Smorgasbord Fantasia

Guy Ritchie. Guy Ritchie. Guy Ritchie. This one's going to be EPIC. Yup - New movie out in 2017 and the trailer released sometime back at Comic-Con looks like a motherload of a shit-kicker! It's got Charlie Hunnam( Pacific Rim), dark humor, bare-knuckled fights, Jude Law, fire-balls, black magic and hell, it's a Guy Ritchie movie. Do you seriously need any other reason? This one's way up on my Most Awaited Movies of the Next Year -  The   King Arthur, Legend of the Sword.  In his own inimitable fashion, Guy Ritchie stamps his masterclass and his own distinct stylish visual flair on this legend, gritty, pulsating with a very high level of energy that never lets down through this whole trailer. Would you be interested in a Guy Ritchie take - on the Arthurian legend ? Let's find out, March 24 2017 as the movie opens. For now, feast on this action-packed exhilarating trailer that definitely ups the expectations to beyond star-trek.

Welcome to another Novel Publicity tour! We're so excited for the release of The Jakkattu Vector by P.K. Tyler  ! I am halfway through with the book and it's mind-blowing stuff. Imaginative worldbuilding, posing some really tough questions in the guise of a well-packaged post-apocalyptic story of alien contact, poignant and disturbing at the same time. Look out for a review coming up soon! About the Book They came as saviors to a deteriorating Earth Julip Thorne questions whether there is more to life beyond the barren dirt, acidic seas, and toxstorms her people work and die in. Living in poverty on the withering Greenland Human Reservation, she wonders if the alien Mezna goddesses are truly as holy as the temple preaches. Julip begins to dig deeper into the history of the planet and her leaders’ rise to power. But nothing can prepare her for the atrocities she uncovers. Meanwhile, Jakkattu prisoner Sabaal suffers constant torture and heinous medical experiments...

Billed as being perfect for fans of Scott Lynch and Patrick Rothfuss, Chandler J Birch 's debut novel, The Facefaker's Game is indeed a pretty exciting prospect for us fantasy lovers - a story about an earnest beggar boy who sets out to right some wrongs in his grimy ramshackle-rundown neighborhood with the help of his newly learned 'magic' skills, this premise should definitely strum your heart-strings as a reader looking for the next big thing after Locke Lamora. Add to the entertaining mix, an elegantly detailed magical system, some charming roguish protagonists, a grim-dark world full of danger and mysteries galore, all in the backdrop of a Charles Dickensian society; quite the potent mix for a good fantasy story. So while not quite in the league of a Locke Lamora or even Kvothe, the charming fourteen year-old Ashes, the main 'hero' of the narrative will definitely win hearts - for his intensely good-nature that leads him into all sorts of trouble, trying...

I usually am selective about the movies that I watch, in the theaters. I'm usually more a fan of the DVD-genre, sleeper hits and the like. And so this, Watching Acham Yenbathu Madayamaida, has been one of the few epic mistakes that I'm going to look back on and rue. This movie, Acham Yenbathu Madayamaida (Roughly translated to Fear is Foolishness ) was something that a few of us had pretty high hopes about. Director Gautham Vasudev Menon , AR Rehman and Simbu coming back together - especially when the songs were released a while back, (just mind-blowing! Pure bliss, Rehman back in blistering form and touch.) So naturally, the hype and expectations went sky-rocketing stratospheric and we dutifully got our tickets for a late-night show yesterday, the first week of the release of AYM. The first half of the movie, soars. Literally - a self-indulgent exercise in vanity, a beautiful love-story unfolding over the course of that one hour. We even see the faint beginnings o...

Another debut hailed by the marketing engines to be the contender for the Best of 2016-lists, but this time, I do believe that  Will Panzo 's excellent grim-dark debut, The Burning isle might just stand against the ravages of time and more. A solid, entertaining first book, soaked in grime and blood that details a tale steeped in magic, mysticism and dark intrigue about this mysterious young mage who arrives on this island-state of Scipio - at the arse-end of the republic, neglected by all except for the blood-thirsty, merciless ganglords at each others' throats for supremacy. Why is he here, a land forgotten by one and all, forms the crux of the bloody narrative that leaps and skittles forward, in gory skirmishes and numerous fights between spell-casters and wizards ending in smoked up charred ruins. It's by all means, a memorable debut with Will staking his blood-drenched authoritative claim to the crown of the grim-dark fantasy fiction ( Which of course today, is...

I got The Ferryman Institute a while back and have just been stewing on it - The book came out on Sept 27th, from Gallery (Simon & Schuster) books and if you like your urban fantasy a little offbeat layered on with sides of wicked humor, tons of action and an imagined world like no-where else ( literally hanging between the life and death!) then you should get your hands on this book. This is Colin Gigl 's debut and if this is any indication to go by, then this talented writer's got a long way to go. It reads like an assured piece of writing, whacky and funny to the core and paced really well, I couldn't seem to get enough of the story. Set in a hyper-imaginative setting called The Ferryman's Institute where the residents, simply known as ferrymen are primarily tasked with the onerous job of ferrying the newly dead souls, into the afterlife. And for this, they are 'blessed' with a seemingly immortal life ensuring that they carry on their assigned tas...

I watch movies, mainly because of the escape it offers me. Rose tinted dreams away from the bustle of a daily trudge of a real life. But occasionally, I get to watch such gems rooted in dark reality and grim truths that I cannot help but sit up to applaud. Kammatipaadam was one such movie. Funnily, I had never really heard of the movie much, except for some of the folk songs in it that seemed to briefly sparkle on the media. Maybe I was living under a rock. All things said and done, Kammatipaadam is an absolutely riveting, gorgeously detailed gangster drama that unfolds slowly, drawing attention to the hidden truths behind the rise of city of Kochi as the real estate haven. A missing-persons mystery, a revenge saga or a chronicle of the unraveling lives of unfortunate youths caught in the bottomless spiral of a life made on violence and blood : The movie is treated at different levels and it works, oh so well at all these levels. Director Rajeev Ravi' s third outing, Kam...