Smorgasbord Fantasia

I decided to go one further this time and give you the best of various lists, among my fav reads of the year. Ha :) Bring it on, 2020. We got to raise the bar! Best of 2019 Fantasy Books: This one's tough as many series endings happened in 2019 and also new books by favourite authors from the past have surfaced. Anyways - the long list is here ( on my previous post) but if I had to slice out my heart and lay down in front of you, the best of the best among that, it would have to be: A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie This book is a return to fine fettle, by one of my go-to-authors when I feel down in the dumps. There are a few authors who make me want to drop everything and read non-stop, inspire me to write and really really play with my imagination. Joe Abercrombie tops that list and his new series is an absolute blast in that manner. Best of 2019 Science Fiction books:  Admittedly, I need to read a lot more SF books. But among the few I did ...

Happy New Year folks!  It's the start of a new decade and I am super excited. Looking back at how 2019 has gone down for me, I mostly take pride. My total books read has hit 54 (That's a book every week!) with a few in various final stages as they stand today, on 31st Dec. What has helped that tally this year, is the advent of audio books in a big way in my life. I have managed to finish 13 audio books this year (A book every month!), which is phenomenal for me. Combing through this list, there are quite a few shining gems for the year, that I have loved to bits and would categorise as the best reads of the year. A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie: The return of the Lord Grim Dark to his brutal lawless world of the First Law trilogy was indeed, a welcome one.  The wheels of time are turning and an age of madness descends into this world.  A Little Hatred  features the sons and daughters of our intrepid 'heroes' of the original trilogy. Complex, twisted, n...

Bloodchild is the third and final book in the debut series by Anna Stephens . Back in 2017 when Anna's debut came out, I actually gave it the skip. I was inundated with other "good" books - in particular, two other debut authors ( Anna Smith Spark (Empires of Dust) and Ed McDonald's Ravencry caught my attention. I was late to this series, starting on Godblind only last year but that was a boon in disguise. I read Godblind and DarkSoul back to back. While Godblind was good, Darksoul wasn't just great, it was brilliant. A heart-rending emotional upheaval of a journey. A long fuckin' siege that went on and on, presenting drama of the darkest kinds - desperate, terrified humans fighting ugly for their very lives against forces much larger than life. And after finishing both books, I couldn't wait for Bloodchild! Bloodchild released in the UK yesterday (Sept 5) and trust me, this year-long wait has been more than worth it. To jump back once again t...

With Crowfall , Raven's Mark series might have just risen up to be one of my all-time favorite grimdark series. Ed McDonald , take a friggin' bow! Crowfall tops off this incredible series, culminating in a delirious high with the last outing into the Misery for Captain Galharrow and his friends. For people not familiar with the brutally bleak world that Ed has created in the Raven's Mark, I have one advice - go back and pick up the first book, Blackwing. Much of this review is going to focus on events only from the third book and it will be difficult to keep what happened in the first two books out of this narrative, so to build up the right continuity. Crowfall starts six years after the cataclysmic events of Raven's Cry and we find that the Blackwing Captain Ryhalt Galharrow is a possessed man, given in to a mad dream that only the Misery can help him achieve. He has spent most of this time, wandering the wastelands of the Misery, getting further and further...

Malayalam film industry is a touch above the rest of Indian cinema when it comes to making original stories of the soil, come alive in myriad colors. It's a bold statement but when watching movies like Kumbalangi Nights by Fahadh & Friends , this claim clearly doesn't seem outlandish and I am convinced this is the right direction, we should be moving in. This movie is a fascinating portrayal of the cracks and fissures spider-webbing through the thin patina of a sleepy backwater tourist haven. Kumbalangi Nights rips through the concepts of dysfunctional families and even the toxic masculinity that has been the focus on many a malayalam movies for long. Aided by a fabulous, perceptive script[ written by Shyam Pushkaran ] debutant director Madhu C Narayanan brings to life, the lesser aspects of the idyllic life on a fishing hamlet, going beyond the happy facade presented to the tourist. Delving deep into the uninspired and almost wasted lives of a family of brothers. S...

So the first big movie for 2019 for the MCU, Captain Marvel dropped last week on Friday - and I managed to catch it, first day. The International Woman's Day datelines aren't a coincidence. The first big Marvel act headlined by a woman (also co-directed by another: Anna Boden. Go girl power!), Brie Larson dons the big fiery gloves of the super-saver of the Universe. She strives her best to bring in the big-bangs (literally, photon blasts of pure fury shot from bare hands) while juggling the flawed, human act ( amnesiac, prone to a temper with an ego to spare) and is tons of fun to watch. But is the movie good? The numbers do the talking. I think, as I write, this one's going to be become one of the top-grossing Marvel movies of all times. But is this my favorite Marvel movie? Nope. That honor still goes to... Black Panther ? Captain America: Civil War ? Infinity Wars ? Sigh. Tough one, but getting back to Carol 'Vers' Denvers. The movie opens onto a hazy ...

So 2018 was a satisfying year for me - in terms of reading goals, I crept back to a yearly target of 40 + that I had missed last couple of years in a row. So this year, maybe I will up my target to 50 books. And looking at the amazing spread ahead of me, I cannot resist myself! It's going to be another wonderful year with some fantastic titles coming out, some series-ending, some middle books, a few new series starters by ever-favorite authors and quite a few stand-alone books that promises the sun, moon and stars. Here's a few that I picked out, which I personally am quite kicked about. Gates of the Dead by James A Moore. This swirling chaotic and yet spellbinding tale of Man vs God ( vs Demons vs Zombies and lots more!) that is Tides of War, is heading off the cliff in this third installment and I am getting ring-side tickets to watch this madness. Brogan McTyre is a man on a mission, to slay the Gods. He doesn't really have a choice because the fickle capricio...