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...

 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...

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 ...

A haunted house horror story based on found footage and epistolary evidence didn't seem like it would stick the landing. I mean, horror is meant to be an immersive experience right? Right in the thick of things, the juddering shadows, the slow-building tension and the nerve-jangling screams?  Think twice - In Episode Thirteen , acclaimed horror writer Craig Dilouie has rewritten the rules of this genre giving us a fantastic view of the horror that consumes the lives and work of this TV Filming crew; Paranormal investigators who are shooting at one of the most famous haunted locations in America - an old ramshackle building known as the Foundation House, where in the early 60's a bunch of scientists had conducted experiments in order to prove the existence of ghosts and also, use this to help with their hypotheses on expanding the human mind potential.  As an idea, this premise sounds almost ridiculous but Craig pulls it off spectacularly well, in giving us an intimate deeply ...

All The Dangerous Things was my second book by Stacy Willingham and true to her form and expectations, her sophomore effort is once again, a runaway winner for me. Another dark psychological thriller with twists and turns galore, in All The Dangerous - Stacy gives us a heart wrenching story about guilt & grief . This is the story of Isabelle Drake, a mother whose eighteen month old baby has been kidnapped. While this is definitely one of the most high profile cases of this Southern city, a year after the incident, there are still no clues about this crime. It remains unsolved and Isabelle, racked with inconsolable grief and guilt at having lost her baby, has insomnia now. She hasn’t slept a wink during the last 364 nights, even as we open the story. The story cleverly applies a dual storyline plot device, frequently flashing back to her childhood spent in the South Carolina city of Beaufort and her tight bond with her younger sister Margaret and her childhood condition of Sleepw...