Book Review - Shiva Triology (India's One of Best selling fantasy Book)
The Shiva Trilogy is a collection of three books – The Immortals of Meluha, The Secret of the Nagas and The Oath of the Vayuputras by author Amish Tripathi. These are some of the highest-selling books in the literary history of India, and the trilogy is often considered to be India’s very own Lord of the Rings, with Amish’s style of writing compared to Tolkien. With each book selling more than 1 million copies, the story has been further translated into many languages and the movie rights for the first book, The Immortals of Meluha, has been bought by Karan Johar. Amish has been awarded the Society Young Achiever Award for the books. Other accolades include being named in the list of Top 100 Indians, four times in a row by Forbes and the Raymond Crossword Popular Choice Award.
Review
Breaking barriers, the author considers a powerful God, known to Hindus as the destroyer, as a mere mortal, and shows his journey from a man to a God, which is groundbreaking in the genre as well as in the literary landscape of India. Amish builds everything with finesse. Exploring and defining the minute details to paint the most imaginative of landscapes, structures and people gives him the upper hand over the contemporary writings in India. He explains the concepts of Hinduism to the reader in a much more efficient way than his contemporaries and connects with the reader very well. The character development is very strong, and there are very few characters introduced which have no overall relationship with the passage of the story. The language used makes certain that the story could reach to the average Indian and besides a few instances, there is very little that you’ll have to concentrate hard on to understand. For a debutante author, he has done a great job of holding the story together without loopholes across three books.
However, the story loses steam as it reaches its closing in the third book. Writing out the finale to a good story is often the trickiest part of writing a book, and Amish, too, seems to have been affected by it. It is as if very little attention was paid to the ending as compared to the development of the plot, and it seems forced and predictable by the time you are halfway through The Oath of the Vayuputras. Some of the elements of technology used would be better suited in a science fiction rather than in mythology.
The whole idea of imagining and writing mythology through the lens of a contemporary outlook giving it the slight touch of science and fiction, running on loops with the established stories of Gods and their deeds make these books worth reading. It’s also the acceptance of the books, which nonetheless invades the privacy of religious monotone scriptures, but at the same time, shines a torch on it, proves the plot strength of our religious books and shows the readiness of people to help grow the literary scene of our country.
The Immortals of Meluha (Shiva Trilogy)
900 BC. In what modern Indians mistakenly call the Indus Valley Civilisation.
The inhabitants of that period called it the land of Meluha – a near perfect empire created many centuries earlier by Lord Ram, one of the greatest monarchs that ever lived.
This once proud empire and its Suryavanshi rulers face severe perils as its primary river, the revered Saraswati, is slowly drying to extinction. They also face devastating terrorist attacks from the east, the land of the Chandravanshis. To make matters worse, the Chandravanshis appear to have allied with the Nagas, an ostracised and sinister race of deformed humans with astonishing martial skills.
The only hope for the Suryavanshis is an ancient legend: ‘When evil reaches epic proportions, when all seems lost, when it appears that your enemies have triumphed, a hero will emerge.’
Is the rough-hewn Tibetan immigrant Shiva, really that hero?
And does he want to be that hero at all?
Drawn suddenly to his destiny, by duty as well as by love, will Shiva lead the Suryavanshi vengeance and destroy evil?
This is the first book in a trilogy on Shiva, the simple man whose karma re-cast him as our Mahadev, the God of Gods.
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The Secret Of The Nagas (Shiva Trilogy-2)
Today, He is a God. 4000 years ago, He was just a man.
The hunt is on. The sinister Naga warrior has killed his friend Brahaspati and now stalks his wife Sati. Shiva, the Tibetan immigrant who is the prophesied destroyer of evil, will not rest till he finds his demonic adversary. His vengeance and the path to evil will lead him to the door of the Nagas, the serpent people. Of that he is certain.
The evidence of the malevolent rise of evil is everywhere. A kingdom is dying as it is held to ransom for a miracle drug. A crown prince is murdered. The Vasudevs – Shiva’s philosopher guides – betray his unquestioning faith as they take the aid of the dark side. Even the perfect empire Meluha is riddled with a terrible secret in Maika, the city of births. Unknown to Shiva, a master puppeteer is playing a grand game.
In a journey that will take him across the length and breadth of ancient India, Shiva searches for the truth in a land of deadly mysteries – only to find that nothing is what it seems.
Fierce battles will be fought. Surprising alliances will be forged. Unbelievable secrets will be revealed in this second book of the Shiva Trilogy, the sequel to the #1 national bestseller, The Immortals of Meluha.
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The Oath of the Vayuputras (Shiva Trilogy)
Evil has risen.
Only a God can stop it.
Shiva is gathering his forces. He reaches the Naga capital, Panchavati, and Evil is finally revealed. The Neelkanth prepares for a holy war against his true enemy, a man whose name instils dread in the fiercest of warriors.
India convulses under the onslaught of a series of brutal battles. It’s a war for the very soul of the nation. Many will die. But Shiva must not fail, no matter what the cost. In his desperation, he reaches out to the ones who have never offered any help to him: the Vayuputras.
Will he succeed? And what will be the real cost of battling Evil? To India? And to Shiva’s soul? Discover the answer to these mysteries in this concluding part of the bestselling Shiva Trilogy.
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