Smorgasbord Fantasia

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...

I have not been enchanted and bewitched by a book like Black Leopard, Red Wolf , in recent times. Period. I don't know what Marlon James was smoking as he wrote this opening chapter to the proposed Dark Star trilogy but this one's a psychedelic experience, a dazzling journey through magical lands teeming with danger and explosive violence, land that is brimming with elements from Marlon James' frenzied hyperactive imagination, and resembles a fantasy version of pre-colonial Africa. But it's a journey that will horrify you and amaze you in equal measure - for the man doesn't shy away from violence or skin-crawling descriptions of sex. Cinematic violence on a scale and form un-imagined before. [ think hatchets flying through the air, arrows bursting through from the back, hearts ripped out and eyeballs plucked dry and scores of bodies mutilated and hacked down, at random or on purpose. And it doesn't stop here!] This is an Africa you haven't even dr...

So The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Hanrahan  ranks right up there, in terms of my most anticipated books of 2019  and the pre-publication buzz has been nothing short of fantastic. I stalk Gareth on his blog and followed his reddit AMA  and so no wonder, when I got approved for the ARC for Gutter Prayer, I was way over the moon, sun and all the stars. Now having breathlessly finished his gut-punchy debut, I guess I finally know what all the fuzz was about. And well deserved, I might add. Grim-dark by way of New Weird (Think China Mievelle) Gareth has built  an immensely intricate and detailed world in his accomplished debut, The Gutter Prayer. Friendships, betrayals and forgotten myths come alive in a mad chaotic tale set in the ancient city of Guerdon - a crumbling metropolis that runs on alchemy and broken faith. Three unlikely allies go up against ancient guilds, a corrupt watch and a horde of demons from the underworld as the world around them gets caught up ...