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Exclusive Interview: “The First Five Minutes Of The Apocalypse” Editor Brandon Applegate

 

Sometimes it feels like it’s the end of the world as we know it, and no one feels fine. But while the apocalyptic feeling hanging in the air over us may get oppressive, people still like reading — and seeing, and playing… — stories about the world coming undone. Which is where we find the stories in the new anthology, The First Five Minutes Of The Apocalypse (hardcover, paperback, Kindle); not in the laboratories or halls of government where they started the endtimes, or are trying to stop it, but on the ground, among the people whose lives are directly effected by the impending end. In the following email interview, First Five Minutes editor Brandon Applegate discusses how this short story anthology came together, and why he concentrated on the small side of the big end.

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Exclusive Interview: “Ebony Gate” Co-Authors Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle

 

What was it that Michael Corleone said in The Godfather, Part III? “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!” It’s a sentiment that Emiko Soong can relate to in Ebony Gate (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), a new urban fantasy novel by writers Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle. To find out what Emiko was out of, and is now back in, and why — and, y’know, what inspired and influenced this story — check out the following email interview with Julia and Ken.

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Exclusive Interview: “The Judas Blossom” Author Stephen Aryan

 

Sometimes it seems like every fantasy novel is set in modern times, the renaissance, or medieval times, and in places that resemble America or Europe. But in his new historical fantasy novel The Judas Blossom (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), the first book in a trilogy called The Nightingale And The Falcon, writer Stephen Aryan is telling an adventure set in the relatively unexplored realm of 13th century Persia. In the following email interview, Aryan discusses why he set it then, and there, and what else inspired and influenced this story.

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Exclusive Interview: “Caged Ocean Dub” Author Dare Segun Falowo

 

I have long said that short stories are a good way to get to know a fiction writer’s style. Which means it’s time we got to know Dare Segun Falowo, who recently published their first collection of short stories, Caged Ocean Dub: Glints & Stories (paperback, Kindle, audiobook). In the following email interview, Dare discusses what inspired and influenced these stories, as well as a way you might want to read them.

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Exclusive Interview: “Savage Crowns” Author Matt Wallace

 

With Savage Crowns (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), writer Matt Wallace is concluding the Savage Rebellion trilogy, which he calls “…a self-aware epic fantasy” series. In the following email interview, Wallace discusses what inspired and influenced this final chapter, as well as why, despite the humor and satire in all three books, “I wouldn’t call any of them comedies.”

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Exclusive Interview: “Rhymer” Author Gregory Frost

 

As I’ve mentioned many times before, and will again, Arthur C. Clarke famously said in his book Profiles Of The Future: An Inquiry Into The Limits Of The Possible that, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” But in Gregory Frost’s sci-fi-infused epic fantasy story Rhymer (hardcover, Kindle) — or is it a fantasy-flavored sci-fi story? — it’s an advanced race that is mistaken for magic creatures. Which is just one of the oddities at work in this story, a fictional take on a real-life prophet who’s Scotland’s answer to Nostradamus. In the following email interview, Frost discusses what inspired and influenced this genre-mashing story, and how it’s the first of three.

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“Diablo IV” Review

 

Expectations can be tough, especially when a lot of time has passed. Just ask George Lucas about The Phantom Menace. Or Axl Rose about Chinese Democracy. Or George R.R. Martin — no, don’t bother him. Or, you could just ask the good people at Blizzard who made Diablo IV (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC), which comes eleven long years after 2012’s Diablo III (and, well, a year after the wrongly convicted Diablo Immortal). Especially since Diablo IV is not a huge jump forward the way Diablo III was over 2000’s Diablo II. But while Diablo IV may be more of a refinement than a reinvention when it comes to this series’ third-person hack & slash / bow & arrow / magic spell action, it still ends up being as effortlessly addictive as the most recent installment. And Diablo III.

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“The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum” Review

 

Of all the questions I had after reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings, not once did I ever wonder what Gollum was up to in the years between them. Mostly because I just assumed he’d spent them in his cave, eating sushi, listening to Led Zeppelin, and lamenting the loss of his precious. But having played the deeply flawed third-person stealth action game The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, PC), which covers this time period, but is a complete fabrication and not based on anything Tolkien wrote, I find myself even less interested in Gollum’s sad little life.

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Exclusive Interview: “Perilous Times” Author Thomas D. Lee

 

Of all the things people have suggested to solve England’s Brexit mistake, none have been as clever or as rife with televisual possibilities as Thomas D. Lee’s modern fantasy take on King Arthur and The Knights Of The Round Table, Perilous Times (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook). In the following email interview, Lee discusses what else inspired and influenced this fantasy tale.