About Fantasy Book Review
It all started in 1989, when I first read J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. From the first page onwards I was completely immersed in the fantasy world of Middle-earth that he had created. Since that day, although no book since has been able to surpass it, I have been lucky enough to read many excellent books that deserve mentioning in their own right. This is what this site is all about.
All the books that I have read, all the books I will read, and all the books I plan to read will be reviewed on this site and will hopefully help as a guide to those readers looking for advice or ideas for their next read.
The books will be rated between 0 and 10 with the aim of providing a list of the top 100 fantasy books of all time. At the moment the book count is around the 250 mark so there are still plenty of books left to read (which is how I like it).
Since starting this site the main plus points are the authors Steven Erikson, Robin Hobb, Joe Abercrombie, Joseph Delaney, Michael Morpurgo and many new authors who have produced excellent debuts. It is likely that I would not have found these authors had it not been for FantasyBookReview.co.uk.
I must apologise for some of the early reviews on the site as I read the book and then tried to review it afterwards, sometimes after a gap of more than a decade - this is not a good idea and I discovered that you really need to make notes as you go along or the review itself will be use to neither man nor beast.
I hope you enjoy reading the reviews as much as I enjoyed writing them and reading the books.
Lee, Fantasy Book Review
Book of the Month
Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill
Some doors are better left closed . . . In Barrington House, an upmarket block in London, there is an empty apartment. No one goes in, no one comes out. And it’s been that way for fifty years. Until the night watchman hears a disturbance after midnight and investigates. What he experiences is enough to change his life forever.
Latest interviews
Interviews plus question and answer sessions with authors, narrators and publishers.
Must-reads
The following reviews are of books that begin the very best fantasy series available.
Competition: Win a signed copy of Graham Hancock's Entangled
Graham Hancock is the author of The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis, Heaven's Mirror, Supernatural and other bestselling investigations of historical mysteries. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages and have sold over five million copies worldwide. Written with the same page-turning appeal that has made his non-fiction so popular, Entangled is his first work of fiction. We have five signed copies of Entangled to give away as prizes. Email us the answer to the following question and the lucky winner, chosen at random, will receive a copy of the book, signed by the author.
Special Feature: Fantasy Book Review talks to the Book View Cafe
Book View Cafe is a cooperative site created by a group of writers - including internationally renowned authors Katharine Kerr, Ursula Le Guin and Vonda N. McIntyre - who want to take advantage of the internet's possibilities for reaching a wider audience and to distribute their work directly to their readers. The Book View Cafe is a place where you can find free, original fiction plus the authors' best and out-of-print work for a fee. Fantasy Book Review spoke to Book View Cafe member, science fiction author and memoirist Chris Dolley in February 2010.
Special Feature: Understanding the author of Alice in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll, the elusive author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, has been the subject of enduring fascination for the past hundred years. The destruction of many major documents about his personal life by his descendants has only magnified the mystery. Jenny Woolf's biography, published to coincide with the release of the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film, lays waste to the myths and suspicions that have obscured Carroll's reputation by placing him firmly in the context of his own time.
