I am back home! It took over forty-two hours in total with five flights from Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, Singapore, and New York, long layovers, a couple of crying babies, two car rides and one bus ride, but yeah, I’m thinking I am back.

The Singapore - New York leg was the longest, at almost eighteen hours. I thought I’d fill it up by watching at least half a dozen movies, but wound up catching just two: the superb Ullozhukku which had been on my watch-list for a couple of years, and the original Predator, which I’d seen decades ago and still consider one of the best action movies made. On a tangential note, I watched The Running Man on the Hyderabad - Singapore flight and while it’s better than the ‘80s atrocity and closer to the book by Richard Bachman, it’s still a frustrating, painful watch. Glen Powell just can’t act, and none of the usual Edgar Wright touches can save the movie.

And oh, I realized I had not completed reading Fingersmith by Sarah Waters when I bought it years ago, so filled up the rest of my waking hours reading that. Check it out if you haven’t already, it’s a very well-crafted, crafty novel. Try Park Chan-Wook’s gorgeous The Handmaiden after you do, too.

Alright, on to this week’s books and binges!

I am going to cheat a bit this week and combine my book and show recommendation. Blame it on my travel; there’s only so much my jet-lagged brain can think of right now.

The show A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is based on George R.R. Martin’s novella The Hedge Knight, which was the first of three stories that were later published as one book with the title (you guessed it) A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. This, and the other stories, titled The Mystery Knight and The Sworn Sword, deal with the characters Dunk and Egg, set in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire for the purists, or A Game of Thrones world for you TV enthusiasts.

On a side note, I’d attended this trivia quiz in Bangalore years ago, when GoT was just gaining in popularity, and the question was to name the series featuring the Lannisters and the Starks. I, as you might guess, went with A Song of Ice and Fire, which was declined by the quizmaster in favor of A Game of Thrones. Such is the world we live in, dear reader.

Getting back to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, this show mercifully requires no homework. You do not need to know your Brans from your Bronns, nor care about which dragon dies and where the eggs came from. The show (and the book) is light, focusing on a knight and his squire adventuring in Westeros. It’s funny when it wants to be, thrilling when it needs, and leaves you wanting more - which I’m sure you will get, knowing how HBO keeps milking this franchise. I am not so sure about the books though, since Martin hasn’t written another story featuring Dunk and Egg since 2010, nor has he completed the final two books of the Ice and Fire series. One can always hope, of course.

Recommended, both the show and the book.

Call it the Dumas-verse if you will, but I really enjoyed watching the new movie versions of his books The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. The production value is gorgeous, with superb cinematography, lovely costumes, and meticulous attention to detail. I am certain these films would have gotten a lot more attention if they had been made in English by a major Hollywood studio, instead of featuring in art-house theaters with limited viewers in the US.

The Three Musketeers is about - oh, you know what it’s about. You’ve seen a few of the movies I’m sure, and you might have read the book(s) too, back in school. This version is broken into two parts: D’artagnan, and Milady, and I understand a sequel set twenty years later is in the works as well. It swashbuckles, it heaves bosoms, it romances, it is gorgeous to look at and I had a blast watching it. Recommended.

Have a great week!