theme of the book is around mythology, The title of the book is apt for the story, The cover of the book is simple yet elegant and beautiful, I starting reading this book and I finished it in one go, I loved the book. Language of the book is easy, Glossary provided at the end of the book helps you in reading the book smoothly, Narration is smooth. Characters are well developed. I personally liked character of Dr, Vyas very much. The author's writing style is very good, I really appreciate author for writing about something related to our Indian mythology and Vedas, The story is unpredictable and keeps you engaged till the end, Overall, this book is an awesome book, I totally loved it. I recommend this book to everyone and esp, mythology lovers like me.
Recommended : Yes
Rating :,
:
The first thing I noticed about the book cover when I took the book in my hand, was the use of 'astras' weapons placed cleverly to make the lines of a ferocious face.
I was definitely intrigued.
'Divyastra' is the second novel of Auckland based Nimish Tanna, after his first novel 'The moments of truth', The book delves into mythology like no other needless to say, it's a terrific mythological fiction, Being a mythology fan, to read this genre was a treat to my brain cells,
Dr. S. Vyas, a Noble prize winner in Physics, talks about the then advanced Divyastras and scriptures in ancient India, From here, the story begins, There are three parallel stories in the book which when converge, make you understand the intellect of the author, This book is a perfect amalgamation of mythology with Science and technology,
The story revolves around Shankar, a not so happy employee, His life takes another turn when he returns home to see his ailing father and discovers a bewitched tale from his grandfather, The tale that leaves him puzzled enough to contemplate it further, Other characters like Indrajit and Guruji equally carry the story forward, What happens next is a saga in itself,
I definitely liked the storytelling of the author, his complex narrative style and sub plots gave character to the narration, The inception of stories within the plot made the book more alluring, The book is fast paced and keeps you engaged, I particularly liked the use of certain sanskritvedic words which gave a cutting edge to the storyline, The book seemed well researched and worth a read, Though, characters could have been developed further,
It was interesting to read the ending of the book does deserve a sequel, I must say,
If you are looking for an entertaining read which incorporates mythology, fiction, adventurethriller, then this is the book you pick, It is not a very complex book and can be read by a beginner too,
Book Information:
Pages:
Language: English
Genre: Mythological Fiction
My Rating:,/Book Name Divyastra
Author Nimish Tanna
The book revolves around two main characters, Shankar who is trying hard to find his worth amp Dr.
S. Vyas who is a Nobel laureate in physics and has deep knowledge of Vedic Mythology,
Shankar gets a call from grandpa that his father Meghnad met with an accident,then he visit his village gopalpur and his grandpa tells him a story which makes his life takes a turn.
. .
What's story all about
How did that changed his life,
:
It's a story of truth , self analysis , failure , veda, affection and technology,
The cover is beautiful and adds to the awesomeness of the story, The plot and the narration is fascinating with twists, The language is lucid and the pace is consistent, The plot is indeed unique and interesting,
Rating./star read
The combination and the story is unique and Im experiencing this blend for the first time, The tale is based on the mythical period in the beginning, The story talks about thedifferent weapons or divyastras used in Hindu mythology, But when the story moves forward, the mythological genre slowly turns into scifi, The author has included the scifi touch very brilliantly in this tale, Because he justifies the characters of rishis who are not simply mythological but they actually experimented scientifically everything before believed, The story is a combination of emotions and knowledge, But the ending is a cliffhanger, The author left some things unanswered, Maybe it will be good in that way,
The characters are developed in a manner to drive the story, I really liked Dr. Vyas character in the tale, His ways of explaining things with valid scientific points but infused with mythological references are a very interesting feature to note,
The best thing about this book is, it has an amazing plot but it is written in a simple way without any harder plot twists.
The blending of mythology was very good in the narration because in the halfway its signs totally vanish, This is a perfect entertainment read because the touch of humor is unlikely in scifi or mythological genre books, but the author has incorporated it in the story excellently.
The cover is catchy and unique, It is enough to generate curiosity about the story with a single look,
Easily could have been aread for me,
Well, this is a story based on themes regarding Indian mythology and science with a bit of romance or should I say silly tricks to get women to sleep with and revenge.
