Smorgasbord Fantasia

The Immortal King Rao was a book I had given up on, last year I think. But something drew me to the same, earlier this month and once I was invested with the little Rao's growing up years in his little village in the back of nowhere past the East Godavari districts, I couldn't stop reading about the rise and rise of a Dalit dark-skinned man right at the centre of the world power, the riding the waves of innovation in tech-corridors of Corporate America, who then ultimately fucks up and then retreats to a small island. Yeah, it's as fascinating as it sounds, but wait there's more! So frankly, I thought The Immortal King Rao was an ambitious novel, on the lines of Midnight's Children , that takes a sweeping multi-generational tale and mixes it up with an eerily prescient vision of life on dystopian earth caught up in the throes of global warming.  There were bits of the novel that were a brilliant trip drenched in nostalgia, especially the parts of Rao's childhoo...

Malayalam Movie industry has been relentlessly churning out some fantastic movies, one after the other. So much so, that I actually have missed out watching a few good ones that released late last year on the OTT platforms. One such gem is ARM ( Ajayente Randam Moshanam) or Ajayan's second theft.  A mix of historical folklore, fantasy adventure and an impossible heist, all rolled into one - this one's Tovino Thomas' magnum opus post-covid big screen release from late 2024 ( He plays a triple role in this, three characters across three generations!) directed by Jithin Laal (in only his first ever big outing as a director) ably bringing to life a surreal story penned by Sujith Nambiar. It truly deserves all the accolades and the money it has made and I only wish more people would get acquainted with this fantastic period action movie, laid with overtones of fantasy firmly rooted in folklore. Being a big fantasy nerd and a fan of anything mythological, this movie was an abso...

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean has an absolute bonkers of a concept. North of England in the Yorkshire Moors, live a clan of six “Families” – who are humanoid/aliens and survive by eating books, gaining knowledge or experiences depending on the kind of literature they “devour”.  They are secretive and surrounding them is an almost Dracula-like legend that cloaks them from the rest of the humanity, only a few even suspecting as to their existence.  Devon belongs to one of the oldest ‘families’ among these people and being one of the rarer “female” of the species, is tasked with the preservation of the clan/race. Which basically leads her leading an oppressive life of being a mule, tasked with marrying into other families as directed by her elders and procreating for the sake of the survival of the clan. Naturally, Devon – a headstrong perceptive young woman, doesn’t take kindly to her “assigned” tasks. Especially after having gotten attached to her first daughter, Salem. Who is...

  A startlingly original tale - Leech by Hiron Ennes has been on my reading list ever since tordotcom released it way back in 2022. This and Manhunt were two of my most-anticipated titles that had me super intrigued. Now that I finally finished it, I am glad I got around to it. It's a very cleverly written story about what it means to be human, in a wonderfully constructed gothic horror setting in a bleak post-apocalyptic scifi world. The tale is narrated by a millennia-old parasite that has ingratiated itself into the human society taking over as The Institute, posing as 'doctor' on duty from the more prosperous industrial town of Inultus, complete with the world's best medical resources and library. The way it hides in plain sight, is by taking over the minds of any promising young person who can be trained as a doctor, within the institute. As the story starts, we learn that the institute has sent one of it's hive-mind doctors to investigate the death of one of t...

 October seems to be the month for series finales for me! Right on the heels of Mirrored Heavens (Between Earth and Sky) I wrapped up The Fury of the Gods the much-awaited third and final book in this norse-inspired epic fantasy by fan-favorite J ohn Gwynne , known for having his fabulous big fat epic novels ( Faith and Fallen , and the sequel Blood and Bone )  His new trilogy, the Bloodsworn saga is set in an Viking-sque world, still scarred and reeling from the last war between Gods, all of whom are now fallen or lost.  The Shadow of the Gods and  The Hunger of the Gods sets up the readers for this absolutely compelling nail biting frenzy of a climax, bringing this brilliant tale to a closure. Written across multiple narratives, the readers follow the fate of the lead characters, damaged and scarred by their life experiences, as their world Vigrid comes under attack yet again with colossal powers rising up from dead, set to clash with each other.  By...

