Hello, and welcome to Music Monday. If you’ve watched True Detective and seen my love letter to it today, this choice will be about as surprising as a cat wanting your food. Now, yeah, my liking for this song started with listening to it a lot and closely associating it with something I was obsessed […]| Peat Long's Blog
It’s been tough knowing where to start with this article. I think, in trying to pay homage to how much the first season of True Detective has resonated with me, I was making the mistake of trying to say “this is the reason this works”. There is no one reason. There is, as with most […]| Peat Long's Blog
Quick one today – I heard this the other day on the radio, and it struck me as very lovely. So I’m sharing it, and seeing if it sticks in my memory I think it’s the mix of soft an…| Peat Long's Blog
It is once again time to update (and slightly expand) my previous top books list. As I rewrite the introduction, I’m currently rewriting the list. It’s a little too easy to pump the sam…| Peat Long's Blog
6 posts published by peatlong during September 2025| Peat Long's Blog
1. We are releasing late/early partly because I am a shambles, but also because how could I resist putting this collection of images front and center and saying happy birthday to a book that means so much to so many of us and the genre over all? So many happy returns to The Hobbit. Half […]| Peat Long's Blog
Yeah, that Megan Lindholm. Robin Hobb. Feels worth putting at the head of the review, doesn’t it? What else goes at the beginning? I’m in a bit of a chatty, ramshackle mood if you couldn’t tell. Ah yes. Some stuff about the book. Wizard of the Pigeons is an urban fantasy from 1986, one of […]| Peat Long's Blog
Well. That whole post in the first few days of the month thing went sideways. This summer has been… tumultuous. Some big highs. Some big lows. A lot of remaining instability. I threw myself into the job search and got nowhere. I had my biggest mental health crash in a long time. I had a […]| Peat Long's Blog
I don’t know. You do a couple of posts and then all of a sudden people are all “Peat, will there be a Music Monday”. It’s almost like you people enjoy reading this which is just crazy talk. Do you think I do these because I enjoy people reading them? Fine. You’ve got me. Know […]| Peat Long's Blog
I haven’t done one of these for well over a year. How do I know that? A lot of these links are from July 2024. But are they still interesting? I hope so. So, let’s see what links I have to share with you… 1. Reviews Want a killer book about some killer plants? Check […]| Peat Long's Blog
When I told friends I’d finally finished a book, one friend guessed it was written in the 80s. He was right. C.J. Cherryh’s The Paladin was published in 1988. That wasn’t why I pi…| Peat Long's Blog
Today is a good day to update (and slightly expand) my previous top books list. New books are read, tastes change, and nothing ever stays the same. A fine excuse for a new list. In case anyone care…| Peat Long's Blog
This post was part-sparked by a thread a friend made sharing one of those writing advice videos that he liked. The title of the video was Seven Ego-Shattering Truths All Writers Must Hear, which ne…| Peat Long's Blog
I have reviewed every Falco novel but a few on this blog. Lindsey Davis is one of the iconic authors of my personal canon. I hugely appreciate her wit, her nuanced and empathic view of humanity, he…| Peat Long's Blog
It is once again time to update (and slightly expand) my previous top books list. As I rewrite the introduction, I’ve got a shortlist of six books worth adding – no, wait, seven –…| Peat Long's Blog
I have not done the things with this month’s Wyrd & Wonder that I wished I had done. That’s a bygone though, and as such, all I can do is make the last of it with one last tale of f…| Peat Long's Blog
Once upon a time there was a blogger called Rin, and in a fit of madness she posted about 10,000 ideas for end of year lists. One of them was a best of year for characters. Now, she might have stop…| Peat Long's Blog
It is once again long past the time where I update (and slightly expand) my previous top books list (although being late does mean it gets to be part of W&W). As I rewrite the introduction, I&#…| Peat Long's Blog
I barely remember April at this point, so this should be a fun read, but better to do it and have something than forget all together. WHAT I READ Non-Fantasy Sharpe’s Siege by Bernard Cornwel…| Peat Long's Blog
When the very first murmurs of this year’s Wyrd & Wonder could be heard flowing through the water, it was suggested that Patricia McKillip’s The Changeling Sea would make an excelle…| Peat Long's Blog
The background to me trying NK Jemisin’s debut, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, starts with Zezee With Books. We’ve tried a few buddy reads now and when Zezee messaged me asked if I was …| Peat Long's Blog
I haven’t been keeping up with the W&W prompts well but this one’s been earmarked from the beginning because when I saw the prompt watery women, I immediately though of Magrat Garli…| Peat Long's Blog
When I first learned of the maritime mood for this month’s Wyrd & Wonder, my mind went straight to Le Guin’s classic, A Wizard of Earthsea. You see, not only is it one of the keysto…| Peat Long's Blog
This article has been in my mind for a while. I’ve never really had time to sit down and flesh it out properly, so I’m chucking it out as it is and seeing what it brings back in the hop…| Peat Long's Blog
So welcome to another day of Wyrd & Wonder, and today’s prompt is a list around “Favourite nautical myths / folklore (Davy Jones, Flying Dutchman, Bermuda Triangle, mermaids, selkie…| Peat Long's Blog
This review is coming right from the hip and is driven by a quote on the Inception wiki page about heist stories traditionally being “very deliberately superficial in emotional terms” a…| Peat Long's Blog
Look. I’m not the most educated on literary matters but at the same time, I’ve been at this game thirty years, man and boy. I’ve been around the block a few times, seen some thing…| Peat Long's Blog
I’m mashing these two into one as they were quiet blogging months. WHAT I READ The creaky reading pace continues Fantasy The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan – I LikeThe Fires of Heaven by Robe…| Peat Long's Blog
Let me start this by saying two things I have a foul mouth I’m beginning to feel actively negative towards swearing in my fantasy books I didn’t always. Goodness, there was a time when …| Peat Long's Blog
When I found Bridge of Birds a long time ago, a life-long love affair started. However, it took me forever to find the sequel, The Story of the Stone, and until now to finally read the last book he…| Peat Long's Blog
As ever, I’m doing the End of Year book tag. I’m doing it a bit later than usual because I forgot about it and it wasn’t until I saw James at Alligators & Aneurysms do it that…| Peat Long's Blog
Let me set the mood for this one with a little rant. I like watching Marvel things with The American as it’s a thing we do but other than that, god I am over Marvel (except Deadpool). I am ov…| Peat Long's Blog
Every now and again you find a book of genius and must rhapsodize about it. That’s quite hard when it’s Tim Powers’ Declare and so much about its genius is not only spoilertastic,…| Peat Long's Blog
In general, I try to avoid knowing too much about a book before I start it. I like to make my voyage of discovery with as few expectations as possible. When it came to time for me and Zezee’s…| Peat Long's Blog
The inspiration for this article arose after an old thread on SFFChronicles was revived by our forum necromancer. The thread was what authors you’d like to see writing new stories in Middle E…| Peat Long's Blog
I, by and large, steer clear of Arthurian retellings. A huge part of this is Cornwell’s Warlord Trilogy, which I read young and took a large amount of direction from. It’s been a long t…| Peat Long's Blog
When you have talked about a favourite book over and over, the only thing left to do is to rip it to bits (lovingly) for entertainment. This is why Katherine Kerr’s Daggerspell is getting the…| Peat Long's Blog
The spark for this post was a book tag. The fuel is the past and the uncomfortable awareness that a good deal of the genre we love has been shaped by deeply dubious beliefs. Let me expound. When do…| Peat Long's Blog
