive Interview: “The Starving Saints” Author Caitlin Starling

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date May 19, 2025
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Here’s a tip: If the castle you live in is under siege, and there’s no way to defend it, get out however you can, even if it means working with people you dislike.

Don’t believe me? Just ask the ladies at the center of author Caitlin Starling’s medieval fantasy horror novel The Starving Saints (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), who hate each other but must collaborate if they want to live another day.

In the following email interview, Starling talks about what inspired and influenced this story, as well as how this story was originally going to be told interactively.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “The Eye Of The Bedlam Bride” Author Matt Dinniman

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date May 15, 2025
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Matt Dinniman The Eye Of The Bedlam Bride Dungeon Crawler Carl

Five years ago, author Matt Dinniman launched his science fiction / fantasy / LitRPG series Dungeon Crawler Carl when he self-published the titular first novel…and quickly caught the attention of fans of LitRPG stories. Which, in turn, caught the attention of Ace Books, who started reprinting these novels in 2024.

With the sixth book, The Eye Of The Bedlam Bride, newly available from Ace in hardcover — just weeks after reissuing the fourth [The Gate Of The Feral Gods] and fifth [The Butcher’s Masquerade] — I spoke to Dinniman via email to talk about both this series and Bedlam Bride.

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“DOOM: The Dark Ages” Review

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date May 9, 2025
1 Comment on “DOOM: The Dark Ages” Review

In the first Avengers movie, Nick Fury asks a member of the Security Council, “You ever been in a war, councilman? In a fire fight? Did you feel an overabundance of control?” It’s a line that kept repeating in my head as I played — or maybe survived is a better word — DOOM: The Dark Ages (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC), a ridiculously frantic but also ridiculously fun horror- and fantasy-infused science fiction first-person shooter.

And while yes, you can say the same about 2016’s DOOM and 2020’s DOOM Eternal (and the best Call Of Duty games, the Gears Of War series, the Halo games…), there are things about DOOM: The Dark Ages that make it especially unhinged and, well, out of control.

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Exclusive Interview: “A Letter From The Lonesome Shore” Author Sylvie Cathrall

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date May 7, 2025
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On her website, Sylvie Cathrall identifies herself as a “romantic fantasy author.”

But while the two novels that comprise her Sunken Archive duology are romantic and fantastical — and other things — the central relationships in them are not between lovers, but two sets of siblings.

And no, these stories don’t get all Game Of Thrones-y.

In the following email interview about the second book, A Letter From The Lonesome Shore (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), Cathrall talks about what inspired and influenced this novel, as well as how it completes the story she started in the first, A Letter To The Luminous Deep.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Down In The Sea Of Angels” Author Khan Wong

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date April 21, 2025
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While it may sound like it mixes elements of science fiction and fantasy, author Khan Wong says his multi-timeline novel Down In The Sea Of Angels (paperback, Kindle, audiobook) is more of a “speculative / literary cross-over.”

Which may explain why, in the following email interview about it, he cites such disparate influences as David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and the X-Men comics of Jonathan Hickman.