There won't be real spoilers as such, But I need to feature some obvious part which was totally unnecessary,
Shanker is a middle aged guy who is so unhappy with his life and job and everyone else in his family especially his father for living such a mundane life.
One fine day unfortunately he had to go back home on getting the news of his father getting into a fatal accident which ultimately took his life.
In order to cut short his sleepless nights that followed, his grandfather offers to tell him a story like he used to when Shankar was a kid.
The story has so many hidden stories and secrets that it changed everything for Shankar,
No, not the usual morallearnt and living life more fruitfully kind of way!,
Instead it drives him to dig up secrets about his family and something which would change whatever he used to think about his father,
I totally love Dr, Vyas' ways of explaining things that has got valid scientific points interestingly infused relatively with mythological references, This is how the book started and ended as well,
But the perfect public figure, Dr Vyas, has his own dirty secrets! One fine day while presenting a public talk, he got targeted by a young man to the point of no return.
Well, yes I exaggerate a bit here, But still I don't think I did,
It started with many interrupting, annoying but interesting questions at the first half of the story but at the later half, the presentation continues ending up in a different way.
In between, the story narration part took up the major portion of the book,
Somehow almost everything works for the book,
I totally loved the writing style, It is fast paced, different, engaging and gripping,
The character development is good, and the chemistry among the characters is intense, except the romance or 'I don't know what to call it except totally unrelated' parts!
Emotions well depicted wherever needed.
However! Let me take a deep breath and explain whyless for a book which I would have easily given a
I don't know what the author was thinking when in between the chapters,,andhe felt the need to make the main character in the story narration by the grandfather to be a player/a male chauvinist including his fellow friends.
It totally disrupted the story flow! For nothing! These chapters were focussed on how to trap women for some kind of fling or one night stand.
Like inchapters! Was it really required And for what possible reasons
It was so out of place and almost made me want to give up reading the book.
It was downright offensive the way the tricks and tips were described in freaking points! This part was totally unnecessary and like totally unrelated with the characters as such or to any possible situation in the narration.
Well, we all know that most of the time for the guy, the woman he 'conquers' and gets a chance to have a fling with eventually falls in love and cannot live without the woman in the end ONLY in movies and fiction to make the readers or the one who is watching the movie feel good.
In real life I really don't know if it happens too but I really dont want to know, I don't really like the ideas/tips given in the book at all, It is quite misleading! Yes, fiction point well proved it seems,
Yes, thesechapters totally ruined my mood while reading this book,
Apart from that, the rest of the book is quite good,
But the ending is almost a cliffhanger,
Some things are left unanswered,
The basic question that comes to mind at the end is 'Who was the real villain in the story'
Somehow I enjoyed the read,
I would so love to read a good book without the usual male/female stereotypes Ravanas bloodline exists
The Vedas, mysticism, mythological references, and ambition to reach the pinnacle as a strategic weapons consultant form the core components of an intrigue that define this thriller.
Divyastra written by Nimish Tanna and published by Become Shakespeare isnt the usual terrorandgore thriller but digresses into quite a bit of interesting storytelling without compromising with pace.
The book isnt also a mythological thriller in the strictest sense of the term even though it tries hard to weave in yogis, weapons of the Gods, mantras in Sanskrit, and even Ravanas bloodline.
If this first paragraph in the review sounds exciting it is primarily because the story connects a lot of subplots that converge let the thriller elements roll on ceaselessly.
Yes, there are parts that appeared to drag on a bit, especially where pusillanimity and infatuation barge in together to pretend like some romance is brimming and then there are parts where the lectures on the future of weaponry get on the nerves, but one can condone all this because the author always seemed to be in control.
Though I must admit that sections where the author talks about Sammohanastra, Twashtastra, Mayastra, and Manavastra as celestial weapons that could result in entire armies to collapse, or make the enemy mistake each other for opponents and start killing each other, or dispel any sorcery in the vicinity, or inspire evil beings to transform into humanity lovers intrigues the reader urging him or her on to know more.
