Holmes of The Opera

The Great Hiatus of Holmes’ life has always been a source of endless speculation, and inspiration to authors. “The Canary Trainer ” by Nicholas Meyer (published as ‘a lost manuscript by John H. Watson, M.D.’) is third in the series of his books explaining the absence of Holmes from his homeland.

Interview with Helen Hollick – Part II

Continued from Part I.

Author Helen Hollick “never enjoyed the ‘traditional’ Arthurian stories”.

King Arthur and his Knights of the legend are closer to fantasy than history. Plus, there is no proof either way of Arthur’s existence. So, can we call “The Kingmaking” historical fiction?

Interview with Helen Hollick – Part I

Turned out longer than I planned, so you get to enjoy it in two parts.

 

In “The Kingmaking”, Helen Hollick has presented the story of Arthur Pendragon, who although a gifted general and warlord, is completely different from the King Arthur of Camelot.

The Story of Once and Future King

The title ‘Once and Future King’ is not lightly given, and there are very few kings (or queens) in history of the world who have so permeated into the psyche of a nation.

But in Helen Hollick’s “The Kingmaking ” (first of her Pendragon’s Banner trilogy), the story of Arthur is separated from its mythical aspects of magic and chivalry.

TV Miniseries: The Last Templar

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon are notorious for their meteoric rise and equally sudden demise. “The Last Templar ” by Raymond Khourie (on which the NBC miniseries is based) is one of the novels which revolve around the famous (and famously lost) Templar treasure.

Clash of Legends

When I first started reading about WW II outside of history syllabus, the first hero who emerged was Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Later, Commando comics introduced me to the other side: The legendary Long Range Desert Group (LRDG). “Killing Rommel” by Steven Pressfield is the story of the wars between these two groups.

Currahee

“Band of Brothers ” by Stephen Ambrose belongs to that rare list of books which I read after seeing the movie, or in this case, the HBO miniseries. It also belongs to the rarer list where the visual representation is every bit as engaging and haunting as the written word.

A Deadly Game of Chess

 

Given my experiences with the writings of Spanish authors, especially Arturo Perez-Reverte, and their style, I was a bit reluctant to lay my hands of “The Flanders Panel ” (La tabla de Flandes). But then, I find chess-involved storyline hard to resist, and surprisingly, the book didn’t really step down into the pits of gloom.

A Case of Catatonic Cobras

If asked which one person we would have liked to see again, true Holmesians would vote for Irene Norton née Adler with a huge majority, if not by an unanimous vote. A Soul of Steel by Carole Nelson Douglas is a novel from her Irene Adler series which tries to fulfill that fantasy.

RIP Michael Crichton

One of the first book-to-movie adaptations I read about was “Jurassic Park” and it remains one of the rare few cases where I saw the movie before I read the book (because it was a long time before I figured out there was a book called “Jurassic Park“). But after that, I just had to get my hands on the other books by the author. Thus Michael Crichton became one of the first English authors (after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) whose books I have read.

Although I didn’t read the almost-Doomsday scenarios in “State of Fear” and “Next” as enthusiastically, “Timeline” remains one of my favourite time travel stories, while Jurassic Park series (Jurassic Park and Lost World)easily make it to the list of my Top 5 Sci-Fi series.

RIP Michael Crichton (October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008). From dinosaurs to nanobots, from jungles of Congo with vicious apes to concrete jungles with ruthless humans, sci-fi will miss you.