A new beginning

This is my first blog post after coming to US. My last post was in March, which means that a long time (9 months to be exact) has passed since then. I never was a regular blogger, though I had been posting some book reviews erratically .

My initial aim for creating this blog was to provide reviews and insights on various books I had read. After a few posts, I began to wonder what the purpose was of these reviews. I did get to hone my writing skills, and for someone who had never written anything for public eyes before, it was a valuable experience. As valuable as it was, it soon became very boring for me. There were websites that offered professional reviews on books and I felt that I was not doing much value add, per se. Thus began my slow neglect of the blog.

After some time, I thought of writing stories. I had some story themes in mind and since I had been reading books from a very young age, I was confident of writing atleast one or two good short stories. I didn’t want to write just any short story. Whatever story I wrote, I wanted the story to be in a world which I made, had its unique characters, laws, physics and such (Yes. I am greedy ). You see, after leaving college, there was a drastic change in my reading style and I switched from fiction to fantasy/urban-fantasy/epic fantasy genres.

Though it may seem not kind of a big deal for most, I had imbibed, subtly in me, many side effects because of this. A small list below

• A huge dislike and contempt for most of the films, especially regional and national movies. Some of the movies like Basha, which I had seen atleast 10 times and reveled in the awesomeness, style and masala, now seemed unreal and alarmingly unentertaining. I know that some of you are thinking that I am boastful (US vandhuttu overa pesaran!!).

The truth is that I really miss the pair of eyes which eagerly waited for the next villain thrashing at the hands of the hero, the lips that prayed to save the hero’s family from the villain’s evil clutches, the ears that waited to hear the next awesome punch from thalaivar and the heart that felt great emotional attachments to the film, even long after it was over.

• Though I was never a PG-13, family friendly guy, I had moments in past when I felt that something was a ghastly or horrifying scene, whether from a book or a movie. Nowadays, I had come to accept those scenes as part of the normal occurrence in a novel/movie. Only when someone else gasps at this, do I realize that this is affecting them in some sort of ethereal way. It takes hard time convincing them that I am not sadistic and these gruesome scenes are just part of the flavor of the type of novel or movie!
• Outside places do not interest me anymore. Anyone who knows me from college can tell you that I am generally disinclined to go outside for site seeing or just simply roam around and have fun. This was mostly due to my laziness when I was in college. Though I was reluctant to go out on account of my laziness, my answer would always have been Yes to places like Agra, Kashmir or even United States. Now that I have been here in US for nearly nine months, I have gone outside  to a place greater than 6 miles radius only once and that was in the month of May.
• I now believe that taking a virtual tour of a place is more profitable and helps to glean additional information about a place than an actual physical visit to the location.
• Less emotional attachment to God. From my childhood, I grew up with an unwavering faith in God or Almighty or the Creator or as however we prefer to call him/her. Though my belief in God has not decreased, I ask a lot more questions pertaining to godhood. I believe that an ancestor who was very benevolent must have been sanctified as God. I ask that if God is all powerful, why does he/she carry weapons? Would a new god have upgraded weapons like Kalashnikov? These are just some of the questions. I search for the origin of any religion. I search to see if our Gods came to being from the Indo-Aryans who conquered us and brought the vedas. I search for many answers and always end up with more questions than answers.

These are just some of the changes in me that come to my mind as I type this. There are a lot more changes and these ones just skim the surface. Now, I know what you might be thinking. “There must have been some positive changes right?” One of the most observable changes is in my writing pattern. I said that I was going to provide a small list and just blew it to around 440 words. I found the same way that short stories did not suit me. I could never make them short enough and the pages just kept getting filled.

Finally, I have decided to write a Novel. I know that it is a daunting task and even might prove difficult to complete. But, as I started this process, I realized that in addition to the storyline, I get to build the places, characters, flora, fauna, weather and pretty much everything concerned with the world. This is what I always wanted to do. I have not framed the full plot yet, but decided to take things one step at a time. My first task is creating a Map for my world. For this, I am learning a new map making tool which is very useful and a lot of fun.

Though I have the map details of my world in my head, I have not learned enough of the tool to put it all together. I hope to make more progress on the map making and world building skills in the upcoming weeks. For now, I am signing off leaving you with a fun map I made. The names given to the places are fictitious.