The author doesnt disappoint the reader and goes on with his blitz about Astra and Shastra, Shashtra is defined as any physical weapon such as the likes of an arrow or a spear, Astra, on the other hand is not a physical weapon but, if put simply, a bundle of frequencies, According to the author even mantras act like sound bombs which when recited in a specific frequency, have physical or psychological effects on the target or both and all these elements get a somewhat contemporary existence because the plot never really happens in the distant mythological past but in the present.
One may choose to treat these hypothetical inquests into mythological scientific advancements as something bizarre and even I smiled when I read about Lord Rama used a blade of grass as a deadly weapon invoked by a divyastra mantra.
I was convinced while reading this tale that even this thriller, like any other, is all about human greed and not about grand plans to transform the world.
It is about basic criminal instinct in a human that pushes him on, as it appeared to impel Guruji or Dr Vyas, to tap resources from ancient Vedic knowledge to act like any other petty criminal hatching a plan to make him rich and powerful.
The blurb text is correct when it mentions that this knowledge could only be transferred from a Guru to his disciple by word of mouth, In todays world, one mystic, who calls himself Guruji, still possesses this knowledge and is using it to empower an innocent persons life, Only, this empowerment could be a deception and the innocent person is a thirteen year old boy with a stutter The story revolves around how this happens and how Shankars father gets hopelessly enmeshed even when he was a child.
The book isnt so much about mystical celestial weapons unleashing destruction on earth but more about the way the machinations of a brilliant mind traps and destroys a family.
By the way, as one reads the book, one does wonder if there is a possibility for a mythological character like Ravanas bloodline to be still alive
As I read through the pages I did realize that the narrative impressed me wherever and whenever the author decided to impregnate the story with tales from the past.
For instance, the yet unraveled story of Shankars father as told to him by his grandfather helps us understand the foundation blocks behind the intrigue and this is done well.
Then there is the story of Kola Maharishi and a demon called Kamsasura who meditated together with the sage seeking oneness with the Lord but the demon seeking power and invincibility, is fascinating.
The Gods knew what would happen if Kamsasuras wish was granted and at the right time the Gods turned Kamsasura MOOKA or mute and he was unable to ask for a boon and came to be known as Mookasura.
This obviously enraged the demon and he started disrupting the sages penance until Godess Lakshmi and Godess Saraswati imbibed the powers of the Trimurti and killed Mookasura and thus came to be called Godess Mookambika.
This story is about the history of a temple nearlyyears old and is woven seamlessly with the narrative, The point that I am making here is that discerning readers would have much preferred to read the stories behind the celestial weapons as well rather than have the author just tell them their names and leave it at that.
There are pages that rush in to inform and tell about complex facets from our mythological past and Im sure they must all have hidden somewhere interesting stories.
Thus instead of Dr Vyas standing behind an impassive lectern and using monologue to tell, the author should have shown us how these weapons came to be and the thrill then would have multiplied because the narrative could have enthralled.
The book, in simpler terms, is about how each of us has a territory to defend and everybody has a war to fight without being confident, not cocky intelligent, not geeky and passionate, not needy to use the authors own words.
The book does move around to tell us that every progress in todays science is just a reoccurrence of what have been mastered thousands of years ago and that sometimes this wheel is religion and sometimes it is mediocracy, and Shankar knew that for him to figure out his life, he had to step out of the wheel.
And every time the author uses the tool of storytelling and not a monologue, his work tends to stand out, Such moments of prose brilliance are scattered and few and I wish there were more of them, This does not mean that the book isnt worth a read, It is.
If one plucks out narratives that reflect sheer cheesiness and the reader stops giggling at descriptions that talk about guests in colourful, elaborate clothes or her hair falling on her glowing cheeks or sentences like with an impressively tailored traditional outfit highlighting his broad shoulders and stubble outlining his jawline, the book does transcend the mundane and fascinates.
The cheesy bits too are in abundance in this tale and for those who love such digressions, the book can be a literal treasure because it does include a few pages on the art of a pickup artist.
The book is, at the core, a thriller that sometimes forgets that it is one but Im willing to overlook this because despite an overdose of flowcharts, Sanskrit shlokas, and mythological terminology sans the stories, it does manages to hold my attention.
Im rather glad that I had the opportunity to read this book, If you are intrigued about Ravanas bloodline still being alive and traceable, you certainly need to first read this book,
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Nimish Tanna