Hi, here I am writing my first ever post on my first ever blog, a little nervous and excited at the same time!! I gave a lot of thought as to what my first post should be about, thinking about all the varied book related topics I could write on but then settled on to writing about the book that I recently read - Shiva Trilogy.
I am sure most of us Indians don't like to read Indian authors except if it is someone great like Amitav Ghosh or Arundhati Roy or someone one well known. The thing is we don't give Indian authors much credit when it comes to writing a best seller, Chetan Bhagat definitely broke that myth by publishing 5 novels all of which were best sellers. Though I have read all of Chetan Bhagat's novels (just as a critic), I never liked any of them, but to each is own. So whenever it comes to choosing a novel by an Indian author, I definitely have a stereotypical image in my mind and avoid reading them.
Few months back, my sister had got this book The Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi from the crossword sale and I gave her those 'Are-you-serious?' kind of looks, I mean why the hell would she waste money on buying this book when there are so many other books on my to-be-read list. I was sure I wouldn't fritter away my time reading this book considering it a complete waste. But then everyone was praising this book, literally everyone! Apart from receiving praises of being "path breaking" and "well written" and one of the critics also wrote that "Tripathi's trilogy is already being touted as India's Lord of the Rings", this statement in particular struck me and I thought, okay talking about this book in the leagues of Lord of the Rings would be too much and I decided to read and judge it myself.
I finished my first book in two days in-between my most crucial exams, and I must say it completely blew my mind off. The first book is so well written with an attention to detail. A legend retold in fiction with a touch of humor. The characters come out alive and live beyond the book, at a point I genuinely thought this is what might have happened and wanted everything to turn out well for Shiva. After reading the first book I immediately started with the second part of the trilogy The Secret of the Nagas - this book is by far my favorite of all three. Who would have thought that the sequel to the first book would turn out to be so good. This book has such unexpected twists and turn that I was in complete shock.You know that you are reading a good book when you have to stop once in a while just to say...f**k and mind you I stopped a lot of times just to say that very word. After reading two incredibly well written books, I had a lot of expectations from Tripathi's third book The Oath of Vayuputras'(last part of the trilogy) and it didn't disappoint me at all. This book was like the missing puzzle and by the end of it I was more than satisfied. I was a little startled with the ending but then again I thought this was necessary.
All three books turned out to be superb, I was so hooked on to reading as to what will happen next! The mystery and suspense was killing me. Amish Tripathi has done a marvelous job with these three books, very well for his first work as an author. No wonder the books became best seller and sold over a lot of copies around India, also much praised. But would I compare it to the likes of 'The Lord of the Rings'? Hell no!! Tolkien's masterpiece is on a complete different level, it is legendary and Shiva trilogy is not even close.The best thing is that Tripathi's novel broke the stereotypical image about an Indian author and came out with a fabulous novel. All I can say is everyone should read this novel, something you wouldn't want to miss out on. It is a perfect assortment of myth, fiction, well established characters, easy language, beautiful geographical description and mind-boggling mystery. An ideal summer read, if you don't have the book please go purchase it or borrow it but do read it! It will change your perception as it changed mine.
Happy Reading until my next post!
