Smorgasbord Fantasia

I popped in elsewhere on the internet today - find below a link to my review of the fourth and concluding series to the Inheritance Series by Paolini. http://vaultofbooks.com/action/review-inheritance Let me know what you guys thought. I sure thought it was a toil. and I plodded and crawled to finish this book. I sure hope Paolini gets his basics right in terms of plotting !!

One of the darkest fantasy novels that I’ve ever read since I joined the fray of SFF Genre freaks. The Darkness that comes before is part one of a sweeping ambitious series known as the Prince of Nothing by Canadian author R Scott Bakker and came out quite a few years ago. I got the book a long while back but never did get into it for a long time. Seriously, this book had me baulking at the incomprehensibly “awe”-inspiring prose and yet falling for it through and through. The first few attempts I discarded the book at the epilogue itself - for the high handed treatment and the dense language that refused to worm through my brains.      But this time, I persisted. From what I read on the review world – this book had polarized its readers. It’s a straight 5 or a downright 1. Nothing in between. Hate it –or-love it. And now I understand why. Am glad I persisted with trying to finish this one. It has been a fabulous read – a difficult book I agree –smattered...

Beaten by Bhagath! claims to be the first-ever tale about the unseen side of the wonderland of Indian Fiction. That was the hook for me to say YES – to an offer from BookVault to review this book. I mean, hey! this was a behind-the-scenes look at the Publishing industry from someone who’s been there, done that and is willing to lay bare the ugly truths and bust some myths. So bring it on, huh? I was ready to lap it up – that small worm inside of me delighting at such an opportunity to learn more of this industry I was trying to break into.    This isn’t a debut and definitely reads like a polished effort from a talented author.   S V Divaakar is a multi-talented personality currently having forayed into Writing and Public Speaking and music forms a large wedge in the circle of his life. The tag-line, “A tale of two writers” succinctly sums up the whole book – even though it’s written from a first-person narrative, the whole book centering around the effo...

Edit: I stand corrected - Control Point is published by Ace Roc (Penguin) books and NOT Night Shade. Thanks, Myke for putting me back on track :) Another excellent debut by Ace Roc that has been garnering praise for all the right reasons and getting nominated for the biggies for the past one year now. This comes on the heels of two super awesome debuts I have read (technically should have been in 2012 though!!). There was Kameron Hurley who ran away with all the praise and the awards the year her debut, Book One of Bel Dame Apocrypha hit the stands. Then I chanced upon the excellent russo-setting epic fantasy by Bradley Beaulieu, Winds of Kalakhovo. Now this. Shadow Point by Myke Cole. Excellent stuff really – doesn’t read like a debut. Polished prose, jet-setting pacing, fantastic premise that doesn’t disappoint when executed novel-length, authentic and accurately detailed world-building. Check against all of this, this book pretty much scored on all fronts for me. Pe...

Even though the name sounds like some rustic village slangs slung together to form a wish-washy sing-song title that means absolutely nothing, Vishal Bharadwaj still manages to impress us with this quirky comic satire. He has done a complete backflip with this one. This movie remains his most commercial one till date where he’s eschewed his usual dark foreboding sense of cinematic direction and infused this one with a mad sense of comedy that trills with happiness, happies endings and the likes. A Vishal Bharadwaj movie sans dark humor sans pathos sans tragic endings? Yeah scratch your head but you better believe. And what helped him out this time? A pink buffalo and the acting powerhouse called Pankaj Kapoor.   It’s a Pankaj Kapoor movie all the way till the end credits roll in and even then, he doesn’t leave you – trying out mad hip shakings with the Zulu-dancers from South Africa. It’s an irreverent comedy set in the rustic backvillages of Haryana and the story...