Smorgasbord Fantasia

Casting Tom Holland as the surprise element, Spiderman in Captain America: Civil War was one of the high points of that movie. A short cameo, that was delightful and punchy.

And now he comes into his own - with Spiderman: Homecoming signifying bringing Spiderman back into the Marvel universe, Tom Holland delivers an absolutely fizzy blockbuster of a superhero flick with his winning, earnest performance as the lead man, even sidelining Robert Downey Jr's wisecrack mentor act as the Ironman, biding his time to bring Spiderman in as the newest team-member on Avengers.



Peter Parker, not withstanding his special web-slinging prowess, is also a regular kid, finishing high-school, crushing on his long-legged academic decathlon team-mate (Laura Harrier) , staying ahead of his clue-less hot Italian aunt ( Marissa Tomei!!) who lourbes him and is best friends with the loser-nerd of the school (Well, who also happens to be a crack computer whiz!) But after his "mission" with Tony S…

So Darien, Empire of Salt is the opening salvo to this high-fantasy trilogy by CF Iggulden, [Conn F Iggulden also happens to be one of my all-time favourite historical fiction authors]. After his books on Genghis Khan and Julius Ceaser (Both towering feats of story-telling, of spell binding imagination that brings alive historical stories drenched in blood and myths!) I was super excited that he turned his hands, to writing a full-on fantasy novel, without the trappings of actual history weighing down on the story. Unfettered imagination and brilliant writing chops, would make this a delectable affair, thought I. and naturally, the expectations were sky-high.


The premise for Darien, an empire at the “weary end of a golden age” was a cracker. Basically, it sets the ground for explosive happenings within the capital city of Darien – where a regicide is being planned and five strangers converge, their fates colliding with each other’s to write a new chapter for the Empire. A plot to kill…

The Marvel Universe is very nicely set up - and we get Superhero Origin stories aplenty. This time - we go back to find out who The Black Panther is. And if the trailer is anything to go by, we have another winner on our hands!

Peter McLean, I think is a rockstar in this genre. The darker seedier side of urban fantasy - with a protagonist like Don Drake and his snarky archdemon The Burned Man -  who are right up there, with say Miriam Black (Chuck Wendig) or the Sandman Slim series (Richard Kadrey). This series starts off in the best possible manner - introducing us to Drake and his pet archdemon in a gritty version of London – dark and violent like no man’s land. And Drake while not exactly a wall-flower, doesn’t really come across as a man you would consider making friends with soon. But for all his flaws, there is something redeemable about this crook who can summon demons from Hell to do his bidding as a ‘diabologist’ and has more to him than meets the eye, at first glance.


I have to warn you that if you haven’t read book-one, Dominion is a sequel and middle-book in a series, following up closely on the events that transpired from the first book. But if you want a swimmingly good dark urban fantasy that w…

I would read anything written by Sebastian de Castell. The Greatcoats series, coming to a "shocking conclusion" with the Tyrant's Throne soon to be out, is one of my favorite running series. (Oh next on my reading list!) It's pulpy fun, old fashioned fantasy about heroic protagonists, revenge duels, political conspiracies and truckloads of bromance and a whole lotta love.  So when I came across Spellslinger, his alleged YA-Fantasy debut, I was equal parts excited - and a bit dismayed. YA? Sticking to the defined cordons of this genre, would Sebastian really be able to bring out the delights of the comic camaraderie of the knights' brotherhood, that dark brooding atmosphere of conspiracies and dangers, the intensity? Or will it be a watered-down version with possibly a candyfloss romance thrown in between teens swooning for each other?



I need not have worried much. Spellslinger is a completely fresh tale, a YA-fantasy with a western frontier feel to the world, fe…

So this weekend I was spoilt for choice when it came to the movies. Seriously, weekends like this haven’t happened in a long while. First up – was of course the legendary star-lord and his ragtag bunch of misfits out to save the galaxy from itself, the sequel to the wildly popular and absolutely brilliant first part, Guardians of the Galaxy from Marvel. Next on the plate, was the Alien prequel which is going to be a mindfuck, I can guarantee. With Ridley Scott spinning the wheels crazy in the first prequel to the original Alien series in Prometheus that gave us a twisted convoluted legend of the Aliens ‘origin’ story, the trailer looked mind-boggling. But the movie that I finally settled on, of course was the return of my all-time movie director: Guy Ritchie stamping his unique signature on the much loved legend of the “The Man who would be King”.


In King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, one of the oldest legends is re-imagined in signature Guy Ritchie fashion – complete with a non-linear …