Smorgasbord Fantasia

Over the weekend, I gulped down a helping of Mr. Baldacci's latest offering, The Hit. Second in a series featuring the cold blooded CIA hit man, Will Robie. a fun quick read - easy stuff more like a comfort read without stretching myself at all. Review to be up on vaultofbooks.com soon. Hoowzaaah! ( to be updated with actual link)

Oblivion is a 2013 science fiction movie that stars Tom Cruise, Olga Kiriyilenko, Andrea Riseborough and Morgan Freeman set in a bleak desert-like post-apocalyptic earth in 2077 where humanity has been destroyed in a massive war with the aliens and the survivors have been moved to Titan, one of the moons of Jupiter for rehabilitation. Brilliant premise, great landscape to develop a gripping science fiction story of survival and human drama, you think? Yes and no. I got reasons why I thought this gripping first half petered to a meaningless droll second half where confusion, bewilderment and plot-holes ruled the screen till the end credits start rolling. The one thing you can’t fault Tom Cruise with is his ability to entertain audience with any of his outings. Tom is not new to the Science Fiction genre in movies. Minority Report, War of the Worlds to name a few. Two albeit completely different movies in its treatment by the same director (Mr. Speilberg) So I had hu...

First up, a big thank you to the lovely Becci Sharpe and all the other folks at Head of Zeus for having sent me a review copy !! You’ve backed a winner here, a racehorse for the longer innings – so take a bow! Grim Company is the hot debut by Luke Scull, that went into a multi-way bidding war between publishers and little known UK based Head of Zeus walked away winners. Big risk for an enterprise setting out in this industry? Well, risks pay off and boy, what a brilliant gamble this has turned out to be for them, huh. Epic fantasy featuring sweeping battles, mighty God-like magelords, an enriched system of magic, a company of misfits including a tragic hero and an older cynical warrior weary of life out to change the fate of the world in an age of ruins where heroes have no place. Grim company packs all these fantasy tropes pretty well into an explosive grim dark fantasy that I believe, is well neigh going be the heir to that throne currently occupied by a certain Mr. A...