Smorgasbord Fantasia

Prince of Thorns is about a charming fourteen year old sociopath hell bent on carving a bloody path of revenge after having witnessed the heinous murder of his mother and younger brother stuck helpless in patch of briar thorns. The prince comes back after four years to extract revenge but his father’s castle might no longer be the place he grew up in, instead it becomes a treacherous labyrinth of back stabbings and swirling dark magic. It’s a little shit kicker of a book that blows up in your face and clinically butchers any preconceived notions you might have had about this typical fantasy trope of a young boy growing up into his destiny. I absolutely loved it. All my initial qualms of reading up about a young boy twisted by his overarching desires to extract a bloody revenge who doesn’t give a second thought to sacrificing blood brothers or young girls started slipping as I got caught by the mesmerizing manner in which Mark Lawrence has fleshed   out his tale. Full of

So I hit the US of A about last week and have been loving this country ever since. Travelled to San Diego over the weekend, met up my oldest college friends and it was a hoot. Lucky that am in California and not anywhere else as the cold wave continues across the rest of the country but here, in South California, it is blessed weather.  Watched like 4 different movies - The Oscar winning Argo, the super successful adorable wimpy kid brought to screen – Dog Days : Diary of a Wimpy Kid, a Chinese martial arts meets steampunk action extravaganza called Tai-Chi Zero and fourth, counting today’s lame and insipid sequel to the smash hit Taken franchise, Taken 2. Going to rant about Taken 2 today since I was so let down.  To say the least, it was such a mind fuck. It is in no way comparable to the bone-crunching in-your-face- unapologetic action jet-thriller that the first movie was – where you held your breath and cheered in loud gusty whoops as you watched Liam Neeson