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Blog Archive
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2023
(126)
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May
(29)
- Book review: Miranda by John R. Little
- GUEST POST: Celebrating 5 Years of Ordshaw by Phil...
- Interview: Kate Heartfield, author of The Embroide...
- The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill by Rowenna Mil...
- Review: The Blighted Stars by Megan E. O'Keefe
- A Cup of Tea at the Mouth of Hell by Luke Tarzian ...
- Graphic Novel: Karmen by Guillem March
- The Will Of The Many by James Islington (reviewed ...
- Interview: Rex Burke, author of the Odyssey Earth ...
- The Lost War by Justin Lee Anderson (Reviewed by L...
- SPFBO 9 Introduction Post - meet the Fantasy Book ...
- Review: Witch King by Martha Wells
- Book review: The Child's Thief by Brom
- Sons of Darkness by Gourav Mohanty (Reviewed by Sh...
- Book review: The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker
- Review: The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao (revie...
- The Return of the Knights by Gregory Kontaxis (Rev...
- Exclusive Cover Reveal + Q&A with D. P. Wooliscrof...
- Interview: Gama Ray Martinez, author of the Defend...
- Book review: The Reapers Are The Angels by Alden Bell
- Review: The Battle Drum by Saara El-Arifi
- Book review: March's End by Daniel Polansky
- Review: Scarlet by Genevieve Cogman
- Book Review: Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway
- Review: Our Hideous Progeny by C. E. McGill
- By A Silver Thread by Rachel Aaron (reviewed by Mi...
- Book review: Paradise-1 by David Wellington
- Announcing Combat Codes: The Mystery of the Island...
- Interview: Ian Douglas, author of the Solar Warden...
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▼
May
(29)
Miranda by John R. Little
Publisher: Bad Moon Press (January 1. 2008) Print length: 109 pages Formats: ebook, paperback
What is Under Ordshaw?
It all started with poker player Pax Kuranes discovering a secret labyrinth under her otherwise normal (if rough) city. Also, she discovered some very unusual, but mostly horrible, monsters – and a community of rather offensive and violent diminutive fairies. All this in a city otherwise rooted in reality, with distinct, characterful boroughs and a deep, detailed history (inspired variously by some cities I’m most familiar with, such as London, Nottingham, Bristol and Luton (not a city, with spite)). The books mostly explore the seedier, darker side of Ordshaw, involving criminal gangs, shady government organisations and impoverished, rundown neighbourhoods, with some hints at the brighter, cheerier suburbs.
Under Ordshaw was written and released over about 18 months, between 2017 and 2018 (alongside and overlapping my dystopian Estaliabooks). Blue Angel and The Violent Fae followed in 2019 to complete The Sunken City Trilogy (with The City Screams emerging somewhere in between). My plans for it emerged much earlier, though, while frequently riding the metro working in Prague, 2008 (a job that also inspired parts of Dyer Street Punk Witches).
The bare roots of the story came together in a screenplay around 2008. I spent two or three years revising it, taking it to producers and directors. In its earliest form, it resembled something of the final structure of Under Ordshaw, but followed the Barton family with no Pax in sight. At some point this warped, as screenplays do, into an animation involving talking penguins, and there were rumours at one point of Whoopi Goldberg coming on board. That all petered out, until some years later when I’d got a couple of self-published books under my belt, and had a burning desire to revive and combine a slew of older works.
I wrote Under Ordshaw with big plans in mind from the offset. There was to be an opening trilogy, but also a series of independent or loosely connected tales. Blue Angel hints at a character in The City Screams; The City Screams introduces a character from The Ikiri Duology; and Under Ordshaw itself references criminals discussed in Dyer Street Punk Witches.
My goal was to explore different tropes and story arcs framed in one particular Ordshaw lens: gritter action thrillers (in a vein of the emergent cinema of the 90s) with the propensity for wild fantasy twists and turns. There would be a witches saga, a haunted house tale, a Faustian story, secular crime stories and more. Then, there was also the opportunity for absolutely off-the-wall adventures, as Kept From Cages introduced.
