I was excited about reading the first book of the Shiva
Trilogy by Amish Tripathi and was thrilled when Blogadda gifted me a set of the
first two books in exchange for just an impartial review for readers and the
author. It certainly was a win-win
situation!
‘The Immortals of Meluha’, the first in a series of three is
a fresh perspective of what Hindus and Indians believe in or know as
mythology. The author in his book has
personified what Hindus have deified.
Shiva as we know him, has been portrayed as a mere mortal, albeit a
great mortal and warrior. Reading this book with familiar landscapes and
characters but a new story was an odd but interesting blend of knowing and not
knowing what would come next. Familiar characters of Sati, Daksha, Nandi,
Veerbhadra, Brihaspati have been personified in roles, as we know in mythology and
I could easily conjure up images from the Amar Chitra Kathas that I had read in
the past. I loved the canvas that had been painted for the entire storyline
using various ancient civilizations of the Indus Valley of Mohenjo Daro and
Harappa as well as from ancient Hindu cities of Ayodhya, Takshashila etc.
The plot revolves around Shiva aka the Neelkanth, Mahadev or
Natraj, who is a young warrior and leader of a tribe in Mount Kailash. He moves
with his clan in a search for peace, to Meluha, a land famed for its ideal
civilization more popularly called Ram Rajya. However all is not well in
Meluha, this land of the Suryavanshis.
The Chandravanshis, their foes who reside in Swadeep seem to have allied
with the evil Naga race and engage in terrorist attacks causing havoc in Meluha.
The story chronicles Shiva’s journey of
love, thirst for revenge, and his quest to find evil to root it out. Aided by the dependable Parvateshwar, with
the fearless Sati on his side and the Vasudev Pandits guiding him in his
spiritual quest, Shiva leads fearsome battles against his foes and leaves the
readers asking for more.
The flow of the story was smooth
and the narration gripping, although somewhere I felt the author drifted off at
times losing focus of the main storyline and the characters. Although the characters were strong in
themselves, there was plenty of scope of adding more depth to their
personalities through their actions- especially Shiva’s. What I particularly did not like, was the use
of modern day Indian parlance consisting of phrases such as ‘what the hell is
happening’, ‘Dammit’, ‘what nonsense’ etc. a tad too many times taking away
that old world charm in which the story was set. The landscape Amish has chosen
to paint his story in, is marvelous, and I do think there is still plenty of
more room to use this multi-region, multi-cultural background to his advantage
to create a masterpiece.
All in all, The Immortals of Meluha was a gripping story that would probably
make a riveting movie. I enjoyed reading it and I look forward to getting to Secret
of the Nagas – the second volume of this trilogy!
Read more on the triology on http://shivatrilogy.com/index3.html
It is a gripping tale indeed. Fast and racy, written like a thriller. I bought the first one and the second one and that speaks of the work, much like mandrake and indrajal comics he closes with "to be continued" which i hated no end. These are not sequels but part 1 , part 2 and part 3 hopefully will come soon.
ReplyDeleteI tend to prefer fiction which mixes the history and facts, this one took into to another level by twisting strong held beliefs to a different plain. Interesting that he has chosen to pick Shiva as the main protagonist - hindu fanatics would go much easier to him portraying Lord Shiva as a mere mortal albeit a strong one.
Oh by the way, I have been requesting blogadda for quiet sometime but never seem to gain any favors with them. Any tips? :-)
ReplyDelete@Mayank - I liked the theme, but I did feel, he could have imbibed more heroism to make his protagonist Shiva more worthy of worship.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Blogadda, I presume I just got lucky! I had sent them prior reviews I had done on this blog earlier. Maybe that did the trick :).
congrats on the gift from Blogadda. it must have been a 'wow' moment for you :)
ReplyDelete@Sujatha - It certainly made my day! :)
ReplyDeleteThe idea behind the Shiva Trilogy is very good, but it is completely wasted by Amish with his poor writing and characterisation, among others. I didn't like the Immortals of Meluha at all; the Secret of the Nagas is marginally better. If I did not have to revie the books, would have left them half-way
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletei too wish they make a movie out of these stories...it would be amazing...
ReplyDeleteCheers!
SUB
@Sudha - hahaha..such severe sentiments! It wasn't rosy mostly, but cmon was entertaining atleast.
ReplyDelete@Sub- I am sure a movie will get made! If Chetan Bhagats scripts are movies, this can't be far behind :)
Nice! I will surely check out this book!
ReplyDeleteLove
http://www.meghasarin.blogspot.com