The Man who Never was

Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth by Pat Mills My rating: 4 of 5 stars View all my reviews Thoughts The story is a welcome callback to those old Golden and silver age comics, with the story/villain of the week Narrative. Set against the backdrop of the larger quest, of the team delivering the vaccine for the tutty-fruity virus to Mega-city two, this premise gives the writers ample opportunities to explore an anthology of short stories about the bizarre inhabitants of cursed earth. Bar a couple of extended tales, most of the plots are wrapped up in one or two chapters, with Dredd losing and gaining companions during his arduous quest. When it is possible, the writers try and infuse some underlying themes such as the evils of slavery, dangers of playing god with science, humanity devolving into dangerous cult, civilization collapsing, corporate greed, and the recurring theme of humanity being a largely deplorable species. With only a few exceptions, such as the protagon

300 by Frank Miller My rating: 4 of 5 stars View all my reviews Warning: "This show contains scenes that some viewers may find disturbing". "Viewer discretion advised." As is the case of general readers, my introduction to Frank Miller's 300, acclaimed, if historically questionable portrayal of the Battle of Thermopylae came through the Zack Snyder movie of the same name. The movie, for all its shortcomings and criticisms was one which defined what a faithful adaptation of a graphic novel should be; at least one that is bombastic and action centric. Snyder had cemented his place as a visual direction, with great flair for faithfully transposing comic book panels to live action, without losing the gravitas. And I suppose 300 was the perfect work for him to adapt. Let's first get the elephant out of the way. As many historians, real and armchair have repeatedly asserted, the events which actually transpired during the Second Persian inv

The Strong Among Us by Steve Lyons My rating: 3 of 5 stars View all my reviews One should not tempt the loyal servants of the Emperor by putting a wool over their eyes. One should definitely not show the devoted warriors of the Death Korps of Krieg on the cover and then tell a story about filthy, heretic non-believers. *agitated gas mask noises* Imagine my surprise, when instead of the deeds of the lauded descendants of Colonel Jurten's 83rd regiment, I'm made to read of the heresy, of a former citizen of the Emperor's glorious imperium, who gives in to weakness and makes his bed with the vile nest of cultists who worship the blasphemous eight pointed star. And for what? A paltry concern as pain, suffering, fear of death? One's life is to be sacrificed a hundred times over in glory of the father of all mankind, The eternal Emperor, enshrined upon his Golden throne in Terra; He's whose psychic light illuminates the Astronomicon , and he who to thi

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay My rating: 3 of 5 stars View all my reviews Darkly dreaming Dexter; damn I like me some good alliterating titles. Much like most of its fans, I got to reading the literary version of everyone’s favorite serial killer-killing killer, because of Showtime's enrapturing TV series. The first seven seasons at least, we don’t speak of the cursed final season. So naturally it was my intention to approach the source material to compare and contrast its golden screen counterpart. Book 1 of the series, Darkly Dreaming Dexter was perfect, as a large part of the narrative was the basis for the dramatization to come. Here are my thoughts, in no particular order. I’m going to assume that most are already familiar with the premise and drive on. One thing which works for the book, is the creative freedom for much more macabre poetry, Just like the opening paragraphs, which I feel encapsulates the primal need for Dexter’s dark passenger to t

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 2 by Alan Moore My rating: 3 of 5 stars View all my reviews Review:  First of all let’s get it out of the way; the second Volume of Alan Moore’s League of extraordinary gentlemen is not a sequel which supplants the first. It is adequate in its own right, but lacks a certain flair from the first. The engaging worldbuilding and characters demonstrated in the first volume, appear to be almost diluted in this installation. Part of the reason might be how, while the predecessor was a globetrotting Indiana Jones style fantasy steampunk adventure, this iteration feels much more linear and doesn’t have the same sense of wonderment about it. It might also be that this edition lacks a suitable Machiavellian antagonist for the league to go up against. Threatening and world ending while they might be, the Martians (taken from ‘ The War of the Worlds ’ by H. G. Wells) are monolith, and much like the Tyrranids in Warhammer 40k, a

Why I am a Hindu by Shashi Tharoor My rating: 4 of 5 stars View all my reviews Shashi Tharoor is an erudite statesman, which puts him (at least intellectually) apart from two thirds of his peers, whose only qualifications for being a politician is nepotism and politicking. Indeed, I remember a while ago, how there was a clamor to set a minimum academic qualifications for individuals who sought to run for a public office. After all, when other branches of government required extensive qualifications and credentials to hold office, why not that of a politician, who oftentimes is in a position of power directing all of those well qualified (or ill qualified ) bureaucrats.   An avid reader, as well as a prolific writer who has penned dozens of bestsellers, Tharoor has written at length and breadth about Indian History, Geopolitics and in cases historical fiction. So naturally, when I learned he had penned a book, with a brazen title ‘Why I am a Hi