I wanted to love The Lions of Al-Rassan. I have always wanted to learn more about medieval cultures, especially Islamic and Jewish cultures of those periods. I was fascinated by how those cultures were the most learned and intellectual of the day, and yet we have been taught so much more about the mainstream —…
Category: Fantasy
The Wall of Storms (Dandelion Dynasty, Book 2) by Ken Liu — Book Review
I started Wall of Storms right after the first book, Grace of Kings, since I didn’t want to lose momentum on this Dandelion Dynasty series. Grace of Kings introduced us to Dara, an empire of island nations, through a story of rebellion leading to civil war, culminating in a new empire under protagonist Kuni Garu….
The Last Wish (The Witcher, Book 1) by Andrzej Sapkowski
My journey with The Witcher, Andrzej Sapkowski’s super-popular fantasy series, got off to a bumpy start when I read The Blood of Elves. I understood it to be the first book of the series and assumed that the short story collections (including The Last Wish) were extra, optional prequel stories. Boy, was I wrong! Without…
A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan, Book 2) by Robert Jackson Bennett — Book Review
It is great to be back in this world that I discovered last year when reading the first book of this series, The Tainted Cup. There I met the eccentric crime solving genius, Ana Dolabra, and her assistant, Din Kol. No ordinary world, this steampunk empire has been changed to revolve around the presence of…
The Odyssey — Movie Review
Christopher Nolan’s big budget, big screen adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey was so exciting to me that it brought me out of a nearly one-year absence from cinema-going. I have been a lifelong mythology nerd. I even read Stephen Fry’s Odyssey retelling a month ago to remind myself of this classical epic tale. This film was…
Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender – Movie Review
It’s been a long time since I reviewed a movie and so it feels appropriate for me to resume with this long-awaited sequel to one of my favourite animated series of all time: Avatar: The Last Airbender. Over the years, I have watched the original series at least four times through (maybe more), and so…
Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman – Book Review
I have had a really good time with Christopher Buehlman’s The Blacktongue Thief and The Daughters’ War, so I was excited to dip my toes into his horror writing with Those Across the River. Instead of being set in a medieval-style fantasy world full of thieves, soldiers, wizards, corvids and goblins, this story is set…
Odyssey (Stephen Fry’s Greek Myths, Book 4) by Stephen Fry — Book Review
Choosing between Homer’s original (read by Claire Danes) and a reimagining of the timeless tale by Stephen Fry himself as part of his Greek Myths series, wasn’t easy. I wanted to prep for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film adaptation, and since I’d read Homer’s epic poem back in university, I decided to give Fry a try…
The Empress of Salt and Fortune (Singing Hills Cycle, Book 1) by Nghi Vo — Book Review
I was very surprised by how much I liked this novella, because I had a challenging time and didn’t understand it. This is a layered tale of a royal consort (named In-Yo) exiled from the imperial court. The story is being told by an old, former servant, named Rabbit, to a wandering cleric, named Chih,…