Venkat

The Dragons are here….Prepare to dance

After a long,long wait, Dance of Dragons by George RR Martin is going to be published on July 12, 2011. This is what the author has to say regarding this.

http://grrm.livejournal.com/198122.html

Final Cover design of 2011 release novel

Fans of Martin have been frustrated over the years because of his nonchalant attitude and his failure to finish the novel at the set publication dates before. I think this time with the HBO also pushing Martin (HBO is producing the series of Song of Ice and Fire), hopefully he meets the publication date this time. The author himself re-iterates that this publication date is real and that WE WILL HAVE THE NOVEL IN OUR HANDS ON JULY 12,2011. He is one of the best fantasy authors, and Dance of Dragons, like it predecessors will be one of the best novels ever.

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Ender’s game is the First book in Ender’s Saga by Orson Scott Card.

The novel is set into the future.The story revolves around a boy called Andrew Wiggin also known as Ender.Earth has already suffered two invasions from a species called Buggers.Earth is supposedly expecting another invasion from Buggers and soldiers are identified and trained from a very young age to defend the planet.

Small devices are implanted in the children’s necks early on and they are monitored closely and those who show promise of a good soldier are hand-picked and trained at battle school.Ender is the third child born in the family. He has a sadistic brother Peter and a loving sister Valentine.

He is chosen to be trained at the battle school at a very early age(seven years) and taken away his family. He shows bright promise as a future commander early-on and he is made to suffer lot of hardships to prove his worth. He is isolated from his friends from the beginning of the training to make him realize his fullest potential.He performs better than the others at real-time combat training which takes place in Zero Gravity.He is soon made Commander of a new army called ‘Dragon Army’ and is assigned inexperienced and young soldiers. He trains them and soon makes them the best army in the league and goes all the battles undefeated and makes a lot of enemies at the school.

On the completion of his training, he is made to join the Command School without spending three years in Pre-Command which is usually the case. In the meantime, his brother Peter and sister Valentine make up anonymous pseudo-names in the net and write political essays which make an influence in the worldwide political scenerios in ways not imagined.A commander called Mazer Rackham saved the world during the last world invasion from the Buggers .Ender is believed to be the saviour of the world this time from the buggers.The novel ends with a great climax which answers all these questions.

The novel is based on war theme. It shows how the war influences the world especially from the children’s point of view, and how it steals their innocence at a early age. The influence by Peter and Valentine on the political stage also sets view on the children’s intelligence and radical thinking.It also showcases that children are the future hope when properly nurtured.

The novel never loses its track and delivers perfectly what the author wants to communicate.The novel was written more than two decades ago and is still relevant to the present age which is an achievement especially for a science fiction based one.It is still in the top three best science fiction novels of all time and rightly so. Other than being science fiction, it delivers values from the morality point of view also which is good.

I found it a very enjoyable read and would recommend this to anyone.

Ramayana the Epic

So far I have read the first five books of Ramayana by Ashok Banker and I must say that he has definitely given this timeless epic a big boost and revival with his unique narrative and finely tuned storyline.
Ramayana, it is said will last till the forests and mountains of the world exist. And i believe it to be true. Usually when we read any novel, however good the story is, be in its creativeness, complexity or anything that makes it good, we like it.We read it many times as we feel for a good remembrance.We feel the depth of the story and as the time fades as our memory, we finally remember it as a good novel that we read long before.
But, Ramayana is not any such story. Eventhough we may know Ramayan katha, we are compelled to listen or read it again and again, just savouring the flavour as imagined and told by different people. Whatever view of the story we may wish to take, be it religious, moral, love or even for passing the time, the story becomes the view.It does not remain in our memory as just another good story.
Why do people of all age groups, go storm sabhas and halls having ramayan oration? They are there to cherish the monumental epic that never fades with time. It is the one story which makes us get whatever values we want out of it. And it applies for all of the future generations to come.
The author has been really successful in making the story come alive in a different flavour and suitable to our generation.It is a must and compelling read. The world as must have been at the time of the Ramayan, has been creatively imagined and given proper justice in narration by the author.I would urge each and everyone one to read the book atleast once.

Just for your information, the book is at the top in the Internet book database list worldwide and is critically acclaimed by all.

A special thanks to Selva who provided me with all the books in the Series having carried them all the way from Delhi. Just as Hanuman carried the mount all the way unto Rama to revive Lakshmana.

