Smorgasbord Fantasia

 October seems to be the month for series finales for me! Right on the heels of Mirrored Heavens (Between Earth and Sky) I wrapped up The Fury of the Gods the much-awaited third and final book in this norse-inspired epic fantasy by fan-favorite J ohn Gwynne , known for having his fabulous big fat epic novels ( Faith and Fallen , and the sequel Blood and Bone )  His new trilogy, the Bloodsworn saga is set in an Viking-sque world, still scarred and reeling from the last war between Gods, all of whom are now fallen or lost.  The Shadow of the Gods and  The Hunger of the Gods sets up the readers for this absolutely compelling nail biting frenzy of a climax, bringing this brilliant tale to a closure. Written across multiple narratives, the readers follow the fate of the lead characters, damaged and scarred by their life experiences, as their world Vigrid comes under attack yet again with colossal powers rising up from dead, set to clash with each other.  By...

With Mirrored Heavens , Rebecca Roanhorse takes us to the nail biting climax of this series Between Earth and Sky - one of the finest examples of epic fantasies done right, where prophecies come alive, Gods pit themselves against each other through their human avatars, and the humans themselves, fall prey to their baser instincts, fighting for power in this brutal bloody game where backstabbing, deceptions and in-fighting are the rules, not exceptions.  War  finally  comes to Meridian.  The merchant lords are gunning for the city of Tova. Tova itself, has fallen under the Crow God's eclipse and now the city is smarting under the new tyrant Serrapio, the chosen Carrion King, the God's instrument of bloody reckoning. While the Sky Made clans are conspiring against him, Serrapio has to decide on what alliances to trust and what to avoid or eliminate. And then there is this new prophecy by the trickster God Coyote that has him confused and scrambling, looking for ways t...

Alex Grecian ’s first novel, The Yard , set in the 1889 in a Victorian London coming on the back of the horrors of Jack the Ripper’s atrocities on the city, is a lurid grisly historical thriller/crime novel. Set in the seedy underbelly of the most populous city at that time in the world, featuring a deranged killer who is butchering the policemen themselves, the Yard introduces us to the Murder Squad, a set of policemen tasked with investigating the most difficult murder cases that pile up in this city, especially with “Saucy Jack” having unshackled the chains off a deranged set of killers. The Yard takes us to the unexplored dark alleyways of London, featuring a trio of policemen – Inspector Walter Day, backed up by the ever-resourceful constable Hammersmith and aided by the progressive thinking pathologist Dr. Bernard Kingsley who is out to clean up London’s morgues and also the doctor society at large of primitive practices. The story starts off with the discovery of a trunk, stuffe...

Absolutely loved this one! An action-packed visceral examination of casteism and colonialism in the backdrop of a bloody siege through the eyes of an underdog, who discovers herself and comes into her own. Kavithri by Aman J Bedi marks the beginning of a fascinating new epic fantasy headlined by a firecracker of a heroine, Kavi aka Kavithri Taemu , a young woman, broken by the unfair ruthless world around her, who finds a purpose worth fighting and killing for, a dream she lives for. The Taemus are a shunted lot, a diminished set of people who have been systematically hunted down, eradicated over years by the rulers (be it the current Raayan Empire or the erstwhile colonial oppressors from the Kraelish empire – almost drawing parallel to the British East India company) for having taken up arms and led a rebellion ages ago. The lowest dregs in a stratified society that takes its caste system very seriously, the Taemus are treated to daily degradations and humiliations by the rest of t...

Another find for me, a brilliant debut of this year. Nathan Ballingrud's debut weird (in a good way!) frontier novel set in Mars is a delightful mix of science-fiction, coming-of-age and the True-Grit quest for revenge and justice. Featuring a very small cast of characters, led by the ballsy fourteen-year old Belle (Anabelle Crisp), the story is narrated by Anabelle looking back at her youthful days, drenching the narrative with the tones of nostalgia. The incident, she narrates, is from 1931 when she used to run a diner along with her father on this 'official' Martian settlement called the New Galveston, a smallish frontier town, sharing the reddish landscape of Mars with other unofficial settlements like the Dig-Town and many others. This is just a few years after the momentous event referred to as 'Silence' when all communications from Earth has ceased. This is also a few years into when her mother has returned back to earth, thus leaving Anabelle and her fathe...

 This was the first book from celebrated author C J Cooke that I was reading and I cannot believe I have been living under a rock, not having read anything from this prolific and talented author before!  A Haunting in the Arctic is exactly what the name suggests - a book that follows the harrowing journey of a whaling ship in the brutally cold extremes of the arctic and the lives of two women, Nicky and Dominique across two different timelines, closely linked to the fate of the ship itself. Let me state this at the outset that this book is not for the fainthearted and the narrative has some extremely disturbing scenes around sexual violence, so exercise caution and be aware of this if you ever pick up this book. Having said that, C J Cooke does a bang-up job of immersing us into this extremely poignant and heart-wrenching story, melding together elements of grief and longing in an intense psychological drama with a brilliant twist by the end.   The story is set acr...