With Mirrored Heavens , Rebecca Roanhorse takes us to the nail biting climax of this series Between Earth and Sky - one of the finest examples of epic fantasies done right, where prophecies come alive, Gods pit themselves against each other through their human avatars, and the humans themselves, fall prey to their baser instincts, fighting for power in this brutal bloody game where backstabbing, deceptions and in-fighting are the rules, not exceptions.  War  finally  comes to Meridian.  The merchant lords are gunning for the city of Tova. Tova itself, has fallen under the Crow God's eclipse and now the city is smarting under the new tyrant Serrapio, the chosen Carrion King, the God's instrument of bloody reckoning. While the Sky Made clans are conspiring against him, Serrapio has to decide on what alliances to trust and what to avoid or eliminate. And then there is this new prophecy by the trickster God Coyote that has him confused and scrambling, looking for ways t...

Alex Grecian ’s first novel, The Yard , set in the 1889 in a Victorian London coming on the back of the horrors of Jack the Ripper’s atrocities on the city, is a lurid grisly historical thriller/crime novel. Set in the seedy underbelly of the most populous city at that time in the world, featuring a deranged killer who is butchering the policemen themselves, the Yard introduces us to the Murder Squad, a set of policemen tasked with investigating the most difficult murder cases that pile up in this city, especially with “Saucy Jack” having unshackled the chains off a deranged set of killers. The Yard takes us to the unexplored dark alleyways of London, featuring a trio of policemen – Inspector Walter Day, backed up by the ever-resourceful constable Hammersmith and aided by the progressive thinking pathologist Dr. Bernard Kingsley who is out to clean up London’s morgues and also the doctor society at large of primitive practices. The story starts off with the discovery of a trunk, stuffe...

Absolutely loved this one! An action-packed visceral examination of casteism and colonialism in the backdrop of a bloody siege through the eyes of an underdog, who discovers herself and comes into her own. Kavithri by Aman J Bedi marks the beginning of a fascinating new epic fantasy headlined by a firecracker of a heroine, Kavi aka Kavithri Taemu , a young woman, broken by the unfair ruthless world around her, who finds a purpose worth fighting and killing for, a dream she lives for. The Taemus are a shunted lot, a diminished set of people who have been systematically hunted down, eradicated over years by the rulers (be it the current Raayan Empire or the erstwhile colonial oppressors from the Kraelish empire – almost drawing parallel to the British East India company) for having taken up arms and led a rebellion ages ago. The lowest dregs in a stratified society that takes its caste system very seriously, the Taemus are treated to daily degradations and humiliations by the rest of t...

Another find for me, a brilliant debut of this year. Nathan Ballingrud's debut weird (in a good way!) frontier novel set in Mars is a delightful mix of science-fiction, coming-of-age and the True-Grit quest for revenge and justice. Featuring a very small cast of characters, led by the ballsy fourteen-year old Belle (Anabelle Crisp), the story is narrated by Anabelle looking back at her youthful days, drenching the narrative with the tones of nostalgia. The incident, she narrates, is from 1931 when she used to run a diner along with her father on this 'official' Martian settlement called the New Galveston, a smallish frontier town, sharing the reddish landscape of Mars with other unofficial settlements like the Dig-Town and many others. This is just a few years after the momentous event referred to as 'Silence' when all communications from Earth has ceased. This is also a few years into when her mother has returned back to earth, thus leaving Anabelle and her fathe...

 This was the first book from celebrated author C J Cooke that I was reading and I cannot believe I have been living under a rock, not having read anything from this prolific and talented author before!  A Haunting in the Arctic is exactly what the name suggests - a book that follows the harrowing journey of a whaling ship in the brutally cold extremes of the arctic and the lives of two women, Nicky and Dominique across two different timelines, closely linked to the fate of the ship itself. Let me state this at the outset that this book is not for the fainthearted and the narrative has some extremely disturbing scenes around sexual violence, so exercise caution and be aware of this if you ever pick up this book. Having said that, C J Cooke does a bang-up job of immersing us into this extremely poignant and heart-wrenching story, melding together elements of grief and longing in an intense psychological drama with a brilliant twist by the end.   The story is set acr...

Godkiller  is  Hannah Kaner 's highly acclaimed debut, set in a richly realised brutal world, in the throes of a chaotic looming civil war. It is a world rife with with conflicts, between the Gods and humans sick of their tyrannical murdering world order, nobles scheming against royals, and the long-suffering citizens caught in the middle of all this, trying to flee from their own wretched destiny.  Hannah presents an interesting, refreshing take on the conflicts between Gods and humans, giving us a world that is teeming with strife, torn between half the populace on the side of the King, wanting to kill and eliminate the errant murderous Gods who are drunk on their concept of power derived from the desperate faith and the other half, clinging to hope that their prayers would still be heard by the Gods left. Cities are in ruins, where the shrines are destroyed and gangs of Godkillers, mercenaries who specialize in exactly what that name implies. The only city that still h...