Well….Selva just took the flight

Top 25 Best Fantasy Books List

#1:    A Game of Thrones (Song of Ice and Fire) (George R.R. Martin)
#2:    Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen) (Steven Erikson)
#3:    The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicles) (Patrick Rothfuss)
#4:    Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien)
#5:    Titus Groan (Gormenghast) (Marvin Peake)
#6:    The Lies of Locke Lamora (Scott Lynch)
#7:    The Final Empire (Mistborn) (Brandon Sanderson)
#8:    Assassin’s Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy) (Robin Hobb)
#9:    The Warded Man (Demon Trilogy) (Peter V. Brett)
#10:  Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time) (Robert Jordan)
#11:  Black Sun Rising (Coldfire Trilogy) (C.S. Friedman)
#12:  The Blade Itself (First Law) (Joe Abercrombie)
#13:  The Magicians (Less Grossman)
#14:  A Cavern of Black Ice (Sword of Shadows) (J. V. Jones)
#15:  Acacia: The War With Mein (Acacia) (David Anthony Durham)
#16:  Elric of Melinbone (Michael Moorcock)
#17:  The Darkness That Comes Before (R. Scott Bakker)
#18:  Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (Susanna Clarke)
#19:  Lord Foul’s Bane (First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant) (Stephen Donaldson)
#20:  American Gods (Neil Gaiman)
#21:  Abhorsen Trilogy (Garth Nix)
#22:  The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn) (Tad Williams)
#23:  The Way of Shadows (Night Angel Trilogy) (Brent Weeks)
#24:  Magician (Raymond Feist)
#25:  The Dresden Files (Jim Butcher)

Courtesy: BestFantasyBooks.com

Economist Debates: English: Statements

Economist Debates: English: Statements.

Should all English speakers adopt American English? What do you think?

Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson (Contains Spoilers)

Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Midnight Tides is the fifth novel of the Malazan of the Fallen series.The events of this book are centered at a place called Lether and these events take place before the first book, the Gardens of the Moon.

In the Prologue,we witness an alliance between TisteEdur,children of Father Shadow and Tiste Andii,children of Mother Dark which fights against K’Chain’Chamelle, one of the Founding races. The alliance wins and the leader of TisteAndii, SilchasRuin is betrayed by his own brother ScabandariBloodEye(Father Shadow) and is imprisoned in the House of Azath. The remaining TisteAndii are killed by TisteEdur and the place is frozen and preserved by a Jaghut, as commanded by Mael, Elder God of the Seas.

Years later, the TisteEdur tribes are unified under the command of Warlock King, Hannan Mosag. Trull Sengar of the TisteEdur bears witness to illegal seal harvest by Letherii Ships and reports the same to the Warlock King. Hannan Mosag retaliates by destroying the Letherii Ships by formidable sorcery the like of which the TisteEdur had never known.The sorcery that flowed was not from Kurald Emurlahn,the Edur warren.This happens just days before the delegation between the TisteEdur and Lether.

Meanwhile, the Letherii Slave,Feather Witch cast the tiles of the Holds and gets attacked by a Wyval. The Slave Udinaas saves FeatherWitch, but is infected by the Wyval blood.Hannan Mosag sends the Sengar brothers on a mission to get a sword of power. The Sengar brothers get the sword but are attacked by the soletaken, Jheck. Rhulad, the youngest Sengar dies but holds the sword before dying and will not relinquish the hold. Hannan Mosag is furious as he had said that the sword must not be touched and holds a delegation with the Sengar family to recover the sword.As the slave Udinaas prepares Rhulad’s body, Rhulad comes to life thanks to the Crippled God.Rhulad proclaims himself as Emperor and all the Tiste Edure kneel before him. Rhulad meets the delegation which comprises Hull Beddict (who was previously wronged by the Lether King, Ezgara Diskanar), Seren Pedac (Acquitor), Prince Quillas, First Eunuch Nifadas and Buruk the Pale (merchant) whereupon he declares war upon Lether. Hull Beddict chooses to remain with Rhulad to get his vengeance.Rhulad enters into a pact with the Jheck.

In the meantime, Tehol Beddict, with his manservant, Bugg plans to topple the economy of Lether. He lives like a beggar but in reality controls much of the business in Lether. His brother, Bry Beddict is the King’s champion. Brys under the guidance of Ceda, the king’s mage, journeys into the tiles and meets a forgotten God. He vows to help them and memorises the list of all the Forgotten Gods. Tehol Beddict seeks help from Shurq Elalle, a thief who is dead. Shurq is in contact with a child called Kettle, who is the guardian of the Azath House. Kettle has a Forkrul Assail soul contained within her. The Azath House is dying and is relying upon Kettle to feed it blood to keep it alive.

