Imagine, in about 4.5 sq km in Fort Kochi and Mattancherry, there are around 30 communities! An absolute melting pot of different religions and socio-cultural customs and practices. Communities that can trace their origins from Portugal and Yemen to Kutch and the Indus Valley. I am a little biased because Kochi is my hometown, but even beyond that, it’s a fascinating read.
To paraphrase William Jones, our entire life is a formed from habits, for good and for bad, and they lead us to our destiny. This is a book that can help in all aspects of our lives – from losing weight to building great teams, and at an individual and group level. The narrative style ensures that what could have been a prescriptive book is actually an enlightening and entertaining one!
The first part of The Dandelion Dynasty trilogy, this is silkpunk’s attempt at Game of Thrones. What works for the book are the interesting characters, the plot twists and the unflagging pace. But it’s better to go in without the level of expectations set up by the author’s other book The Paper Menagerie.
What starts out as a curiosity – a man losing a shadow – turns into a contagion when people realise that they are losing their memories along with their shadows. The premise is interesting – what does this do to a sense of self, and identity? But the pace slackens in the middle, and there are some rough edges in the narrative.
An absolute treasure if you’re even remotely interested in science fiction. The stated objective of the book is diversity, and it does justice to it on many fronts – non-English writings, the setting in terms of geography, gender, sub-genres – dystopian, alien encounters, space operas, post-apocalypse, and even satire. 105 stories spanning 1160 pages, this book definitely needs to be on your shelf!