Smorgasbord Fantasia

The Wolf of Oren-Yaro by KS Villoso is a stunning debut about a conflict-ridden empire built on Asian cultural folklores (mainly Filipino) featuring an absolute badass leading lady known as the Bitch Queen who is ready to die and kill equally, to protect her duty, honour and love. This book is one of the self-published success stories, that got picked up by Orbit and re-released into the larger world ( to the absolute delight of readers like me!) - the paperback version just released last week and I happened to get an ARC for the same, a while back. Had been seeing glowing reviews of this character-driven epic fantasy all over the my feeds and I knew, I had to check this out. Having sat through yesterday night, feverishly turning the pages like mad at two thirty am yesterday night to reach the end, I can vouch for the fact that you haven't read anything like this, in a while among the whole epic fantasy stories or narratives. Initially and even till the point of three-fo...

I haven't read a book by Paul Krueger before this but if this book, which he claims is something that he wrote truly only for himself, is anything to go by - I will definitely be picking up more of his works before long. Steel Crow Saga was a pleasant surprise really - a breath of fresh air, inventive originality at play spinning together a tour-de-force of magic and wonder in a world, influenced by the oriental cultures. It's an epic tale of different cultures clashing, of identities forged and reforged, political intrigue mired in action and subterfuge all fronted by four vivid and really memorable characters, each a force to reckon with. I totally loved it and definitely would recommend this one to readers, looking for something new and wholly enjoyable. The story is set in the warring world of four different cultures - With our story starting at the end of a disastrous war between these cultures leaving their world burnt, men reeling and levels of tension very high...

The Poppy War was a book that I never knew, I was craving for. I finished, nay I gobbled up this powerful, epic coming-of-age story set amidst a disastrous war that follows the destiny of this young girl from rural south in a kingdom ravaged by war, whose every step to success is drenched in blood and suffering - all this in just a few sittings. And as I finished it, my first thought was that this....was absolute magic. Such compelling heady stuff that it is hard is believe it's the debut work of  Rebecca F Kuang . Inspired heavily by the Sino-Japanese wars of early 1930's, the epic fantasy setting is that of the sprawling Nikan Empire where young Rin, a war orphan suffering misery and servitude in rural south, has just figured out that her only way out of this cruel life is an entry into the Military Academies - and not just any academy but the highest one called Sinegard that trains the scions of the actual Warlords of the various provinces of Nikan to become Military...