Book Review #68: Karma By Karanam Pavan Prasad

Title: Karma

Author: Karanam Pavan Prasad

Publishers: Conclave Media

Genre: General Fiction

Pages: 164 (Paperbound)

Source: Personal Copy

A first time debutant novelist, who took greater risk to write a novel on a subject like Death, Hindu Funeral Rituals and practices, etc… This novel is a blend of age old rituals, beliefs and traditions versus the modern cosmopolitan, scientific, questioning generation. This novel deals with a very taboo subject such as Hindu funeral practices, which is also called as KARMA, hence the title of the novel Karma. The book poses some serious questions, at the same time, gives its readers a sense of newly crafted novel. Not that, this kind of novel has ever come before, in fact, it has come at various stages and in various forms. But, the mixture of modern aspects like smartphones, IT, KFC, drinks, parties juxtaposed with that of traditions, practices, beliefs and other things is a new way.

The protagonist of this novel Surendra was responsible to carry out the last rites rituals of his father that just demised. Being working in a city as an upscale Engineer and married to an ultramodern woman Neha, he didn't seem to get adjusted to all those rituals, practices and traditions. He just toys around like a puppet listening to the head priest and following his younger brother in those rituals. During these proceedings, Surendra refuses to gets his head shaved, whereas, his brother Narahari agrees to it. (This is one of the rituals, where, the sons of the deceased person should get their head shaved in order to carry out this ritual, it’s called VAPANA). Day to day proceedings was making our protagonist lose his cool and made him act like a weirdo. He was always suspicion about his wife. He often gets these thoughts that; his wife is cheating on him with another man. This is strongly believed by him due to the past actions of his wife on numerous occasions before marriage. His wife had many partners just like him. However, his manly thoughts were not convinced to agree on such things.

The regular circumstances of those rituals have made him to come to terms with the traditions and he actually starts believing in everything. He often reaches out to head priest to understand the basics of the rituals which he finds occasionally funny. Sometimes, he indulges in serious conversations with the head priest and was asking any ritual practices so that he could father a child and so on. This kind of dilemma and regular taunts from his wife for being too orthodox has made our protagonist weak day by day. He gets mocked by his wife for conducting those ‘pointless’ rituals which was seriously offending Surendra. He also concludes that, he didn’t get a proper wife or he didn't become a good husband. This made him to get back to his last love interest ‘Vaani’ who was his Aunt’s daughter. Even here he faces serious disappointments.

As the book progresses further, we will realize many facets of these funeral rites, and this must be the take away from the book. The detailed explanation and beliefs behind each practice and tradition has explained pretty neat. There is an absolute twist at the end of the novel, which I am not including in my review. I ask people to read and savor the story.

All said and done, the novel has some weak points. Few of the characters were given little space. The entire novel could’ve been extended to about 30 pages. The background story of important characters was missing or was kept low. The Sanskrit verses and their meaning throughout the novel is a good attempt at explaining few traditional aspects.

Overall, a great attempt by the author and a fantastic rendition. He has a long way to go and this is just the beginning. I hope to see more of such amazing work by this author. Though, this book can be easily considered as a contemporary novel. It doesn't exactly belong to any specific genre. A must read novel. I recommend it for everyone.

My Rating:

5/5

Book Review #67: The Crossing Hour By Quoleena Sbrocca

Title: The Crossing Hour

Author: Quoleena Sbrocca

Publishers: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 430 (PDF edition)

Source: Review copy by author

“Time travel used to be thought of just science fiction, but Einstein’s general theory of relativity allows for the possibility that we could warp space-time so much that you could go off in a rocket and return before you set out”    

       - Stephen Hawking

  

    “The Crossing Hour”, a novel that has kept me hooked for whole 2 days. Author Quoleena Sbrocca, a first time writer that wrote this excellent novel. It is really hard to believe a first timer can write something like this. This novel is an excellent work of imagination. Bundling fiction with few historical characters to create a magical time traveler’s story is something really a commendable job.

Stanley Graf, a retired NASA employee has believed in something extraordinary. He has created a device, called “Gramameter”, through which one can find any signs of the possible time travelers. Stanley worked relentlessly along with his son Thomas to witness this magic happen. This event happens once in every 4 years. A time traveler will appear once in every 4 years and according to Stanley’s theory, these time travelers will have 4 years of timeline to go back to their original time. He longed to prove his theory as a practical phenomenon, which was backed by Thomas Graf. After studying and documenting all these things for his entire life, Stanley passed the baton to his Granddaughter Leigh, a psychology graduate, to carry out the research and possibly receive any time traveler. Entire Stanley Graf’s family members are well educated of this time traveler’s event.