On the battlefield, Hannan Mosag destroys the batallions of Lether and the Edur enter the city.Buruk hangs himself and Seren Pedac grieved by the loss of Buruk drinks heavily. She is robbed and taken advantage of. She is rescued by Iron Bars, an Avowed of the Crimson Guard.Iron Bars kills the emperor Rhulad. Rhulad again comes back to life with much pain and is soothed by Udinaas,the Slave.Rhulad enters into a temporary alliance with the Ken’ryllah demons for the battle with Lether.The Ceda has seemingly gone mad and the almost the entire mage cadre of Lether is wiped out by devilish sorcery.The Azath is dying slowly, and Kettle fears the release of five creatures from the Azath, which are Tarthenal Toblakai Gods. She is offered help by another being who is also trapped in the Azath.Rhulad kills Moroch Nevath and marches to the Eternal Domicile which is the King’s palace in the capital Letheras.The Wyval in Udinaas awakens and it goes to stop the Jheck from reaching their God.

In the Eternal Domicile, the King Ezgara Diskanar is present along with Brys Beddict,Nefadas, Ceda and a few guards.Ceda traps the chained River God from whom Hannan Mossag has been drawing power. In the ensuing battle of Sorcery between Hanan Mossag and Ceda, the Warlock King gets badly injured and is saved by a spear from Trull Sengar which kills Ceda.Rhulad challenges Brys and loses, but King Ezgara Diskanar had already died of poisoning.Brys is also coerced into drinking the poisoned wine by the Errant (First Tribunal Turubul) and Brys also dies. A guardian comes to retrieve the body of Brys and delivers a merciful death to Rhulad who then comes back to life again.

Azath is now long dead and the five Tobakai gods now emerge from the barrows.IronBars helps the Errant to stop the Jheck and kills their leader B’nagga. IronBars now goes to the dead Azath House along with the manservant Bugg, where he fights the Toblakai Gods.Meanwhile, the half-blood Tarthenal,Ublala, kills Finadd Gerun Eberict. Hull Beddict seeks his brother Tehol, but he is slain on the way. Emperor Rhulad’s wife, Mayen, under her hunger for white nectar stabs herself. The Edur who were chasing Mayen believe that Tehol killed Mayen and begin to thrash Tehol. Tehol, on the verge of being dead is rescued by his manservant, Bugg, who kills the Edur warriors.

IronBars is now helped in his fight by Ublala. Kettle awakens SichasRuin by her blood. SilchasRuin kills the remaining Toblakai and along with Shurq they plan to leave in a ship.FearSengar is deeply troubled by these events and hopes to find ScabandariBloodEye, Father Shadow.He asks the help of the Acquitor,Seren Pedac to guide him. In the meantime, Seren also receives invitation from IronBars to join them in the ship. Together, SilchasRuin, Shurq, Seren, Fear,Udinaas, IronBars and his crew leave Lether in a ship. Rhulad launches a big search for Udinaas. Trull Sengar remains in Lether to try to cure Rhulad and make him sane. Bugg heals his master and reveals to Tehol that he is Mael,the ElderGod of the Seas.Bugg also transfers the list of Forgotten Gods to Tehol’s memory from Brys. He further visits Withal, the maker of the sword that Rhulad wields and makes him escape from the clutches of the Crippled God and proceeds further to fight the Crippled God.Thus the book ends.

For those who thought that the character list was at an end would have been thrown offguard by Erikson.This book is a stand alone novel in itself and introduces a whole lot of new characters. Erikson once again proves why he is the master storyteller. He is getting better with each and every novel.Erikson introduces the duo of Tehol and Bugg, who make you laugh aplenty.The overall plot was handled nicely and slight twists and turns made the novel only better. I also felt that this book was much better compared to the others in the same series. I give it a 5/5.

Verdict: A must read for any fantasy fan (Should be on the top of your list!!!!)

Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson

Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I am just a wide-eyed, slack jawed spectator of the awesome world that Erikson has created. Memories of Ice features a return of lot of characters from Gardens of the Moon. There is a new threat rising in the Pannion Domin, headed by a prophet whose followers are cannibals and their women are necrophilic!!!! Dujek One Arm is outlawed by Empress Lasseen and is now a renegade. Realising the threat that Pannion Domin posed, we witness a great alliance between Dujek, Caladan Brood and the Lord of the Tiste Andii, Anomander Rake. The Pannion Domin seeks to capture the City of Capustan, while the alliance seeks to defend it. We are also introduced to the new characters of Bauchelain,Korbal Broach,Gruntle, Stonny etc., The verbal fights between Gruntle and Stonny are a treat to watch. They accompany a mysteriouse merchant Keruli. Bauchelain and Korbal Broach are necromancers who provide good comic relief as the series progresses. Tattersail’s lover,GaneosParan of House Paran becomes the Master of the Deck of Dragons.Silverfox, TatterSail reborn is growing fast and consuming Mhybe, her mother. She is now a flesh and bone bonecaster of T’lann Imass. She now summons a gathering to which almost all T’lann Imass respond to.The story switches to One-Eyed Toc the Younger who was thrown into another realm by the puppet, Hairlock. He joins the company of Lady Envy, daughter of ElderGod Draconus,who originally fashioned the sword Dragnipur.Draconus was slain by Anomander Rake, Lord of the Tiste Andii. An ascendant of origin unknown, called the Crippled God poisons the warrens and is poised to strike. The Crippled God’s presence itself starts poisoning Burn, the sleeping goddess of the earth. As the story moves on, we realise that the War with the Pannion Domin is in fact a war between Elder Gods dating back millennia.This war in fact might decide upon the very future of the continent of Genabackis, and may well of the future of the Malazan Empire. There are many questions raised in this book which I think will be answered in the successive books. Usually Erikson’s books start with 3 to 4 parallel story constructs which have a convergence at the end. This holds good for this book also. The depth and the characterisation that the author offers is awesome. And one must acknowledge the fact that Steven Erikson is not your everyday writer. His books are not for everyone. If you don’t mind reading 10 books in a series, enjoy a deep storyline, welcome new characters in each book and finally, if you can structure the things in your mind, you are game for his books. Overall, I enjoyed each and every part of his book. Only place where I felt there was a slight slackness was the part featuring Mhybe. Other than that this book rocks. I am giving it a 5/5.

Verdict: Should be on the top of the reading list for any fantasy fan

Sania marriage to Shoaib Malik. Is it controversial?

As of late we have been receiving very atrocious and unfair comments about Sania Mirza. . You can read one such at the below link

http://khamba.blogspot.com/2010/03/open-letter-to-ms-sania-mirza.html

There were a lot of accusations placed upon her in the above blog.This is especially a reply to that.

Sania Mirza was a very good tennis player and in fact the first women tennis player to crack the first 50 ranks. Now, she has lost her form. Maybe she has even lost her aspiration to move up in tennis or even play the game. But, it is her choice. She did not ask people to follow her. It is her personal choice to leave/play tennis. And similarly, it is the same for her marriage. Would anybody have commented if she had married an American. No, that would have led to more juicy gossips. She never said she was a role model…she was just made as one. Maybe she still is. I believe she still is a good role model for aspiring tennis players. Nobody can comment upon her personal life when she has not done anything wrong. She just chose her own husband. It doesn’t matter whether he is an american or pakistani or even an iraqi. It is her life and her choice. If she had been in some scandal like Tiger Woods we might have a say in the matter mate!! Maybe she becomes a Pakistani citizen after the marriage. Who cares? It is her choice. She trained herself and played tennis for India..She was a good player and she made herself a name. It was her choice and it still is, to quit the game or not. Infact, it may prove to be a bridge b/w India and Pakistan. And why do we expect celebrities to always marry outside their community? I am not saying that should not be so, but it is their choice. They may or may not. It is their own personal choice. It has nothing to do with India or any other country. What justice did India do to MF Hussain, the greatest artist India had ever produced? Where were our government to protect him from the Shiv Sena and other religious fanatics? How long he had been living in Dubai in secrecy for fear of his own life? Now when Qatar offers a citizenship for him our government suddenly wants him to remain an Indian. I ask, to what means? I know that pakistan might have had a larger hand in 26/11. But, what I want to emphasize is violence begets violence. A country’s war should not dictate a person’s personal choice. Live and let live. If Sania wants to live in Pakistan and marry a Pakistani, let her be. After all, view it as a marriage of one human being to another. She might even get snubbed by Shoaib Malik. He might be a fraud too. But, that is her life to live and her struggles to face. Let us not mix the concept of holy matrimony of two persons with religion, country, community and social aspects.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book portrays last three decades of struggles of the Afghanians, especially women. It has violence, love, hate, struggle, sacrifice, hope, faith and compassion blended into one book. Khaled Hosseini is a master story teller… No doubt about it. There is not much in terms of the plot, but he brilliantly portrays the characters in depth and takes them closer to your heart. You wince and feel the pain that Afghan women had been subjected to for the past 3 decades. The author brings a intricate blend of beauty with ugliness, love with hate, struggle with hope and misery with faith. This book also helps you understand the struggle that Afghanistan has went through for the past 3 decades of history. And how the changes that came in each subsequent decade went from bad to worse. You see the dreams of people shattered before their own eyes. You also see that shackles of terror that Taliban has had on the people. Throughout the book you see one thing that constantly revolves in Afghanian minds…. The Hope of a better Tomorrow
I really enjoyed reading this book and the author’s bold stance at throwing some profound light into the Afghanistan history and to remind people of the value of life. I give it 4/5.

Verdict : An attitude changer, must read for anyone