This rollicking adventure gifts us with perilous woods, richly laden tables and a quest for treasure — Fall is the season for coziness. As the days grow colder (I wish!) and the nights longer, the urge to stay inside becomes stronger. The beach or the prospect of a barbecue appear less alluring with one’s pot simmering with hearty stew or the prospect of watching You’ve Got Mail…

The season of antiquing, thrifting and book flea markets is now upon us — When I was thirteen or fourteen, I remember sitting in the dark, watching flies burn themselves to a crisp against the emergency light. My family was on holiday in our home near Ettumanoor, in the Kottayam district of Kerala, a state in the south-west of India. (Think lush forests, dreamy…

There’s more to Cormac McCarthy’s searing vision of the American West than Blood Meridian — Bleak and unrelenting-yet singularly moving. This is what echoed through my mind after turning the last page of The Road. The 2006 Pulitzer prize winning novel is a post-apocalyptic classic that follows an unnamed narrator and his son as they trek their way through the wilderness of what was once…

‘Dagon Rising’ breathes new life into the Master of Horror’s nightmarish vision — When I reached for a thin, dark teal coloured book while working in the library, I was only looking for a quick breather. Dagon Rising seemed like a safe bet. Safe, as in long enough to transport me to another plane and short enough to allow me to snap back…

What to read when you are tired of impossibly beautiful, talented and overpowered MC’s — Don’t get me wrong, I love heroes like Kvothe in The Kingkiller Chronicles. He’s a gifted (that’s really an understatement!) harp player, promising arcanist, dragon slayer extraordinaire as well as a veritable heart-breaker. For a reader looking for sheer escapism from the mundanity of everyday life, that’s storytelling gold.

And no, they are not about beetles (Kafka) or nutcrackers (Hoffman) — Who’s a great (currently active!) fantasy writer? Most genre fans will probably name drop one of the ‘Big 3’-George R.R. Martin, Brandon Sanderson or Patrick Rothfuss. A trip to your local bookstore will probably have you adding the likes of Robin Hobb or Neil Gaiman to the list, with a…

Becky Cloonan’s self-published, Eisner winning graphic novel is truly emotionally poignant — If you’re looking for a story that crosses the gloom of George R.R.Martin with the chivalric world of Arthurian legend, this is it. The Mire is a quest fantasy as seen through the eyes of a young squire named Aiden. On the eve of a great battle, Sir Oswain, his…

This French graphic novel promises to be a Grimdark lover’s favourite nightmare — Homo homini lupos. Man is wolf to man. An old Roman proverb, later immortalised by Thomas Hobbes in his philosophical treatise Leviathan. It’s the one line I think best sums up what The Ogre Gods is about. Hubert Boulard and Bertrand Gatignol’s graphic novel weaves a fantastically macabre tale set…

Uncovering the mystery of sleep — Because animals can’t talk, proving that they dream is tricky. Neurologists began assuming they were capable of it in the 1950’s when mammals such as dogs, cats and platypuses as well as birds and reptiles were found to have Rapid-Eye Movement (REM) sleep. In humans, this is the sleep stage…