Smorgasbord Fantasia

I only picked up Signal to Noise because I had got approved for Silvia Morena Garcia 's second book, Certain Dark Things review copy - and when I did a quick search, Signal to Noise surfaced as her debut - highly acclaimed, a literary work with splashes of supernatural magic and copious references to popular music. Intrigued, I went ahead and got myself a copy - but got around to reading it at a stretch only a few days back. Suffice to say that retro Mexico, birthday mix-tapes and vinyl records drew me in, like  a magical spell, not unlike the ones that play out in the book itself; a magic that resided in the musical records that the protagonists of Signal to Noise kept obsessing over. So the story is set in parallel time-lines, 1988/89 and 2009 - ping-pongs back and forth building on the suspense and the emotional resonance - building on the life and times of Meche , Mercedes Vaga who has come back to mexico city to attend her father's funeral in 2009. And being back...

I am a huge fan of mostly anything that comes out from Angry Robot - as I believe they've got it almost right when it comes to talent-spotting. Hunger Makes the Wolf by Alex Wells , was frankly a bit of an odd-ball of a choice for my reading. It's science fiction, mixed in with some goodly measure of low-magic. I don't generally read so much of science fiction in general. Maybe its an injustice that I'm labeling the book so because, really this book is so much more than that. A space-opera that is very accessible in that it's focused on the intense happenings in just one strange off-world planet and relentlessly drives the narrative forward through some delectable characterization and commendable world-building. Corporate politicking, a fantastical magic system and biker-gangs! How can I forget the uber-cool biker-gangs that forms the backbone of this sci-fi thriller and the kickass Hob Ravani, a female lead who along with her best friend Mag plots to bring down t...

Logan is the befitting swansong for Hugh Jackman as The Wolverine, a role he has owned, for close to twenty years now and is finally letting go of those adamantium-claws, this time for good. It's raw, violent and pack full of grit, human drama and hurt in such full measure, that it deserves fully to be the burial ship for this warrior as we bid him a tearful goodbye. It's an extraordinary piece of film-making that gives Jackman, his valedictory dues as he bows out on a phenomenal high, delivering one of his most heart-wrenching portrayal of one of the most tortured and highly misunderstood x-men whose explosively volatile temper and those shiny 'snikt-snikt' claws of death and maim has been his claim to fame, for just too long. Now he can hang up those boots, having convinced us about his ability to masterfully carry off those quiet, tender moments in a movie; just as well as those supernova brain-blitzing action sequences where he goes on a rampaging streak, d...

Cold Counsel by Chris Sharp was a book, that sold itself to me just by that badass cover. It's as wickedly cool as they come - and of course the back-blurb promised me a ripping yarn of Trolls, Elves, Goblins, Witches and their evil magic altering the world engaged in brutal battles. Now these creatures bring in a sense of yearning for the old style of fantasy-writing - where it was truly 'fantastical' and we willingly took frequent leaps of faith, into boiling cauldrons of frothing magic and myth, enjoying the ride, as unbelievable and fanciful as they are. It's the same with Chris Sharp's first book in this series, that follows the adventures of Slud ('Bringer of Trouble'), the last troll left this side of the world, going about a war to reclaim his birthright and perhaps, more. A familiar sense of yearning, a straight-forward classic tale of sword-and-sorcery but wrapped up in newer sensibilities that appeal and exhilarate at the same time, for us ...