Friday, May 31, 2013

Book Review: The Secrets of the Dark

"The Secrets of the Dark" is the first part of a series called "The Saga of Agni" and it deals with exactly what the title suggests - to decipher the secrets of the dark. It's a fantasy thriller where you will be introduced to new lands, there are kings, guardians, super powers, theories et al. One look at the book cover will reveal a lot more about the book and it's story. You see a lot of hooded people and an image of one hooded person guarding what seems to be a globe with the following written in blood red color - ".. the debt of blood is never repaid". Anything more will be a spoiler alert.


Target Audience:
1. Fantasy Fiction lovers
2. Readers who get a kick exploring mythical lands.

Plot: The book depicts the mystical lands of Gaya. This land is divided into two parts - the land of the rising sun and the land of the setting sun. There's a defined prophesy / prediction that is bound to happen - a destroyer will be born from a royal family who will be responsible for the destruction of mankind. The onus is on the seven guardians of Gaya to protect mankind from the destroyer. One king decides to save his child Agni from the guardians by sending his child from the land of the setting sun to the land of the rising sun. He grows up as a ward with the son of the king of Himadri, Prince Yani, and Vrish, the son of Briksha who brought Agni to Himadri. Then a catastrophic incident happens that forces Agni and Vrish to search for the 'whodunit'. This search unearth many deep and dark secrets (and hence the name "The Secrets of the Dark"). Though there are other sub-plots too in this book, it essentially concentrates on Agni and his journey to find the culprit.

Writing: If you need one reason to read this book, I suggest this is it. Author has a peculiar way of writing and grabbing readers attention. Not only that, he ensures you are engrossed in reading and simultaneously visualizing the scene. To write a book as this, you need to describe the place with utmost clarity and he has done a wonderful job at that. There are some grammatical / spelling errors in the book especially when something big is going to happen in terms of action / emotion / twist which, if you are highly engrossed, can easily be ignored. Also, the ending can be a little dubious. One way to look at it will be to understand that the ending will continue in part 2 of the series.

Since this is the first part of the series, his future book will solely depend on the success of this book. Quite a risk, but will be highly rewarded too. Indian authors are waking up to explore different types of writing and the readers are ready to explore reading the same. Watch out for more such books in the near future, if not already!

Overall, "The Secrets of the Dark" is a fantastic debut novel from Arka Chakrabarti. At the personal level, I shy away from the mystical books as it involves too much of imagination, recollecting different names and places in the novel and thereby more time to complete the book. But I will now start changing my ways. When is the 2nd book coming, Arka?

My Rating3.5 / 5

3 comments:

  1. Looks like fantasy is a popular genre these days. Not my kind of book though but looks like a great read.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True Saru. Seems to be the flavor of the season..

      Delete
  2. Thanks a lot team for the recognition. Means a lot to me. I have already included the ITB badme on my blog. Also, thanks for reminding me that I have not mentioned my email ID anywhere in the blog. Now, I have included the "contact me" widget too.

    ReplyDelete

All yours..

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