BOOK REVIEW: THUNDERGOD- RAJIV MENON

BOOK DETAILS

TITLE: THUNDERGOD- The Ascendance of Indra
AUTHOR: RAJIV G MENON
PUBLISHER: WESTLAND
FORMAT: PAPERBACK
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ISBN: Unedited (My Copy)
ISBN(Edited Copy):9381626979

PRICE: Rs.295
PAGES:392





MY RATINGS: 3 out of 5

From the very childhood, I have been totally intimidated by Indra, the only God amongst the gods, who has been the very closest a god can get to being a man..A God that errs. So what happens when the  arrogant, egoistic, hot-tempered and insecure Indra, is blended into a wonderfully woven story by Rajiv Menon which basically deals with war between the Gods and the Asuras, and as the tagline depicts, ‘One day a prince from one of the four great tribes will unite the sons of Aditi and he will sow the seeds of an empire that will rule the world.’

The character of Indra has been entwined beautifully in the story that passes through different stories woven together into one with inferences such as the war at the gates of Susa, the flood that destroys the Harappan civilisation, the politics of the priestly class, the stories of Mitra, Indra's close affinity with Soma, and the trio Vayu, Agni and Varuna too. There are references to the Dravidians and also the Aryan Invasions.
What is so interesting about the book plot is that firstly, Indra has never managed to get so much attention hitherto and secondly, that so many divergent, and contradictory topics have been accumulated to form a gripping story that never manages once, to let readers like Me( read History students) raise a doubt or question.

And where, The Krishna Key failed for me, The Thundergod, worked fabulously! The ending is gripping, and twisted. One surely looks for an ending such as the kind this one has!

All in all, a book full of war and sex and drama. A book that talks of Gods and their imperfections- a genre that is being thoroughly explored by the present generation of the literati.

Once in a while, you receive a book, that widens the spectrum of your imagination. But what I felt was lacking in the book was clarity. As I have already mentioned above, there is a lot that has been put into the plot, so it was necessary that the characters and their personalities were clearly explained, shaped and moulded into the situations. This is where I felt the author's prowess in the field of character depiction stifled.
Also, the sexual scenes were way too "out there", in the sense that one could read through them without feeling anything at all- something that I both as a reader and a writer failed to connect to.

If I had to suggest for improvements, considering this is an unedited copy, then I would strongly suggest that

• - characters other than Indra should be shaped and detailed as well
• - the sex scenes need to be re-written into a more aesthetic manner
• - war scenes seem to stretch on. Some of it can be shredded and made more concise.

This was the first time that I had been sent an unedited version of the book and I feel privileged that BlogAdda felt that I could assess the book both as a reader as well as a reviewer. You can register for book reviewing programs too. Here is how.

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