So, as the story progresses further, Leigh, now all set to receive the time traveler. She prepared well enough to witness this magical event happen right before her eyes. She sets all the black hole coordinates and waited. One fine day, a woman, probably in her late twenties, appeared out of blue. Leigh, who was witnessing this event made sure she was recording everything. Leigh was not sure of, whom this woman was or from which century she belonged to. She followed this mysterious woman and with help from her brother Stan, she collected enough information about this mysterious woman called “Harriet Tubman”.

The interesting part of the novel was the differences in the ways that 21^st century people talked and the people from Harriet Tubman’s time used to talk. Author had clearly mastered in choosing the right kind of grammar and vocabulary, and the salutations that people used to refer back in the days, so that it adds more weight to the time traveler’s character.

There is an important character in the novel called John Brown, a time traveler, staying in Stanley’s house for over 3 years. This part of the story in the novel where there are twists and turns, that sets the stage of the novel for its climax.

What worked in the entire novel is, the way the story is built. Readers can actually read effortlessly. There are some light moments when the earlier century people discover the modern technologies such as cars or mobile phones. The way it amuses them is exceptionally written. Hope one day, we all can witness such phenomenon in theory, proved in reality.

The writing style of the novel is lucid and engaging. There are no boring chapters as such. Each and every chapter makes sense. Breaking the entire novel into short chapters has really worked here. The dialogues differentiation between the earlier century people and the current generation people is just splendid. The scientific details and technological explanation just makes it more real than fiction. I recommend this book to every other reader who is interested in time traveler’s story.

Note: I received this book by the author in exchange of an honest review.

My Rating:

5/5

Book Review #66: The Demeter Code By Russell Brooks

Title: The Demeter Code

Author: Russell Brooks

Publishers: Self Published

ISBN: 978-0-9867513-6-3

Genre: Thriller Fiction

Pages: 366 (Epub Version)

Source: Review copy

The United States of America is under an attack. But, this time it is not the straight fight by terrorists. Rather, it is a bio-weapon attack. The entire nation was shocked to the core and the government and other intelligence agencies are trying their best to crack this case. There is CIA, NSA, FBI, etc… etc… that are too involved in the investigation of this. Sounds interesting? That’s the plot of this novel.

When I was offered to review this book by the author, being a thriller fan, I admit that I’ve made the right choice. The level of research that the author has put in through for this book is visible in the story. This is a big novel. And, there are many plots, subplots that happen across the world covering many countries from Europe, Asia and Middle East.

Ridley Fox, a former Joint Task Force 2 Warrant Officer (JTF2) has joined back up with Dr. Nita Parris on a mission that is imagined brilliantly. What is seems like a terror attack in the initial few pages, turns out to be a bigger bio-weapon attack on the whole country. The formula of the bio-weapon is what that the author is trying to break in this novel, “The Demeter Code”

As the novel picks up from its initial stage of all the introductory scenes, it gets serious as the sole purpose of Ridley Fox and Nita Parris and their hacker friend Dewan who assists them in hacking the suspected places surroundings to help them in connecting the dots. They soon will discover many things that are beyond the comprehension level. They will detain a woman called Katy Sparks from whom they get necessary information that could help them to go to the next level in their operation. In all these stages, the author has never left a clue on what leads to next. He has maintained that suspense in every page and for sure readers will be guessing what will happen next as they read through the novel.

The dynamics between Ridley, Parris and the Hacker genius Dewan was so well written that you actually feel like you are part of their conversation. One may feel like, Ridley and Parris are the main protagonists that have to be praised for their entire courageous feat. My favorite would be this Hacker Dewan, with his unflinching demeanor and timely hacking of the surrounding that actually help the protagonists carry out their operation with so much ease and comfort. Certainly, Dewan is the unsung hero of this novel. I felt, Katy Sparks’ character would’ve been extended little further.

What will happen next? Will Nita Parris and Ridley Fox able to crack down the case? Which terrorist organization is involved in declaring the bio-weapon attack on the US soil? Well, these kinds of questions will pop up in our mind as we read through. The balance between the good guys and the bad guys is maintained well. However, there are too many details for each operation that would make us wanting to skip a few pages. Certainly, the entire novel could’ve been cut short by few pages at least.

Overall a well-researched project and well executed too. The novel takes in all the facts from around the world. Author’s brilliant imagination has added life to the novel which comes as a running picture before our eyes as we read through. A brilliant novel to read and I recommend this novel to all.

Note: I received this book by the author in exchange of an honest review.

My Rating:
4.5/5