Smorgasbord Fantasia

The Girl with All the Gifts is perhaps the most heart-rending dystopian post-apocalyptic fiction that I have ever read till date. A book that is pure gold and shines through the clutter that clogs the genre fiction today. One of Orbit ’s biggest US releases this year – it came in UK in January this year – this book surpasses all my other post-apocalyptic/zombie reads (Yes. Put The Passage , Reapers are Angels , Aftermath and Newsflesh trilogy down in that list please!) By far the most satisfying read in this genre and I’m not exaggerating. Maybe it’s because Carey decided to spin this tale mainly from the point of view of the protagonist ( the Girl with all the gifts ), a ten-years old sweet young child. It is a great move. In addition to making a reader bask in the sweet innocence of a young child exploring the wonders of the world and then slowly proceed to unravel mysteries and thus mature along the way, it also fulfills the purpose of lulling them into a false sense ...

Alright good people of the Internet, crawlers of the Almighty web and Readers of good fantasy, listen up! Courtesy the awesome folks at Tor Books , I am hosting a giveaway contest here! And rejoice, ladies and gentlemen, for I have not one, not two but THREE Copies of the new release from Tor, Chasers of the Wind , first in an epic fantasy series from international best-selling Russian author Alexey Pehov !! Here's the blurb: After years of reassembling the Empire after the War of the Necromancers, disaster strikes again when the Nabatorians join forces with the necromancers of Sdis to take over the Empire, one city at  the time. Luk, a soldier who narrowly escapes the pillaging of the city when his place at the Gates of the Six Tower is attacked, and Ga-Nor, a northern Barbarian, flee the advances of the Nabatorian hordes together, finding safety in numbers. They encounter a married couple and Harold, the hero of the Chronicles of Siala, and the five set forth to escape...

Chuck Wendig continues to enthrall us with the third tale in the Miriam Black series – in the same vein as The BlackBirds and The Mockingbird . Foul-mouthed, quick-witted Miriam Black having graduated from ‘thief’ to ‘killer’, finds herself up against a shadowy ‘stranger’ in the humid swampy Keys of Florida, trying to outwit this mysterious foe who seems to be always one step ahead, sending her messages written in blood from her futuristic visions.  Reading this book is like having a crunch-ball of a fist slamming into your head – that sends you reeling into some crazed-out mad world drenched in dripping darkness. The dark recesses of human mind soaked in blood-red insanity. Classic Vintage Wending. He pulls out all plugs on this ride – lassoing you to the back of a runaway train till the end of the book.    It’s like Wendig decided to outdo himself by going one notch up on that lever of insanity and grim darkness – then suddenly the winch brea...

Nope. am not talking about my life. Here in the IT Capital of India, Bangalore. Am talking about Anjali Menon's latest movie, that has a heavy star-cast and even heavier expectations to live up to. Does it? Yes sir. Yes sir. All bags full. Firing away on all cylinders, topping expectations and making us fall in love with love, hope and all things good and hunky-dory. A seemingly linear narrative that follows of the life-trajectory of three cousins being drawn to their city of chidlhood dreams - One for the job (Yeah. "software engineer". You get a chai and pazham-porri for having guessed that right.) One for Marraige and the third by his own meandering aimless choices in life. Events that crisscross across each other's lives, leading to some significant changes, heartbreaks, love and redemption makes up the rest of the movie. So in terms of novelty, well we weren't much surprised by the end of the movie but the general boisterousness and crackling goodwi...

As usual am late to the party – The Emperor’s Blades released early this year and was touted to be among the best debuts in this genre for the year. A lot of marketing push by TOR ensured that this book was top of the recall across the Internet world. The sample chapters 1-7 helped.    But ultimately, pushing aside the marketing-hype, it is the solid writing and a near-familiar epic fantasy story wrapped in layers of intrigue and subtle magic given face by three (Ahem, two actually!) endearing protagonists with their intense personal character evolution arc is what keeps the book afloat. It’s top-notch fantasy writing – an empire at risk from the machinations of something ancient and vast and the political coup that results in the assassination of the emperor leaving the fate in the hands of his three children. David Anthony Durham anyone? But the similarities end right there. Brian Staveley’s world is sprawling, brutal and dark – and the first book...