Tuesday 28 January 2014

BOOK REVIEW: THE OTHER SIDE BY FARAAZ KAZI



The book really delivers to its purpose;rendering Indian horror stories in an entirely different prospective.Each time you scheme out the most plausible plot,and yet each time there is a totally new twist-compelling you to read ahead in the hope of an impeccable prediction and yet ,the authors outsmart you...EACH 

time ;That's the beauty of this piece.


The authors have used the sleight of narration to present the rather common folklore and ghost stories.The language is plain and straight ,presumably with an large audience in focus.

Being a local reader ,finding the stories strikingly superlative is a total no-no,as I have at one point or the other either heard of or read about them.This is where the narration and delivery of a few unpredictable twists come to the rescue .When an attempt to predict the plausible outcome of the plot became futile , i found it a challenge and read ahead in the hopes of deducing a correct outcome.This is how the book engages you to read through.

Within the confines of my comprehension ,I did not find any justified gradation to the stories,they were placed randomly.If the present one is unpredictable ,the succeeding one may be totally transparent.It would have been better if the stories were arranged in a manner of compounding unpredictability.
None the less i had a great reading experience and hope of reading even better works from the authors in the coming future.



Saturday 11 January 2014

BARAMULLA BOMBER… By CLARK PRASAD

REVIEW NO. – 2

NAME: BARAMULLA BOMBER (SVASTIK TRILOGY – 1)
AUTHOR: CLARK PRASADSOURCE: AUTHOR HIMSELFGENRE: SCIENCE FICTION ESPIONAGE THRILLER
RATINGS
STORY: 4/5
COVER: 4.5/5
WRITING STYLE: 3/5
DIALOGUES: 4/5
THEME: 4.5/5
OVERALL: 4/5
THEME

War is coming. Everyone knows and preparing for it. ‘If you wish for peace, prepare for war’ and this is the time of testing the preparation. ‘The Guardians’, who have failed earlier in their task of establishing peace in the world, are taking this opportunity as their last chance to fulfil the goal for which they were formed earlier by their ancestors.
Mansur Haider, who is a simple Kashmiri boy with a talented bowling arm and a dream to play Cricket has become the main concern of all the secret agencies of world.
Shaksgam Valley’s earthquake and with that missing of a mountaineering team, something is going terribly wrong there?
Adolf Silverskiold, Swedish intelligence officer, who was investigating Mansur and Shaksgam Valley incident, comes across the world’s most lethal weapon ever made using the power of Vedas & Bible.
There’s only one chance to stop the massacre, just one chance to stop the evil but the question which arises is, WHO IS THE EVIL?
BARAMULLA BOMBER is first of its kind novel written by an Indian Author. Its storyline covers the events from 16th July 1945 to the present day. It covers politics, science, cricket and mythology with establishing a balance between every topic so that no single topic seems to take over the other parts of the novel. Every detail used is specific and full explanation of events is given so that nothing seems to be exaggerated.

BEAUTY
·         Chronological manner of linking the events.
·         Never went off the track.
·         Explanation of events.
·         Storyline.
·         The climax.
·         Pace of writing. He has explained everything in just 300 pages.
·         Knowledge of writer about the events happened so far related to his fiction.
·         Action Sequences.
·         Command on language of author.

BEAST
·         Characterisation.
·         Confusion. There are so many events, so many characters and in the midway you feels, ‘Hey please give me a break.’
·         Some chords of the story were still missing (or maybe I missed them) but as it is a trilogy, I think those will come up in the next coming parts of the novel.
·         Mansur Haider, he never seemed that important throughout the storyline but as I said earlier maybe in the next one he comes up as the strong point.

MY PERSONAL COMMENT
“Quantum Physics meets Bible & Vedas in Background of Kashmir & Cricket”, well I read this on the cover I thought that it is another kind of a Khichdi novel, trying to cover everything forcefully. But after reading the story, I want to say, ‘Man, watch this guy, he surely knows what he’s writing.’ Reading this novel was truly a great experience. Its writing style is inspired by Hollywood movies. Some heroic dialogues and execution of action sequences are damn good. My favourite part was the action sequence of Monkey Hill. That was awesomely written.
Author has impressed me with his style of linking the facts with his fiction. His knowledge is immensely deep on the topics he wrote but for making the fiction interesting and not a science project he never went in the depth.
I truly and genuinely suggest everyone to read this novel and for the author I want to say that I am dying while waiting for the next part of the novel.

ORIGINALLY POSTED HERE...

Friday 10 January 2014

BOOK REVIEW # 1 (THE BANKSTER)


NAME : THE BANKSTER
AUTHOR : RAVI SUBRAMANIAN
PUBLISHER : RUPA
ESTIMATE READING TIME : 15-16 HOURS
RATINGS
PLOT : 3.5/5
STORY : 4/5
COVER : 3/5
WRITING STYLE : 5/5
DIALOGUES: 2.5/5
OVERALL : 3.5/5
GENERAL REVIEW...
Greater Boston Global Bank (GB2) is witnessing it’s best time in the banking business and along with that losing it’s employees in mysterious deaths. Something is going wrong but no one bothered to dig the mystery. One employee is turning to be the biggest bankster of all time and leaves no one who comes in his path. Global conspiracy is being operated in GB2. Everyone seems to be the culprit but the bankster is still hidden somewhere behind the mask.
A mind blowing thriller……
Story is set in mainly four distinct locations.
LOCATION 1 : Angola, South Africa. Joseph Braganza shows up in the prologue of the book as a CIA agent. He is there for some arms deal. I would give this part a 2 star but when in the epilogue Joseph got exposed, this particular location turned out to be a 4 star. so in average I will give it a 3.5 (3.5 stars)
LOCATION 2: GB2 Head office Mumbai. This is the major part because everything is centered around GB2. Sometimes this will bore you and sometimes it will give you goosebumps. But being a thriller novel, this location disappoints me till the sequence when Harshita planned to fuck up the life of Zanaida and left to Vienna. After that the finale proved to be the best part of the novel which was also plotted at the same location. (3.5 stars)
LOCATION 3: Devikulam, Kerela. This was the most disappointing one. No thrill, no suspense at all. Just the article of Times Of India at the last chapter was phenomenal revealing the best part of the conspiracy. (2 stars)
LOCATION 4: Vienna. This location comes up when Harshita comes here on holidays and joins the links of GB2 with world conspiracy. This is a location where there was thrill and action. (4 stars)
BEAUTY
  • Introduction of every character has a unique story. There was no character who just show up instantly.
  • Finale is awesome. You can’t even get a little hint of what’s coming at the end.
  • Story is well linked and no part of it is left as a dead end.
  • Bank’s gossip and bitching. I loved that.
BEAST
  • Middle part is boring and seems to be getting stretched.
  • Episodes of Devikulam are predictable.
  • Being a thriller, sometimes thrill element looses up.
MY PERSONAL COMMENT
I love thrilling novels, so this novel is of my taste. I loved the way Ravi craved the story. Chapters ending were great because they will force you to start reading next one instantly. I doesn’t know much about banking so sometimes it was difficult for me to understand what’s going on but that was all my mistake because Ravi has described each technical thing in brief. The most lovable thing about Ravi’s writing is that he gives space to each and every characters in his novel. Even a fisherman who have nothing to do with the main story has given his share of space.
As we know that there are only few writers in India who dares to write thriller, Ravi has now become my ‘To be read writer’.
(REVIEW ORIGINALLY POSTED HERE...)