29th Book of 2022
Long time since I have been away from books and wanted to get back to reading as I am still around 7 books behind my yearly target and a week has already passed for the last month of the year. I needed a book which could generate interest within me not only to finish but enjoy it too. Knowing that I love books based on mythology, epic and ancient history, I picked Pranay Bhalerao’s latest release named “The Protectors of Kavaach” which is also the first book in Kavaach trilogy. The book is published by the author himself in around 309 pages which seems to be a lengthy book but once you’ll start reading it, the surprise elements and the thrilling aspect keeps you glued. You’ll be able to finish it before the estimated time for sure.
The book speaks of three different timelines- 600 BCE, 570 BCE and the present times. The characters from the 600-570 BCE are the same whereas the ones in the present day are another set of people trying to understand the super-natural activities happening with and around them. While reading the ancient history, you will get the references of Mahabharat and you’ll love relating those parts with the epic characters. The present-day section has characters which makes you relate them to the ones you read in the ancient history section and this fight keeps the reader within you excited and curious. It’s mainly about safeguarding Kavaach which is being secured by someone in every generation and the ritual should continue.
Talking about the writing style, Pranay’s command over the language is impressive. The way he has been able to explain the action scenes between the characters – mostly the fighting scene of Kaal in the jungle is something which tells about his calibre. Similarly, as he is a technology professional, the implementation of cyborgs in the present-day story gives an amazing thrilling angle. His choice of separating the ancient story in two different parallel sections of 600 BCE and 570 BCE has been such a perfect implementation that more than present day, I wanted to just keep reading about these two sections and know why the relationship dynamics have changed between the same characters within the time span of 30 years. The way Pranay defines the whole aesthetics of mine, kavaach, coals, Trishula tells us about his creative and imaginative prowess. His creativity is embedded in almost every segment.
The characters are treated beautifully. The emphasis given on Aryana and Kaal is commendable. The way their camaraderie and growing maturity of their relationship is portrayed makes you imagine the whole segment as the one we saw in the recent RRR movie. Similarly, the present-day section makes you relate many scenes with the Brahmashtra movie. Saharshee’s character and the whole ambience of ashram is again done justice with. His views towards Kaal and the kind of treatment given to Kaal by him is an interesting section to read. It reminds us of Dronacharya-Eklavya scene or the whole Karna section in Mahabharat. Similarly, Rudra and all the characters along with him are given an emotional touch which makes you cheer for them whenever they are involved in a fighting or action scene. Rudra’s relationship with his grandfather is applaudable. I just feel that more coverage could have been given to the team of Shaurya, Teena and Shaksheet too. They sound like an isolated gang in the story. Haha!
Initially, the book might be a slow-read as you are trying to understand the three different timelines plus the multiple characters where each of them are being given certain importance in the story. But the moment you start understanding the characters and their persona, the story starts getting on you. The blend of fiction, fantasy, mythology, religion, history, science and super-natural elements make this book an outstanding attempt of making the reader visualize everything in their brain. Author has been successful enough in making you see the world he has created. I was very skeptic in the pre-climax section of the book as things were being narrated very slowly so I thought if there would be an amazing set-up with which the book will be ended - Thankfully, the climax has been such an astounding experience that I just can’t wondering how the story would proceed in the second book of this series.
Talking about the drawbacks, I must say that the book could have been edited well – atleast by making it shorter by 30-40 pages. I felt that the story had lots of scope of adding philosophical element which has been missed out by the author. Adding that would have given many great insights about human minds and life in general. As I mentioned above, I found few characters little ignored – giving equal weightage to them could have made it more actionable. The whole section where a story is written in the italic form which a character reads sounded quite underwhelming as it didn’t have a very strong bond with the current plot. Lastly, I felt that the author wrote the book from pitching it to movie-makers for adaptation hence many scenes sound more like reading a movie screenplay than book.
Overall, this is an interesting read and one of the fresh stories I have read this year from this genre. I would give this attempt 4.25* out of 5. Looking out to read the 2nd part of the story soon. Hope Pranay releases it by 2023.
Thanks!
WRITING BUDDHA
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