I think I have zeroed in on my top fantasy debut of the year already :)   The Silver Blood Promise is James Logan 's debut - a masterfully crafted epic fantasy full of action, mayhem and magic that is right up your alley, falling somewhere between the Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch and First Law books by Joe Abercrombie. Ed McDonald calls it post-grimdark and he wouldn't be wrong. Because the staples of that grimdark genre which we all love are all in there; the hero with his regretful choices of his past, who is content drowning his life in wine (Parvan Red, anyone?) and gambling his wealth away in decrepit smoky dens, picking fights with shady goons, characters drowning in their own guilt and making illogical choices, back-alley fights and a flighty convoluted dash through a seedy city of merchants, underground criminals and power hungry nobles conspiring against each other.  The story primary centers around the character of Lukan Gardova, a minor nobility, a failed ...

  Manjaveyil Maranangal  is the first Malayalam novel that I have read fully; this also happens to be my first taste of  Benyamin , the celebrated Malayalam author of  Aadujeevitham . While I always knew that Malayalam language (my mothertongue) has had a fascinating list of literary greats, I frankly never knew the depth or breadth of this immensely talented bunch of writers. And after having thoroughly enjoyed this fascinating immersive and yet divisive novel, consider my mind blown. I am yearning for more now! It's like I have just got the keys to a whole new chocolate shop, all to myself, without any one to stop me from going insane as I go wild, stuffing my face with the choicest of flavours, shapes, colours, ready to gorge. It's a veritable treasure trove and I have just opened that lock on that hidden trunk. Malayalam Literature, here I come!  Manjaveyil Maranangal   ( Loosely translated to the Yellow Sunlight Murders!) is a crime thriller, but in re...

A clever mix of historical fiction and fierce feminist literature, Weyward is a timeless story that touches upon the topics of liberty, patriarchy, nature and what it means to be a woman, across the ages. By cleverly bringing together the lives of three women across different ages, connected by their steely resolve to maintain their individuality, dignity and pride, using their wits and perhaps aided in parts by something supernatural.  Weyward doesn't read like a debut, more like an assured work of fiction from a new voice, Emilia Hart, successfully stringing together an engaging narrative that doesn't flag, despite it being stretched across three POVs, three different timelines. Juggling the lives of three very different women, who are nevertheless, very similar - in that they are all "weyward" linked by their bloodline but also in their earnest need to protect what they believe so earnestly in. Their own freedom of expression, supported by an ability to be deeply ...

The Devil and the Dark Water is the second book by award-winning author Stuart Turton, a delicious mix of historical fiction, fantasy and supernatural. As is usual with Stuart, the book defies genres giving us an impossible mystery on the high-seas in the times of Dutch East India Company of the 17th century, a devil onboard and a colorful array of characters who would leap out of the pages to park inside your heart, including the world's best detective Sammy Pips and his brawny bodyguard, Arent Hayes, whose mystery-solving exploits are famous across the world.  This is my first Stuart Turton book and I am truly blown away by it. I am in awe of his writing prowess, his narrative is truly a guilty pleasure, with the wild but very befitting comparisons, his clever turn of phrases and of course, the fiendishly clever construction of the whole puzzle, this mystery turns out to be. Needless to say, Stuart goes right to the top of my "must-read-authors" for any of his books n...

It's that time of the year when you sit up and realize yet another year has rocketed past you!  But this year has been at least, a fairly soul-satisfying one for me, from a creative pursuits point of view. My writings are not been dead - I have finished rewriting about forty-thousand words of my previous manuscript with some solid new storylines which I think, is promising. Got a bite from an agent even! Took active participation in some writing contests, did a few nice short stories, even won an award for one of those shorts. The most soul-crushing aspect of publishing journey, which is the querying phase is on now and the agent research is in full swing now. So hey, not bad at all in terms of reviving that flagging part of my tired soul which had been caged up for like two three years past!  So coming to the topic I wanted to write on, the Best TV Shows for this year 2023 - I will run past a few of my favorites that I finally came around to watching, not necessarily released...