Smorgasbord Fantasia

Happy Release Day to Silvia Morena-Garcia ! Her latest, Beautiful Ones hits the stands today - and the lovely folks at Thomas Dunne  books were kind enough to send me a copy along with excerpts from her dazzling new take on troubled love, telekinesis underlined by an amazingly haunting old world charm and elegance to the story.  I absolutely loved her debut tale of magic and music, set in the 80's Mexico, Signal to Noise and can't wait to delve into this one. About the book: Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s debut, Signal To Noise, jump started her writing career winning a Copper Cylinder Award, and was a finalist of the British Fantasy, Locus, Sunburst, and Aurora awards. Her sophomore novel, Certain Dark Things, earned praise from such wide ranging publications as PopSugar, Romantic Times, Locus Magazine, and The New York Times Book Review. Her take on vampires was selected as one of NPR’s “Best Books of 2016” and was a finalist for this year’s Locus Awards. Continuing ...

2017 seems to be the year of debuts – for epic fantasy. First it was the excellent Court of Broken Knives by Anna Smith Spark , vying hard to fit into the title of her own twitter handle, @LadyGrimDark – then I happened to fall in love with the lush and beautiful East Asian inspired epic fantasy Tiger’s Daughter by Arsenault K Rivera . I am going to go back and finish Anna Stephen ’s gripping debut in Godblind as well. And then Blackwing happened. Ed McDonald ’s debut infuses new life into the fading genre of grim-dark. But regardless of the grim-dark tag, this is accomplished debut that goes far beyond. Blackwing is suitably gritty – flush with shocking violence, the tone and treatment is dark enough and there is a lot of black humour for it to qualify as grim-dark. But Ed’s top notch writing is what truly elevates this one above the pile of ordinary. Very clever turns of phrases that hits you square between your eyes– and of course, the excellent world building and a p...

Bringing to you, some of the most anticipated titles in SFF, we continue this meme originally hosted by Jill of Breaking Spine , this week we feature a sequel to a highly successful debut from last year. The Girl in the Tower is the sequel to the highly acclaimed Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden , an enchanting mix of fairy tale, fantasy and historical fiction based in Medieval Russia. Damn, you had me at Russia :) Well, the Girl in the Tower continues the tale. Katherine Arden’s enchanting first novel introduced readers to an irresistible heroine. Vasilisa has grown up at the edge of a Russian wilderness, where snowdrifts reach the eaves of her family’s wooden house and there is truth in the fairy tales told around the fire. Vasilisa’s gift for seeing what others do not won her the attention of Morozko—Frost, the winter demon from the stories—and together they saved her people from destruction. But Frost’s aid comes at a cost, and her people have condemned her as...

So I admit, Language of dying is the first book by Sarah Pinborough that I read. And by Gods, am I hooked. Language of dying by Sarah refuses to be pigeon-holed into a specific category of fiction - And by far, this one definitely is a literary knock-out punch. A gut-wrenching, soul-rending song of a book which attempts to unravel the something called the  language of dying - Yup it exists. How much ever we deny the same, this is a language defies definition or capture but is indeed something that all of us have had to deal with one time or the other. It is not just the fact that she chose to write about something as morbid and shocking as death. In fact, it is Sarah's treatment of the subject. Honest, unflinching and just plain brave. The story is that of a father wracked by lung cancer, lying painfully in his death bed while the nameless narrator, the daughter is waiting on him to die, a hauntingly disturbing vigil as this drama play out against the backdrop of grey m...

The Tiger’s Daughter was one of the hottest anticipated debuts of the year – The premise of an East Asian inspired fantasy – steeped in beautiful folklore, bringing to life an epic love story between two female leads, destined for greatness, for ‘Godliness’ right from their birth – is just too good a premise to be missed out on. And after having bulldozed through the 500-odd pages in a scramble to get to the finish, I am not disappointed. Not at all! Definitely one of the standout works for 2017. In fact, this is a wonderfully intimate yet epic work of fantasy featuring two of the unlikeliest heroines you would encounter in the genre. A spoiled, cocky princess of the Hokkoran Empire (closely resembling Japan) O-Shizuka who believes in her divinity from get-go and dismisses the world around her, openly flouting rules and tradition. And her best friend cum lover, Barsalayaa Shefali, the future Kharsa (like a tribe or clan leader) of the Quorin (A horse loving tribal nomadic folk...