Ram V

A gourmand is moved by the death of Anthony Bourdain to make his own documentary about some of his favorite food stands in India. That he is an ancient demon known for eating humans is, let's say, a complicating factor for the filmmaker he enlists. As are the demon slayers hunting him.

Intriguing recipes mix with bloody violence as the demon charms with his narration.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: Chapter One. Masala Chai -- Chapter Two. Mirchi -- Chapter Three. Raan -- Chapter Four. Daal Fry, Dhaba show more Style -- Chapter Five.Triple Schezwan Rice -- Chapter Six. Paal Payasam show less

As the British East India Company trying to gobble up the resources of the Indian subcontinent leads to the First Mysore War, British vampires descending on India to gobble blood find themselves in a parallel conflict with a powerful, shapeshifting, mythological being called a rakshasa. The deliberate pace and ominous tone are spiked with thrilling moments of conflict. But I felt a little lost in the political intrigue due to my ignorance of Indian history and the real people featured in show more this historical fiction.

I'd been thinking of putting Ram V on my "don't bother" list of authors, but this and The Many Deaths of Laila Starr have given him a reprieve. show less

When a human is born who will invent immortality, the God of Death is demoted and sent to Earth to live as a human. Int he body of Laila Starr, she attempts to kill the baby, Darius Shah, but cannot bring herself to do it; she dies several times and is brought back by the God of Life. Each time, she finds Darius - as a young boy, a teen, an adult, an elder - and finally, before he dies, they talk.

Quotes

"The only thing that marks each lifetime then are the memories left behind...To be show more witnessed by someone else and to be remembered when you are gone, these are the things that belong to mortals." (funeral crow to Laila)

"If life's an exercise in making memories...no one really goes away as long as they are remembered." (Laila to young Darius)

"It's what happens when things die. They go away, but you don't realize all the parts of you that they were holding up until after. And in the days that follow, the possibilities of what could've been begin to fall away. Leaving you with less, each time - more precious, to be savored." (Laila to teen Darius)

But life is worthy and beautiful even if it is not always pretty.

Who is to say exactly how things end? If there is one thing we have learned, it is that life's endings are bereft of answers.

Perhaps it is enough to remember at story's end the miracle that it was simply to have lived. show less

Death gets laid off by her pantheon of gods when a child is born who will one day find the cure for mortality. (Seems premature, eh?) Sent to live out her life on Earth, she spends the next decades trying to thwart that development so she can get her job back.

Told with the tone of a fairy tale or fable, this story strikes me as something Neil Gaiman could have written, though he might have side-stepped the chapter narrated by a cigarette. And he probably would not have side-stepped the show more advancements or changes in the world that should be evident in a timeline that runs all the way up through the 2080s.

It's the first really decent thing I've read of Ram V's, but I'm not sure its enough to keep me from putting him on my don't-bother list as I'd been planning. show less