Thursday, February 23, 2017

Yama's Lieutenant - Mytho-Action-Thriller

There is nothing better than reviewing your wishlist book. "Yama's Lieutenant" made its place in my wishlist, the day I saw book on Amazon. I didn't even checked blurb of the book, all I checked was cover and author's name. And author made sure that reader won't get disappointed. I would like to salute Anuja Chandramouli to combine mythology and action thriller into one genre wonderfully. 


Blurb of the book -
The inhabitants of the thousand hells of Yama have broken free from their prison and vowed to wreak havoc on the heavens, the earth and hell. With the fiendish Hatakas and Narakamayas teamed up with Naganara, a terrifying necromancer hungry for power, the universe is headed for war and destruction unless one human has something to do with it.Agni Prakash, a debonair young man whose world has been turned upside down by the death of his twin sister, Varu, has been enlisted to stop these forces and be Yama s very own lieutenant. As the mythical world clashes with his own, Agni discovers a manuscript left behind by his sister. Hauntingly, it draws parallels to the treacherous path upon which he has been thrust. Equipped with an acerbic wit and winning charm, Agni undertakes a battle, where the odds seem tipped wildly against him, and finds unlikely companions along the way.Will he be able to uncover the secret behind his sister's writings? And more importantly, will he be able to avert the destruction that seems imminent?
Book has two parallels both related to Yama, one was directly related while another was indirectly.

Part 1 - The main story of Yama's lieutenant, where Agni Prakash with help of Kritya / Kanya trying fighting with sinister forces. In spite of aeons of punishments in hell, these forces were evil at core. Even Yama and his forces were not able to change them. They can only be contained cannot destroyed. These forces are left on human world carelessly for rampaging. Fortress of hell, walls of various Yama's torturous jails.

Part 2 - This part is portrayed as a manuscript written by Agni's sister Varuna before she died. Varuna has done detailed research on Yama's life. She has written story about Yama and his twin sister Yami. Story covers how siblings love had deepen with time and how Yama ended up as the king of the Patal loka (hell).

I have read alternate mythologies like Shiva Triology by Amish Tripathi or Ajaya by Anand Neelakanthan, but this is my first Indian mythology infused action thriller. Indian literature needed more authors like Anuja. Things I liked about book:
  • Anuja's Word-smithy - Description of Character, Place or Incident to the point. No extra information which bring boredom.
  • Focus on story line
  • Properly knitted myth and fantasy quotient as perfect serving
One thing I would like to mention, after reading 300 pages (which is 85% of total pages), I was expecting next volume in series. But author has somehow finished it too early. It was like "I didn't see it coming". Still a good read for age above 16.

Talking about ratings:
  1. Cover - 5 / 5 (I don't want to repeat why)
  2. Language - 4.5 / 5 
  3. Story Line - 4 / 5
  4. Characters - 4 / 5
  5. Concept - 4 / 5
  6. Overall - 4.25 / 5
Book can be found at - Amazon & Flipkart
Review from other readers can be found at GoodReads

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