Smorgasbord Fantasia

Brian McClellan is among my favourite epic fantasy authors having given us door-stopping tomes like the Powder Mage trilogy and his new one, Wrath of the Empire, second book in the series set in the same world that started off with Sins of the Empire coming out this year as well. When I got the ARC of his new novella, War Cry - I had no idea it was a novella. I expected it to be a full on, tour de force epic fantasy novel. A epic fantasy based on the World War was indeed pretty intriguing and then Brian had me reading this at one stretch, this whole Saturday wrapping it up early evening. It is that good, damn addictive. So War Cry introduces us to a world, in the state of a perpetual war, an area called Bava or Bavares high plain, possibly one of largest plateau in the world - through the eyes of this shape-shifter called Teado . He is a Changer ( and I will just let you experience what he really is, through the book without divulging much details!) and he holed up in a sm

Every once in a while there comes along a well executed, darkly comic and exuberantly horrific story that forces you to just drop everything else, stay up way past your bedtime reading - dunking coffee to stay awake, looking over your shoulders all the time, grinning like an idiot while your heart is hammering away like a jazz concert on boosters till you hit the last line and then again, stay up all night just thinking about this book. This. Was. That. Book. I know I am perhaps two years late in reading this phenomenon of a book but good books persist beyond years. And hey apparently there's a movie being made on the book (and heck, I am not surprised as to how well this lends itself to being movie fodder! And Jason Arnopp himself is a scriptwriter with some serious credits to his name) So the Last Days of Jack Sparks is sort of an autobiographical account of this pop journalist Jack Sparks who is out to debunk the myths around the phenomenon of supernatural horror/

August looks like an 'august' month indeed with noteworthy sequels to some of the biggest debuts of the last year.  The ones I personally am most kicked about are the following:  Tower of Living and Dying by Anna Smith Spark : The 'queen of grim dark' is back with the second installment to the series,  Empires of Dust  (I thoroughly enjoyed the mad caper that was book one!) that continues the doomed tale of the unbalanced heir, Marith as he wields the power of the throne of the White Isles. Promises to be bleak, grim and sordidly dark. Right up my alley! Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames  : if you thought that the bunch of oldies  reunion was the great band ever in the Band Series, then wait until you read the next instalment that tells the story of the daughter Rose and her band. I have heard it tops the  first book  and that is saying a LOT.  Even if its just a speck of dust on that first book, then hells come alive, I would love it. 

Choosing to fully flesh out the monster in each one of us, Marjorie Liu , NYtimes bestselling author of works like Hunter Kiss series and comics like Dark Wolverine and Black Widow, literally brings out an exhilarating interpretation to this: Turning her attention to medieval China, layering in a fully realised and a wonderfully epic world (daresay the likes of which hasn't been seen in Graphic novels in recent times!) she and artist Sana Takeda in collaboration, have churned out this groundbreaking series, Monstress (Volume 1 & 2 are out - Vol.3 will hit the stands around Sept) After having quickly run through the first two volumes, I think this one takes the podium, displacing the meandering bloated Saga (currently at Volume 8) from my mind as the best ever running series for a graphic novel. Captivating storytelling that is nuanced, deep and backed up by some brilliant swirling artwork. Set in a sprawling fully realised magical world that is inspired by the early 190