Geek of Oz

The joy of Geek of Oz has always been supporting emerging talents. From filmmakers and artists to cosplayers and authors, we pride ourselves on getting the word out for folks. We’d love for you to meet Mark Kramarzewski , whose debut Young Adult Adventure Fantasy novel, The Tower Between , was published earlier this year.   The Tower Between, is the story of a group of Sydney high schoolers who discover a hidden world of secrets and magic, filled with action, a cohesive magic system, banter and feels.  It's available directly through Shawline Publishing  or in paperback and ebook from the usual online vendors. Check out the early reviews over at GoodReads . If you happen to be in Brisbane, Mark is holding a book launch at Where The Wild Things Are in West End. It's at 6pm on Tuesday 11 April, so if you love YA, Fantasy or know somebody who does, come along. You can register for the launch by clicking right here!! For more info hit up Where The Wild Things Are Face...

When  Words of Radiance  first came out, it was famously quite big. The manuscript was  large enough to sink a yacht , the word count would've made Robert Jordan blush, and the final published version of 1088 pages was  the largest-possible book Tor could ever have bound  at the time. When I wrote my review of  The Way of Kings , I said that although a doorstopper could be intimidating because of its sheer length, The Stormlight Archive  was one of the rare examples of a series which needed all of its space to get the job done right. Oathbringer , the third book, clocks in at 1243 pages for the UK/Australia edition, more than any other Brandon Sanderson book. It's the longest novel I've ever read. Some folk said it seemed an untenable length. Well, initially I might’ve agreed with them. Picking up right after the end of Words of Radiance , the Alethi have taken control of Urithiru, ancient city and font of knowledge for Roshar’s past....

To celebrate the upcoming release of Brandon Sanderson's  Oathbringer , book three of  The Stormlight Archive , Chris reviews both of the previous books. No scores at the end, but suffice it to say that they're worth reading. Click here for Chris' review of The Way of Kings. --- Unite them . These are the words that drive Dalinar Kholin, given to him in visions from the Almighty, the closest thing Roshar has - or, rather, had - to God. They urge that the storm is coming, the Voidbringers are returning, and the end draws nearer. The only way to survive is to bring the scattered peoples of Roshar - long separated by warfare, politics and greed - together into a unified whole. Easier said than done, right? Where The Way of Kings gradually started the process of establishing our host of characters, Words of Radiance goes deeper in what they need to do to survive. Sometimes, they may not like the answers they find. Freed from slavery and now a ...

To celebrate the upcoming release of Brandon Sanderson's   Oathbringer , book three of   The Stormlight Archive , Chris reviews both of the previous books in the series. No scores at the end, but suffice it to say that they're worth reading. --- Epic fantasy books are often colloquially called "doorstoppers". These are the stories that are close to a thousand pages in length, and could be used to solidly prop up a door, build a house or bludgeon a home intruder to death. If it's written by Terry Goodkind, it's also an excellent source of birdcage liner. Doorstoppers can be scary even to devout fans of the genre. To the casual observer, a doorstopper's plot unfurls across a   Lord of the Rings -esque amount of pagecount. They can have dense worlds full of oddly-named characters who each have magical superpowers which the reader can only keep track of through a flow chart and encyclopedia of notes. The sense of immense plot and character expans...

Back when Wonderland Sydney was still standing, I went on a rollercoaster. It was good, but on reflection maybe a bit basic. The way it worked was it plodded up a peak, then went down quite smoothly before going up another peak, then it entered a fast decline all the way to the exit. In many ways, Strange the Dreamer feels a lot like that rollercoaster. It starts a bit slow, gets better as it heads to the first peak (in this case, an end-of-first-act plot payoff), then quickly and decisively goes straight down all the way to the end. But while the rollercoaster's downward slope was exhilarating and energetic, Strange the Dreamer 's decline is rather the opposite. Long ago, a war between gods and men ended with the former getting slaughtered by the latter. In their death throes, the gods stole the true name of what is now known as Weep, a mystical city of fantastic creatures and powerful magic. Seemingly lost to history, Weep is now only important to historians, archivists,...

THE SHORT VERSION First things first - yes, it's a lot better than Final Fantasy XIII (and this isn't the only time I'll say that, too). Second things second - no, they are not  a boy band. STORY Part of the reason this review is going out a fortnight after release date, in addition to Final Fantasy XV 's sheer length, is because I've had to mull my thoughts over quite a bit more than I normally would for any game, let alone a Final Fantasy entry. A big chunk of that has a lot to do with the story. Noctis Lucis Caelum is many things. He's the Prince of the Kingdom of Lucis, betrothed to the Oracle Lunafreya, a skilled combatant and, most notably, an adolescent man with an irritating temperament to match. So what do you do when you're all of those first things on top of being a burgeoning adult? You go on a road trip with your three best friends - including a peppy young gunslinger, a boisterous, shirtless man with python-thick arms, and a ...