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Average rating4
1900 BC. In what modern Indians mistakenly call the Indus Valley Civilisation. The inhabitants of that period called it the land of Meluha ? a near perfect empire created many centuries earlier by Lord Ram, one of the greatest monarchs that ever lived. This once proud empire and its Suryavanshi rulers face severe perils as its primary river, the revered Saraswati, is slowly drying to extinction. They also face devastating terrorist attacks from the east, the land of the Chandravanshis. To make matters worse, the Chandravanshis appear to have allied with the Nagas, an ostracised and sinister race of deformed humans with astonishing martial skills. The only hope for the Suryavanshis is an ancient legend: ?When evil reaches epic proportions, when all seems lost, when it appears that your enemies have triumphed, a hero will emerge.? Is the rough-hewn Tibetan immigrant Shiva, really that hero? And does he want to be that hero at all? Drawn suddenly to his destiny, by duty as well as by love, will Shiva lead the Suryavanshi vengeance and destroy evil? This is the first book in a trilogy on Shiva, the simple man whose karma re-cast him as our Mahadev, the God of Gods.
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3 primary booksShiva Trilogy is a 4-book series with 4 primary works first released in 2010 with contributions by Amish Tripathi and Rajan Thoovara.
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As the author admits in the Acknowledgements section, his writing is decidedly pedestrian. What's worse, however, is the spoiling of a good premise by shallow, naive characters who fawn over the protagonist for the silliest reasons. Readable, but nothing special. There's no ending either. While the author could have ended the book leaving the reader with a feeling of completion, he chose instead to stop right in the middle of an ‘incident', which begs the reader to pick up the next book in the series. It is, in fact, the first book I've read which ends with a ‘To be continued...'
So it seems that 2022 is the year of re-reads for me . This was the first book I ever bought when I was 16 and I loved it immensly back then. Presently the faults are a bit clearer to me. This book lacks subtlety, the writing is very cliche and so are the dialogues but it's still a good read.
Almost farcically Lakewobegonish, but somehow after a while I stopped rolling my eyes and started genuinely enjoying it. This was fun, and I do recommend giving it a chance. However: be aware that it ends on a severe cliffhanger, tempting you to start in on the [b:second volume 40948565 The Secret of the Nagas (Shiva Trilogy #2) Amish Tripathi https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1532560274s/40948565.jpg 16782480], but that one is IMHO not worth reading. If you want to read just the first and skip the rest: She survives the attack at the end
While I did enjoy the plot of this book and I found it super interesting, the writing style made it feel as though I was reading an overly long recap of the story. It put distance between me and the characters and I just couldn't enjoy the story as much.
I think it might be a personal thing though, so I would still recommend you give the book a try if you were wondering whether to read it.