Smorgasbord Fantasia

Muthoon means the Elder One, in the local dialects spoken on the islands of Lakshadweep.  A gritty, coming-of-age story about a young boy's search for his older brother that leads him from the aquamarine blue-seas and sand-washed islands of Lakshadweep to the seedy underbelly of the dark streets of Mumbai, Muthoon is Geetu Mohandas' second directorial and it definitely hits home with its stark hard-hitting messages on gender fluidity and forbidden love.  It 'premiered' on the OTT platforms - on Zee network yesterday and I decided to finally catch this movie as it had not released in the theatres outside Kerala, last year December. Right from the wide-angle opening shots of the sandy beaches and brilliant turquoise water that surrounds the stark island where three boys are playing out their childhood games, I knew I was in for something special here.  Mulla is a young boy full of anger and rebellious angst who only wants to find out the truths about his older brother re...

Jay Posey 's Legend of the Duskwalker series was a personal favourite. Even though I personally thought the first book trumped books two and three, Duskwalker was a great platform to establish Jay in genre fiction. A dystopian post-apocalyptic setting, enigmatic heroes, well-etched characters and kinetic action sequences.  So when Every Sky a Grave was announced - ( with similarities to Mark Lawrence, for fans of Ann Leckie and Star Wars! Ha ha clever marketing there, eh.) and the wonderfully kind folks at Harper sent me an ARC, I was thrilled.  I was dropped right into the middle of an action scene ( And we know Jay writes some phenomenally explosive sequences, maybe perhaps his experience in writing for the gaming industry!) - and that formed my first impressions of Elyth, a warrior-monk in the ways of the Deep Language, Advocate of the Voice and loyal to this organisation called The First House. I know, this was a bit overwhelming and I felt the same way. We are thrust in...

Race the Sands by Sarah Beth Durst is a welcome standalone epic fantasy novel that should be topping the charts of "Must-read" lists this year. I am super glad for two reasons: one, I discovered an absolute gem of a book that is...wait for it..a Standalone and two, I discovered a favourite new author in Sarah Beth Durst ( Am waiting to dive into the Queens of Renthia series next!)  Beccar is one of the most detailed worlds that I have read in the recent past, little details that leap off the page at you to make it memorable. An empire bordered by the desert, Beccar is set in a world where the good deeds of your life gets you good karma in your after-life. Reincarnations and the cycle of life is never-ending. You come back as a Hyena,Turtle, a Hawk or even a Swan. If you are lucky, your new vessel may be human. But that is perhaps reserved for the purest of the souls. The worst ones are reborn as Kehoks - chimera-like monsters that are impossible mash-ups of the worst preda...

I have never read anything by Nicky Drayden before - Her bio claims 200+ short stories and 3 full length novels to her credit and it's a shame I just discovered her map-cap of a debut 3 years late. But better late than never and I resolve to set matter straight because this hyper-imaginative author is going right to the top of my must-read authors list after this blistering, too-weird-but-oh-so-much-fun genre-bending science-fantasy debut of hers, called The Prey of Gods .  Set in the distant future, around 2160 the story is set in the town of Port Elizabeth in South Africa. The narrative spools out from five different POVs all of them unique and absolutely compelling by themselves: Muzi, a young teenage on the cusp of his adulthood with his confused feelings for his best friend Elkin. Nomvula, a young girl from the village outside the town who's blessed with secrets by the Gods themselves and who's secretly enamoured by this older man Mr. Tau whom her mother claims to hav...

Charlize Theron is back in beast mode and picks up right where she left off, from Atomic Blonde and Mad Max Fury Road ( Furiosa) in this Netflix twist on superheroes and immortality, The Old Guard . Adapted from the intense graphic novel of the same name by Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernandez, The Old Guard has Charlize Theron play a centuries-old immortal warrior named Andy, ably supported by a diverse cast and directed by   Gina Prince-Bythewood, going behind the cameras for the first time, for an all-out action flick.  And boy, does she come out smoking, giving us an epic action flick in what could be the start of an interesting franchise series.  Along with three more of her immortal brothers-in-arms, Andy has been protecting mankind for centuries, (Funnily from themselves on countless occasions, deviating the course of history itself). The movie starts on an intriguing note - where Andy and her 'army' are lying dead in a pool of blood and spent shell-casings and she i...

Thought I will compile a list of some of my most-anticipated titles coming in this quarter, which am super excited about! Kill Orbit by Joel Dane A hostile fleet. A planet killer. And one shot to make it right. In this gripping new military science-fiction novel, a battle-tested infantry squad pursues an inhuman enemy into the vacuum of space. Maseo Kaytu's squad is yanked from a much-deserved furlough by an emergency deployment off-planet. But why is Command sending grunts into the "Big Empty"? Without CAVs, without backup--hell, without gravity--the squad is more vulnerable than ever. Tasked with a mission that only they can complete, they track the enemy across the killing vastness of space, from a bizarre interplanetary warehouse to the hidden heart of a research habitation...and beyond. But the enemy is tracking them, too. Scanning, calculating, preparing. Kaytu joined the military to redeem the bad choices of his past, yet now--trapped in hostile territory--he learn...

RF Kuang made a splash with her debut, The Poppy War - an epic fantasy loosely based on the sino-japanese wars with the brutal post-war impact becoming the focus of a coming-of-age novel about this young girl called Rin. Followed that up with the stunning Dragon Republic.  And so this week - we feature the last book in that trilogy where RF Kuang says that "We didn't pull any punches" - going out all the way with The Burning God . Can't wait for November!  After saving her nation of Nikan from foreign invaders and battling the evil Empress Su Daji in a brutal civil war, Fang Runin was betrayed by allies and left for dead. Despite her losses, Rin hasn’t given up on those for whom she has sacrificed so much—the people of the southern provinces and especially Tikany, the village that is her home. Returning to her roots, Rin meets difficult challenges—and unexpected opportunities. While her new allies in the Southern Coalition leadership are sly and untrustworthy, Rin q...