Smorgasbord Fantasia

Premam is probably now in its sixth week – blasting past all past records in the box office, romping away to be a cult movie now. I saw the movie late – yesterday. And I say this with no hesitation. Nivin Pauly is a star. A natural and consummate actor who makes you roll around in splits at his goofy earthiness, at his earnest attempts at writing a love-letter, then gets you pumped up and cheering wildly as he lights up the cigarette and walks out in the pouring rain to bash up the baddies and then gets you to cry and bawl your lungs at his brilliant portrayal of a broken-hearted man. He is the full package and he gets his due in Premam, a coming-of-age romantic comedy that sees him play George – who falls in love, breaks his heart, holds those stinging broken shards of sweet romance close and then finally learns to let go and find an anchor for his wayward life. Three girls, three love-stories. Each bitter-sweet and reminiscent of stages we’ve all gone through. This nost...

It's been a while since I've read a good thriller. a genuinely shivers-down-the-spine kinda book that delves into the psyche - belonging to the good old school of psychological suspense - and keeps me up way beyond my sleep-time. The Quality of Silence fits the bill perfectly. I got this book on NetGalley during an early promo-giveaway in exchange for an honest review. This is my first Rosamund Lupton book and definitely not the last ever. This chilling thriller that follows the travails of a mother-daughter duo in the icy barren expanses of Alaska as they try to track down their husband/father lost after a deadly accident in the wild reads like a tight-rope walk with no leeway for a single false step - the plot is interesting yes but it's the characterization of the mother-daughter duo that really won my heart. Especially Ruby, the deaf girl who's so brave, kind and retains her child-like purity in a world of evil. Despite all her problems. So Yasmin and her...

Jo Fletcher books from Quercus Publishing has always come out with great books in the speculative fiction genre - unearthing gems like Aidan Harte, Sarah Pinborough, Mazarkis Williams to name a few. They can proudly count Iceland-born London based Snorri Kritjansson in that rank. A find, a very fine one at that. Swords of Good Men is Snorri's debut and an accomplished piece of writing that firmly catapults him to the A-list of Fantasy writers. Set in the land of the fierce Vikings - Scandinava is brought to life adeptly by Snorri in the Valhalla Saga # 1 - featuring one too many bloodthirsty warriors caught in the middle of a huge melee. Huge burly bearded fellows swinging a mean double bladed axe, longships plowing through crashing waves, unbreachable tall garrison walls, blonde-haired goddesses. You name it, the book's nailed it dead right in terms bringing Viking folklore alive. Swords of Good Men is ultimately a big long drawn out bloody battle between three differen...

Beyond Redemption by Michael R Fletcher is a book that will feature in the "Best of Lists" for a lot of fantasy lovers in 2015. It is a startlingly original story - cloaked in bloody violence and grim darkness yes but where it absolutely scores is the evocative world-building and the fantastic characterization that is second to none. Full of hard men and women in a world gone mad where your beliefs define reality and then again, nothing is ever real. Beyond Redemption is Canadian author Michael R Fletcher's second book and purportedly his experiments of exploring the themes of schizophrenia in a fantasy setting. Well, for me the experiment succeeds wildly!  What Michael has created in "Beyond Redemption" may not be the first choice of "best reads in 2015" for a lot many traditionalists but he's bucked all major fantasy genre trends here creating a multi-layered complex narrative riddled with raving mad scheming schizos each baying for the...

A historical fiction based against the backdrop of the War of Roses - a reimagining well done. Grim, cold and brutal - If ever a war-novel was called atmospheric, then this one fits right into that mould. I got a NetGalley approved copy and Hilary Mantel's faith in Toby Clements' ability was enough to spur me on with the reading. And the writing - Damn, it's good - kept me glued to the happenings as the War of Roses played out in the background to another intense personal drama about two lives unfolding in the shadow of this war. It's raw and heart-rending - the story of Thomas and Katherine;  A searing narrative that will definitely stay with you after you've closed the book. However - this being a second book in a series, there were a lot of nuances that I kept missing. Especially with respect to the characterization. The plot itself wasn't a zinger - the story follows the lives of Katherine and Thomas - a couple of star-crossed lovers who were...

I confess I haven’t read Christopher Golden before – But having raced through Tin Men in a day (in one friggin’ DAY people. That’s how addictive the writing is!), he is definitely a tour-de-force to be reckoned with. Science-fiction mixed with global politics and tonnes of blistering non-stop action: On the surface, Tin Men is a book that delivers gobs of all this. But dig a bit and it raises questions galore. In an unspecified near future world – where economies have collapsed, global warming has led to sea levels rising, food supplies have been hit and flood and drought are the order of the day. The world is in a constant state of chaos – Jihadists and Anarchists destabilizing life, tyrants and dictators around the world vying for control and civilians a mass collateral damage to everything. Into this world, America (Uncle Sam!) sends out RIC (Remote Infantry Corps) as a global peace-keeping force. These robots are controlled by actual soldiers – stationed somewhere deep...