The Matsya Curse (Anantya Tantrist Mystery #2) by Shweta Taneja was reviewed by us almost a year back. Later on, we got the copy of "Cult of Chaos (Anantya Tantrist Mystery)". Yes, you heard me correct, we read & reviewed part-2 without reading previous one. There is 95% of independence between two volumes. Unfortunately, we were not able to take part-1 on priority, which made book the victim of bug called "Shelved" just like the 2nd page of Google. But we cannot do that injustice for a long time, so this Diwali we renamed that 2nd page as the 1st page and all those pending books became our priority.
Book Blurb
The tantriks are now overground. They have their own council, police and justice systems. The White clan, Kaula, has emerged as the most powerful: their men are recognized tantriks, women intimate collaborators.Then there is Anantya Tantrist, who has rejected the Kaula path. She is powerful and lives life by her own strict moral code. Who needs official seals anyway? When the world goes to hell in a handcart, badges and honours aren't going to save the day.Incidentally, hell and chaos is just where the world is headed. In Delhi, little girls are being sacrificed in a tantrik ritual. A desperate daeva is trying to blackmail Anantya. Someone is trying to call up the God of Chaos. A three-headed giant cobra turns up in old Delhi. The White and Red tantriks are facing off, and there is one or more Black tantric brewing some dangerous shakti. As Anantya struggles to stop the madness, the supernatural underworld - peopled with creatures humanoid, barely human and inhuman - comes alive in all its bloody, gory glory
As this is the first part of the series, the book started with an introduction (not plain paragraph & paragraph of details, it is in story format only) of the separate underground world of tantric. The world of Tantric was divided into 3 sects, who prefer & follow their own rituals. A governing body was in place to make sure things would be in control. Then there were all mythic creatures like Dasyus, Danava, Ghost, Rakshasas and what not. Among that world our protagonist, Anantya, lived life on her own terms. She was living away from her clan reasons known to her. To survive she started working as a Tantric Detective & helps CBI to solve cases associated with black magic. This is where our story starts when she was working on the case. Things started revealing gory truth that can destroy the human world. It was linked to her past so deep that she needed to fight on emotional front as well as the physical front. Read the book to know more.
Coming to our take from the book, it has the potential to start "Cult of Anantya" among readers. It is sad that Indian film/tv industry is not able to take benefits of such wonderfully written books. Yes, you heard me right, the book is capable enough for adaption for the screen. Characters, plot & visualization shows deep research rather than just another bedtime-story or on-the-spot-made-up-story. As I have already read 2nd part, I cannot say waiting for it but yes 3rd part may be equally interesting. The best part is the way storytelling merged with a fictional description of people & places. The cover art is also interesting enough to leave an impression for a long time.
The only issue is a little bit slow paced at multiple places.
Ratings
- Cover - 5/5
- Concept - 5/5
- Characters - 4/5
- Overall - 4.5/5
Review from other readers can be found at GoodReads
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment