Review of Epic Novel Series "Ponniyin Selvan"

Who should be the king? This was the question that members and enemies of the Chozha dynasty were asking each other in 10th century Tamil Nadu and the incidents around this episode forms the plot for R. Krishnamurthy’s (pen name: Kalki) epic novel Ponniyin Selvan. This novel was first published in serial form in the Tamil weekly magazine Kalki from 1950 – 1954. Though Krishnamurthy wrote a large number of short stories, it was as a novelist that he got fame. He was also the first significant historical novelist in Tamil and his other works include Parthiban Kanavu and Sivagamiyin Sabatham. Parantaka Chozha was succeeded by his second son Kandaraditha as the first son Rajaditha had died in a battle. On the death of Kandaraditha, his son Maduranthaka was a child and hence Kandaraditha’s brother Arinjaya ascended the throne. After Arinjaya’s death, his son Parantaka II, Sundara Choza was coronated. He had two sons, Aditha Karikalan and Arulmozhi Varman and a daughter Kundavai. When the story starts, the emperor Sundara Chola is ill and bedridden. Aditha Karikalan is the general of the Northen Command and lived in Kanchi and Arulmozhi Varman (who would be famous later as Rajaraja Chola I) is in Sri Lanka in battle and their sister Kundavai Piratti lived in Chola royal household at Pazhayari. The story is set in motion, when rumor starts that there is a conspiracy against Sundara Chozhar and his sons. One person who gets a glimpse of the Pandya conspirators is a warrior of the Vana clan Vallavarayan Vandiyathevan. Even though the book is titled Ponniyin Selvan, the hero of the book is Vandiyathevan, a friend of Adhitha Karikalan. It is through Vandiyathevan that we meet most of the characters in the novel such as Arulmozhi Varman, the prince whom all the people loved and Periya Pazhavetturayar, the chancellor who married Nandini when he was sixty. During his youth Aditha Karikalan had fallen in love with Nandini, but she turned vengeful after Aditha Karikalan killed Veerapadyan (who was either Nandini’s father or brother) and vowed to destroy the Chozha dynasty. We also meet Kundavai Devi, who after hearing the news of the conspiracy sends Vandiyathevan to Sri Lanka to give a message to Arulmozhi Varman to come back immediately. The Chozha dynasty Besides these, there are other characters like Maduranthaka Thevar, the son of Kandaraditha and the man whom the conspirators want to crown king, and Anirudha Brahmarayar, Sundara Chozhar’s Prime Minister and the man who has eyes and ears everywere. But the most wonderful character in the book is Brahmarayar’s spy Azhwarkadiyan Nambi, a Vaishnavite, who roams around the country challenging Saivaites for debates. He collects information for the Prime Minister and is always around Vandiyathevan, rescuing him during trouble. There are some lovely women too, like Vanathi, the Kodumbalur princess who is in love with Arulmozhi, Poonkuzhali, the boat woman who rows the future king to Lanka, Mandakini, the deaf and dumb step mother and Rakkammal, the wife of a boatman who supports the Pandya conspirators. Most memorable among these is Nandini, who has the power to make influence any man. With the help of a boat girl, Vandiyathevan reaches Sri Lanka and meets Ponniyin Selvan and becomes his close friend. In Lanka, Ponniyin Selvan realizes that his father had spent some time in an island near Lanka and had been with a girl born deaf and dumb. He meets her and realizes from her drawing that he had two children. Who are those children and do they have the right to the throne? Later one day in Thirupurambayam forest Vandiyathevan seens Nandini and the Pandya conspirators place a small boy on a throne and take a vow in front of him. Who is this boy and what right does he have to the thone? This is the kind of suspense that is maintained throughout the novel. While coming back from Lanka, Ponniyin Selvan is caught in a cyclone and goes missing. Rumor spreads that he is dead, but he survives and stays at Choodamani Viharam, a Buddhist monastery in Nagapattinam. Then slowly the dispersed family starts asembling. The conspirators meanwhile choose one day in which both the king and both his sons would be assasinated. Will the conspirators succeed in killing Sundara Chozha and crowning Madhuranthaka as the king or will Ponniyin Selvan be the king? That is the summary for the story. But then it is not that simple either for all the people in the novel have long histories of interaction with each other and everything is not as black and white as it seems. There are new revelations and relations being established all the time. and even when you think you can predict what is going to happen, new surprises pop up. Even though this is a work of fiction loosely based on historical facts, some incidents are left without a closure such as the question – who murdered Aditha Karikalan. Various people confess to doing it, but even at the end, a doubt remains. The three strengths of Kalki are plot, characters and dialogue.There is not even one dull moment in this 1800 page book. Suspense is maintained throughout the novel and when you think you have understood his techniques, the characters themselves reveal that they are not who you think they are. Even the last book is a page turner due to the unexpected turn of events. For a novel of this size, there are many characters like spies, magicians, warriors, soothsayers and Buddhists, and since the novel is this big, we get to know each of them very well. The dialogue between the characters are very poetic which looks odd in English. I am sure would have sounded beautiful in Tamil. There are couple of points of irritation also. The author for some reason decides to pop into the novel at some places and give some commentary which is sometimes a detail about history, or a rationalization of events. This intervention broke the flow and I felt would have been more appropriate as an appendix or a separate article. In the book, Vandiyathevan goes to Sri Lanka in a boat rowed by the boatwoman Poonkuzhali, but there is very less detail of the type of boat or how they were able to navigate the ocean. In many places such technical details are glossed over. This was originally published in Tamil, but thanks to the translation by C.V.Karthik Narayanan, non-Tamil reading people like me can enjoy this classic work. People who can read Tamil have certified that this translation is excellent. Though this book is quite lengtly, (6 books, each of about 300 pages), it is a page turner .

