Smorgasbord Fantasia

I think I found my favorite novel of the year already. Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton, released in 2019 Aug is a beautiful, breakneck romp through a zombie apocalypse as seen through the eyes of pet crow named S.T (Shit Turd. Yeah Beat that for originality!) with a confounding identity crisis and an unnatural love for Cheetos.   Yes, it is as wildly unexpected as it sounds and this sense of zany originality is the soul of the whole implausible story. As grim and terrible as the premise sounds - where the humanity is now extinct, turned into mindless zombies through a virus that spreads through iphone/ipad screens - Kira's assured writing gives us exacting visuals of a world gone crazy but also subtly and cleverly touches upon the subtext that is beneath all this drama. That the world or rather Mother Nature needs balance. About how all the animals or the species need each other in this world.  So ST, a domesticated crow is living in blissful ignorance with his maste...

We are five Episodes into The Last of Us - the HBO Original Show based on the bestselling game of the same title and from when they dropped the first episode premiere, it has been a hoot. And there are no signs of slowing down. An absolutely exquisitely made TV adaption that is true to the original writing and shines fearlessly bright. I daresay that this is possibly the best HBO series ever made.  Calling The Last of Us just a zombie apocalypse show would be unfair and reductive. For it is a lot more than a zombie apocalypse. It's in fact, a searing unflinching study of human emotions under extreme duress, a story heartfelt and horrific, a buddy road movie and lots more. As the creators of the show, Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, from Naughty Dog who created the original game for PlayStation, prove again and again  (Presenting evidence A : the series premiere, evidence   B : Episode Three or evidence C :  Episode Five that dropped a few days back ) they are out t...