For all my lofty goals, Under Ordshaw got off to a fairly inauspicious start, and really owes the spark of life it found to Mark Lawrence’s SPFBO and the many wonderful contacts I’ve made following that. The book was a semi-finalist for Lynn’s Books in 2018 and Lynn kindly put me in touch with other bloggers who helped review and promote the series. It picked up momentum through the attention of a lot of great reviewers, which in turn has always encouraged me to keep hammering at my greater scheme. Never mind that sales have always been an uphill struggle, and Ordshaw doesn’t neatly fit the existing markets – the rewards are there in seeing readers’ responses to the series.
I have slowed down in recent years to split my focus over other projects, but little by little, Ordshaw has spread further into the world. We’re now up to seven novels in the series. Dyer Street has opened up a whole new venture, while Kept From Cages also reached the SPFBO semi-finals and went on to give Mark Lawrence himself a paper cut. And the books themselves are only improving as they go: I’ll forever love Under Ordshaw, but it is a particular starting point, with a certain roughness to it. Each entry that follows aims to expand and improve on that.
The Next Five Years
My plans for the future vary between the simple (add more books to the series) and elaborate (design Ordshaw animations and games; Ordshaw theme park?). What’s on the more immediate horizon are a sequel to The City Screams, with the long-overdue return of Pax and Letty, and the sequel to Dyer Street Punk Witches. There’s also an interactive story I’ve been itching to write forever. Then there will eventually be more from the Cutjaw Kids and Katiya and a couple of other standalone tales, and I’d like to go back to where this started and produce fresh screenplays from the books. Because the world needs more foul-mouthed fairies, criminal jazz musicians, weird monsters and punk witches, in every format.
For now, though, my most heartfelt thanks to everyone who’s come along for the ride, and everyone who’s yet to step into Ordshaw (don’t forget to grab your copy for free while you can!). I couldn’t have got anywhere near as far as I have without the support of a wonderful community of readers and writers, and I look forward to sharing more with you.
Phil lives with his wife by the coast in Sussex, UK, and spends a great deal of time walking his impossibly fluffy dog, Herbert.
Book Review: The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill by Rowenna Miller
Official Author Website
Buy The Blighted Stars HERE
Her fantasy debut, Steal the Sky, won the Gemmell Morningstar Award and her space opera debut, Velocity Weapon was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award.
A Cup of Tea at the Mouth of Hell by Luke Tarzian (Reviewed by Matthew Higgins)
Book Review: A Cup of Tea at the Mouth of Hell by Luke Tarzian
Karmen by Guillem March review
Publisher: Image Comics (May 17, 2022) Pages: 160 Art: Guillem March
Official Author Website
Order The Will Of The Many over HERE
Interview: Rex Burke, author of the Odyssey Earth series
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of Orphan Planet, book one in the Odyssey Earth series here
Buy Orphan Planet, book one in the Odyssey Earth series here
Pre-order Twin Landing, book two in the Odyssey Earth series here
Book Review: The Lost War by Justin Lee Anderson
Official Author Website
OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: Martha Wells has been an SF/F writer since her first fantasy novel was published in 1993, and her work includes The Books of the Raksura series, The Death of the Necromancer, the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy, The Murderbot Diaries series, media tie-in fiction for Star Wars, Stargate: Atlantis, and Magic: the Gathering, as well as short fiction, YA novels, and non-fiction. She has won Nebula Awards, Hugo Awards, and Locus Awards, and her work has appeared on the Philip K. Dick Award ballot, the BSFA Award ballot, the USA Today Bestseller List, and the New York Times Bestseller List. She is a member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame, and her books have been published in twenty-five languages.