Book Review of "The Secret Of The Nagas"

Read the book long back.... Here's the review!

"The Book takes of from where ‘The Immortals of Meluha’ the first book of ended.The plot is consistent and all the loose ends connect to a complete pattern. Story as before is fast-paced, you are eager to know what comes next.Other old characters such as Nandi, Veerbhadra and Drapaku have smaller roles, instead a Chandravanshi prince Bhagirath is the new character that has his own intriguing sub-plot. General Parvateshwar, Shiva’s trusted Suryavanshi aide from previous book, a vowed celibate has fallen in love (oops, a spoiler – but now you need to find out who).But on the downside,there was a slight overdose of Melodrama which could have been told in a more subtle way.But then again its just my opinion.Let's Hope the errors or lets say the minor goofs in this book are not repeated in the final part of the trilogy "The Oath Of The Vayuputras" and get a compelling Finale of the trilogy.

Synopsis of "The Secret Of The Nagas" - The Secret of the Nagas is filled with intrigue and surprises, much like the previous installment, The Immortals of Meluha. The story kicks off with Shiva trying to decipher the motives of the Nagas, a race of deformed assassins who have killed his friend Brahaspati and are targeting his wife Sati. His path of vengeance leads him right to the land of the serpent race, where he needs to find the man who's the mastermind behind the elaborate attack planned on Meluha.

Shiva's journey throws many surprises at him, as he learns about the secret lying dormant in Maika, a city in Meluha where the newly-born are raised, and as his trusted advisors leave his side, fueled by darker motives.

Will Shiva uncover the truth and vanquish the Chandravanshis and Nagas?

Book Review of "The Immortals Of Meluha"

The Immortals Of Meluha- My review... Note: I was an Atheist before reading this book,Still an Atheist and will be An Atheist... :)
The Author himself has Told the Inevitable truth thru the book.. It was the deeds of the so called gods as Human that pushed people into believing that He(or they) are some kind of a Celestial phenomenon.. The author has cleverly borrowed characters and clans from the various Indian Epics into this Fictional Story... :) The names of all the characters have been derived from the names of Gods that people pray to Everyday...The basic plot of story, Shiva being an ordinary man who has been visioned as the ultimate savior adding some spice here and there with some believiable twists making it a compelling read... Waiting to Read the 2nd book "The Secret of the Nagas" Hopefully the 3rd book will be released soon... :)

Synopsis of "The Immortals Of Meluha" - The Immortals of Meluha is set in 1900 BC. This is the story of a man whom legends hailed as God. What modern Indians know as the Indus Valley Civilization was previously known by its residents as the region of Meluha. This was the near perfect civilization built by Lord Ram, who was considered to be one of the greatest monarchs ever lived; until doom befell the kingdom and the Chandravanshis allied up with the gruesome Nagas to attack Meluha mercilessly. All this, until 'the savior', Shiva, comes to the civilization.

Is he really the savior? Can the residents of Meluha avert this tragedy? This is a story of the times when Shiva was a man, who would be later deemed as God. The second book in this series is The Secret of the Nagas, which is set 4000 years after that of The Immortals of Meluha.

The gruesome Naga warrior has assassinated his friend Brahaspati and now haunts his wife Sati. Shiva is the destroyer of evil and he won't rest till he figures out his adversary. This book takes you on an epic journey throughout the entire country as Shiva endlessly tries to trace down the culprit; only to later find out that he has been betrayed by his own advisors.

With the forces of dark manipulating his every move, will Shiva be able to rescue Meluha again? Will he be able to unmask the shrewd puppeteer? This book is filled with unbelievable revelations and mysteries.

Book Review of "The Amazonia"

An F*ing Awesome Read this book was.... A Pure Spectacle... If this is to be made into a film, i see no one else but James Cameron directing this Epic.. Not Spielberg nor roland emmerich(his movies of late have been nothing but tonnes of crap)... Author James Rollins brings us a fantastic adventure called Amazonia. The author sets a pace of almost non-stop action from the beginning and the suspense almost never lets up. When it does, Rollins teaches us about various plants and how they are used to treat disease. This makes for some interesting reading that doesn’t detract from the suspenseful parts in the least.

Brief Synopsis-Four years ago, all contact with a U.S. medical expedition in the wilderness of the Amazon basin was lost; a 30-man team declared lost and likely dead. Now one of its members, Gerald Clark, ex-Special Forces, staggers into a mission but dies within hours. He carries identification and is also a CIA operative. Two years earlier, his left arm was amputated at the shoulder whilst in Iraq. Photographs of the corpse and finger prints reveal that the arm has grown back perfectly. Unable to comprehend this inexplicable event, the United States CIA organises a special team to return to this impenetrable secret world of undreamed-of perils and to follow the trail of the dead man. On arrival, they enlist Nathan Rand, the son of the leader of lost researchers. A mysterious plague, that threatens the Earth's entire population, leads back to Gerald Clark. This means that the route to the expedition's destination must be discovered at any cost. The nightmare that awaits Rand and the team of scientists and seasoned U.S. Army Rangers dwarfs any danger they may have anticipated.