Obtain பொன்னியின் செல்வன், பாகம் 2: சுழற்காற்று Prepared By Kalki Displayed In Version

Things slow down quite a bit in the second half, Gives into bits and pieces

of magic realism, which although is entertaining in its own right, But makes one miss the rollicking adventures of Book, Vandhiyathevan is still in great form, The NandhiniKundhavai faceoff is brilliant, The star of the volume, however, is none other than Arulmozhi Varman, the Ponniyin Selvan himself,

Although to me, it is the hapless yet fiercely fascinating Poonghuzali, who steals the show with whatever little spotlight that the author casts upon her, So much anguish. Such brilliance on her part,

I hear that things pick up rapidly in the next few volumes, Fairly optimistic about that

Finally, we got to meet our title character, Ponniyin Selvan, Have to say that I absolutely LOVE Poonkuzhali, The captivating Lanka that was depicted in the book is certainly a place I want to visit, Not to mention the ambianceinducing writing made me feel like I was actually in the midst of the cyclone! Break Neck speed is how the narrative unfolds, I always believe it is upto the reader to like or dislike any character in the book, But here, the author takes on the challenge to make you like characters you disliked in the first part and vice versa,

Part two of the epic wastes no time to pick up the threads from the last book and bring them together in a colorful manner with the landscape of SriLanka in the background.
Parts of the book almost seems like a tourism brochure for the country describing in details the buddhist statues and the perahara function, The danger in Thanjavur sounds very real and so we are comforted with the gathering of our favorite characters,

We are introduced to the Ponniyin Selvan in this book and we get to know why he commands so much love from the people, The characters from the first part stay predictable and yet situations make them heroic, You look forward to Vandhiyathevan's wit and the exchange between the two main ladies, The new characters are very different from the ones we already know, Poonkuzhali with her crazy day dreams makes parts of the book surreal,

I found this book stop at nothing and for the first time in many years stayed up almost till morning to finish a book, After the riveting and unputdownable Bookof Ponniyin Selvan, this was a bit of a dampener, Well, that was to be expected, I guess, Its rare that the second book in a series matches the first, But thats not to say this wasnt excellent it just didnt quite have the zing of the first,

The action, I felt, meandered a bit as we moved to Sri Lanka here, A host of new characters made their appearance, including the man himself: Ponniyin Selvan, Kalki is almost a magical realism writer here, blending fiction with myth and fantasy, The politics and intrigue became a bit too confusing for me, but I am curious to see what happens next in Part,
பததகமக படககம பழத அடதத எனன நடககம எனற ஆவல அடகக மடயவலல. வகடனல தடரக வளவநத பழத படததவரகளகக எபபட இரநதரககம எனற எணணதத தவரகக இயலவலல.

சல பததகஙகள எபபழத மடயம எனற நனகக வககம. ஒர சல பததகஙகள ஒர மற படககலம எனற எணண வககம. மக சல பததகஙகள எததன மற படததலம அலககத வணணம இரககம. பனனயன சலவன இதல எநத ரகம எனற அனவரககம தரயம.

இதறக மல இநத பததகதத பறற வமரசனம தவ அலல எனற நனககறன. :

நனகம மறயக மனறம பகதத படகக பகறன. : I should have finished it earlier but I didn't,

This series is one of my favourite,

Detailed review will follow shortly Kalki is very famous for his historical novel Ponniyin Selvan, He has also written many social novels, The starting was a bit slow but it picks up, . Book was initially as slow as the first part and then picked up pace, Gripping and thrilling from that point, Enjoyed it. Cant wait to start the next part, Very interesting storyline but at some places the author stretches too much, . . A lot of historical information about Sri Lanka is depicted, A great read. An absolute masterpiece.
This is not a book but a time machine thats transports the reader to the glorious Chola dynasty of South India and offers a frontrow seat to an exciting adventure across ancient kingdoms, oceans and forests.
The writing is flawless, the excitement palpable and the cliffhanger intense, In fact such a magnificent and epochal setting, with context, drama, intrigue and historical authenticity could only be one of a kind, This translation into English unlocks a huge new world to many like me, Tributes to the maestro Kalki and the Author in translating this true to the soul, Can't wait for Book! This is one of those books that is totally unputdownable, Absolutely amazing. Here we finally get to meet the title character Ponniyin Selvan aka Arulmoli Varman to be the famed Rajaraja emperor of chola dynasty, For me the title character is not yet the main hero of the book but Vandhiyathevan it is, The author takes us on an adventurous ride with witty and brave Vandhiyathevan across the sea toth century Ilankai today's Srilanka, and this journey is a movie on pages with such vivid depiction of the country that one gets transported to the place itself.
Walking through the forests and the marshy lands, sightseeing the wonderful cities, buddha stupas, the ancient caves, braving the tumultuous sea with all the drama unfolding around is an absolute treat.


Some new amazing characters are introduced, I missed out on the characterization in my review of the first book, . perfection it is. It is like one if living with them, And I loved how the women are depicted strong and powerful,
I am thankful to the translators as this book/series has opened a new world for me, Even though I am an avid reader of historical fiction, I realized I haven't read any on South Indian kings/empires before this one, And really happy I was lucky to have started with this series, Already on to the next book : பஙகழல I have been away for too long from here and I have sorely missed writing and posting reviews, But happy to say that although my reviews lagged my reading didnt,

Partof Ponniyin Selvan, Whirlwinds, picks up right from where the previous book left off,

Ill hold back from too detailed a description of the story for the benefit of those who havent started the series yet, In Whirlwinds, we are swept away into the splendour of Sri Lanka from the moment Vandiyathevan lands up on its shores, There, he meets a young girl who arrests his attention with her strength and bravery, From there, the plot only becomes more intriguing with more schemes and plans afoot,

In this book, we learn more about Ponniyin Selvan himself and how the king Arulmozhivarman got this nickname, He is adored by everyone and through various folktales and anecdotes we come to know why Ponniyin Selvan is special, Although I enjoyed Vandhiyathevans dialogues, as I did in the previous book, I think they kind of paled in front of Poonguzhalis brilliance, She was easily my favourite character in this book,

The setting in Sri Lanka was exquisitely detailed with all the descriptions of the stupas, Buddhist statues and historical places like Thampallai, I stopped every few pages to quickly Google out these places and it was magical to discover that they are all real, I felt like Vandhiyathevan for whom “it seemed as though he had entered a brand new world” The description of the Perahera festival, in particular, was nothing short of mesmerising.


In fact, as I was writing this review I saw that the Perahera festival forruns fromthrd August! How apt that Im posting this today.


Right then, Im off to write my next review and read some of the ones I missed reading here!,