The Child's Thief by Brom review
The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker review
Book Review: The Return of the Knights by Gregory Kontaxis
Exclusive Cover Reveal + Q&A with D. P. Wooliscroft: Exiles of Stone and Shadow
Interview: Gama Ray Martinez, author of the Defenders of Lore series
Book links: Amazon, Goodreads
Official Author Website
Buy The Battle Drum HERE
Official Author Website
Buy Scarlet HERE
Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway review
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nick Harkaway is the author of Gnomon (William Heinemann, October 2017), as well as The Gone-Away World, Angelmaker (for which he won the Oxfam Emerging Writers Prize and the Kitschies’ coveted Red Tentacle) and Tigerman. He has been described variously as 'J. G. Ballard’s geeky younger brother', 'William Makepeace Thackerary on acid' and 'a British mimetic speculative godgame novelist'. The Blind Giant, his only full length non-fiction work, examined the interaction of technology and humanity and how best to live in a world where gadgets have become fundamental.
Nick lives in London with his wife and their two children. He publishes occasional articles on Medium, and is mildly noted for extensive and profane political Twitterings. Hosting a conference at London’s Science Museum for the European Space Agency in September 2016, he took a rueful moment aside to tell a supportive audience: “In meinem Herz, ich bin Europäer.” He loves Borges and Calvino, Proulx and Winterson, Gibson and DeLillo. Other important influences include Benjamin Zidarch, Vittorio Innocenti and Susana Balbo.
Publisher: Knopf (May 16, 2023) Page count: 241
Review: Our Hideous Progeny by C. E. McGill
Official Author Website
Buy Our Hideous Progeny here - U.S. | U.K.
OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: C. E. MCGILL (THEY/THEM)was born in Scotland and raised on the east coast of the US, in North Carolina. In 2020, pining for the drizzly green countryside (and universal healthcare) once more, they and their family moved back to Scotland.
Order “By A Silver Thread” over HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s review of The Last Stand Of Mary Good Crow
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s review of “The Battle Of Medicine Rocks:
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of "Forever Fantasy Online"
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of "FFO: Last Bastion"
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of "FFO: The Once King"
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of "Nice Dragons Finish Last"
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of "One Good Dragon Deserves Another"
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of "No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished"
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of "A Dragon Of A Different Color"
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of "Last Dragon Standing"
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of "Minimum Wage Magic"
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of "Part-Time Gods"
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s review of “Night Shift Dragons”
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of "The Spirit Thief"
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of “The Spirit Rebellion”
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of “The Spirit Eater” & “Spirit’s Oath”
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of “The Spirit War”
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of "Spirit's End"
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of "Fortune's Pawn"
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of "Honor's Knight"
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of "Heaven's Queen"
Read Fantasy Book Critic's joint interview with Rachel Aaron & Travis Bach
Read Fantasy Book Critic's Interview with Rachel Aaron
Read Eli Monpress series completion interview with Rachel Aaron
Read Fantasy Book Critic's Interview with Rachel Bach
Read Fantasy Book Critic's Heartstrikers interview with Rachel Aaron
Read Fantasy Book Critic's Second Heartstrikers interview with Rachel Aaron
Read "Why A Nice Dragon" by Rachel Aaron (Guest post)
Paradise-1 by David Wellington review
Official Book Blurb: In a world where battle-hardened warriors determine the fate of empires, war-ravaged nations seek out a new champion in the first book of a thrilling science fantasy trilogy: "that rare book that fully satisfies me as an action fan" (Fonda Lee, author of Jade City).
In a world long ago ravaged by war, the nations have sworn an armistice never to use weapons of mass destruction again. Instead, highly-skilled warriors known as Grievar Knights represent their nations’ interests in brutal hand-to-hand combat.
Murray Pearson was once a famed Knight until he suffered a loss that crippled his homeland — but now he’s on the hunt to discover the next champion.
In underground and ruthless combat rings, an orphaned boy called Cego is making a name for himself. Murray believes Cego has what it takes to thrive in the world's most prestigious combat academy – but first, Cego must prove himself in the vicious arenas of the underworld. And survival isn’t guaranteed.