Smorgasbord Fantasia

Just when you thought, this genius couldn't surprise you anymore [ after that YA-fantasy done so right, with the Book of Ancestor that ended last month, with Holy Sister topping things off on a delirious high!] in a move that departs from his earlier works, Mark Lawrence [ Book# 10, hats off to you sir. You remain my highest read author, only after Stephen King in terms of the total number of books read!] gives us One Word Kill , an absolutely wonderful nostalgia trip to the 80's complete with D&D board games and nerd-gangs with disco nights and a sweet soaring romance that doesn't actually irk. For all the right reasons, this one has been compared to Stranger Things , the Netflix blockbuster [ that was one of my favorite watches as well] But all that notwithstanding, this is Mark Lawrence guys, I kept thinking to myself as I tore through the story. Waiting to see if he would stick the landing with this departure of sorts, from his usual "grim-dark...

A Time of Blood is my second John Gwynne book, after his last year's opening salvo A Time of Dread in the new series, Of Blood and Bone - set in the same world as his first series, Of Faith and Fallen . Do you need to read Faith and Fallen before this one? probably not, but be warned that this new series actually is like the tip of a giant ice-berg buried below the sea-level, building up on the histories, back stories, myths and culture that was all set up fairly deep on the foundations of that swashbuckling heroic fantasy quadrilogy. Now when you open a John Gwynne story, you open it with certain expectations.  The action is guaranteed to thrill you: Expect cinematic choreographed set-pieces that compete with brutal, intense one-on-one combats,. And the narrative template is fairly straightforward - featuring men and women of extraordinary valor trying to gather around their deep rooted ideals and morals fighting for what they believe is right, against clearly defined...

Christina Henry 's darker take on the fairy tales has been nothing short of riveting. I personally was a huge fan of Alice and this summer, Christina ups the ante, with The Girl in Red - a terrifying post-apocalyptic take on Little Red Riding Hood. Check out the amazingly gorgeous cover: Here's the official blurb: From the national bestselling author of Alice comes a post-apocalyptic take on the perennial classic "Little Red Riding Hood"...about a woman who isn't as defenseless as she seems. It's not safe for anyone alone in the woods. There are predators that come out at night: critters and coyotes, snakes and wolves. But the woman in the red jacket has no choice. Not since the Crisis came, decimated the population, and sent those who survived fleeing into quarantine camps that serve as breeding grounds for death, destruction, and disease. She is just a woman trying not to get killed in a world that doesn't look anything like the one she gr...

"Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that first originated at Breaking the Spine but has since linked up with “Can’t Wait Wednesday” at Wishful Endings now that the original creator is unable to host it anymore. Either way, this fun feature is a chance to showcase the upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on! Tor has now excelled the art of finding short novella length absolute gems of stories. In that same vein, comes The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Geisbrecht , termed " dark as an oil-slick and iridescent with feral humor, bruise violet-prose " by Indra Das , author of Devourers . Absolute screamer of a description, eh. And based on the opening lines of this book -  I know this is going to be a blast of a dark fantasy story! The Monster of Elendhaven is a dark fantasy, a twisted tale of revenge set in an original world as oily and real as Jack the Ripper’s London. After a thing with no name washes up on the docks, empty, alone, and...

So yet another trilogy by Mark Lawrence ! Done and dusted. Holy Sister marks the end of the trilogy, Book of the Ancestor tracing the emotional and physical journey of Nona Grey , from the time she entered the order of the sisters as an orphan, till she becomes a holy sister, giving herself up to faith and prayers in this whole series that has been built up on religious imagery. If Red Sister was about Nona's early transformation into a fearsome fighting machine and her physical transformation, Grey Sister saw Nona embrace the dark magics to tap into the magical reserves within her and also manipulate the threads that shaped this world. So this, was a fitting conclusion as she finally decides to embrace the black of a holy sister because, she realizes that the world can never get enough of the prayers to heal. And what a world ! Mark's packed in some dense world-building into this planet where the sun gets weaker everyday,  a planet where four different humanoid ra...

" Waiting On Wednesday ” is a weekly meme that first originated at Breaking the Spine but has since linked up with “Can’t Wait Wednesday” at Wishful Endings now that the original creator is unable to host it anymore. Either way, this fun feature is a chance to showcase the upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!   2019 Gutter Prayer was one of the most original and wholly exciting grim-dark fantasy book that came out. Gareth Hanrahan completely had my heart with his soaring debut - and so I am definitely super excited about Book-II in this series. So, ta-da presenting book two, The   Shadow Saint : Thieves, dangerous magic, and a weapon built with the power to destroy a god clash in this second novel of Gareth Hanrahan's acclaimed epic fantasy series, The Black Iron Legacy. Enter a city of spires and shadows . . . The Gutter Miracle changed the landscape of Guerdon forever. Six months after it was conjured into being, the labyrinthine New Ci...