Lang, Thomas Lang

It is a book written by The Hugh Laurie. Do I need to say anything more before you run off to get your hands on “The Gun Seller ”?

OK, here’s the deal:

The game is afoot

An anthology of Sherlock Holmes stories (Point 1). Written by authors like Neil Gaiman, Laurie King, Stephan King, Naomi Novik, Stephan Baxter (Points 2, 3, 4, and so on.) So, how many more points does a book like “The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes ”need to be “pick up right now”?

The Privateers of Caribbean

“Pirate Latitudes” reminds you more of “Eaters of the Dead” or “Timeline” (minus the time travel aspect) than Michael Crichton’s more famous books like Jurassic Park, Prey. And, like many historical novels starring pirates, it is a bit cheesy in pieces.

Froody

I have mixed feelings about “And Another Thing… ”. For one thing, it is hard to recreate the magic of a classic like H2G2 – the five-part trilogy. On the other hand, Eoin Colfer has enough experience of weird characters and crazier situations from his Artemis Fowl series.

Stranger than fiction

If ever there was a book which personified conspiracy theory version of Poe’s law, “The Men Who Stare at Goats ” by Jon Ronson is it. The history of PsyOps in American security forces often stretches credulity.

Echoes of the times present

One thing historical fiction (and sometimes, fiction) can do pretty well is to show the present in an entirely different light, thereby changing our perspective. “The Man with the Iron Heart ” by Harry Turtledove does it pretty well, mirroring some major events in our time.

The Holy Bullet

It is very hard to place  a book like “The Holy Bullet” by Luís Miguel Rocha. It involves murder but is not exactly a murder mystery. It involves catholic church and its secrets, but is not religious thriller in the sense we are now used to. But apart from all this, you can still enjoy it as a nice action story.

The man who rebuilt Maratha Empire

After the death of Aurangzeb, Maratha Empire rose to prominence in central India. While the titular heads of empire were the Chhatrapatis in Satara, the military might was mostly concentrated in the hands of Peshwas (Peshwa/e = Prime Minister), the post made hereditary by Chhatrapati Shahu.

Madhavrao Peshwa, on whose life “Swami” (= Master) by Ranjit Desai is based, was the third Peshwa to inherit the seat.

Tale of a soldier

Once you get past the main action (Denise Richards and Dina Meyer) you start getting a distinctive “1984” feeling about the whole proceedings, especially about the newscasts. Which is why I was curious to read the actual book, Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein, on which the iconic movie is based.

And unexpectedly different as it was after the movie, the book was interesting in its own way.

Movie: Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince

So, I finally went ahead and did the fanboy thing. Grabbed my cloak, tucked in my wand (not in my jeans back pocket, I am safety conscious), and Continuing the tradition started with “Order of the Phoenix”, I went ahead and watched the “Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince” almost a day before it is released everywhere. And since it is hard to review a film like this for me, here are just some of the thoughts, fresh from watching the movie (maybe a long one).