Books in 2022: Vikramaditya Veergatha, Book 4: The Wrath of Hellfires

 Book #9

There are battles and then there are lot of battles. And then, there is "Wrath of Hellfires". The fourth book of the Vikramaditya Veergatha series has so many battles to keep track of that I lost the count... and patience. As I intended in my previous post, I skimmed through the book in order to get a closure. 

Author did a great job at finally putting an end to all the plots. Except of course one  which, unfortunately, I was finding most intriguing - what happened to the marriage proposal of King of Heheya. All the confusion for nothing? Or may be there was something that I skipped while reading the chapters in fast pace. I would never know !

So happy to move to Atomic Habits now

* * * * *

Books in 2022: Vikramaditya Veergatha, Book 3: Vengeance of Indra

 Book #8

Not every book is everyone's cup of tea. Unfortunately, I have learned this the hard way and definitely a little late. I should have stopped reading the series after the first book but, for some odd reason, I just kept going. May be it's some form of OCD where I can't abandon something that I started. Right now, I just want to run past the last book for the sake of closure.

Before going to criticize, I want to applaud the author to finally show some conflicts between characters and introduce complexities in the plots, specially the way I like it. In addition to that, there are too many threads that author is efficiently handling at the same time. 

Overall, the third book brought the entire pace of the story down. Specially plots like Shoorsena's marriage proposal or plan to approach Danavas in Dandaka were not developed a lot in this book. In fact I am almost sure that Ghatakpara's kidnapping, a new twist introduced in this book, is yet another side plot to show his gift to the readers. The plot will die its own death just like attack by Hunas and Ahi in previous one. I think with a little faster pace the series could have been culminated in this very book.

Second, I have a serious issue with the titles that Shatrujeet chooses for his books. This one is called "Vengeance of Indra". Again, this was a major incident that happened but not something around which the entire story was revolving. I feel like title of a book should represent the plot in its entirety. For example - "Rift among Navratnas" or may be something related to that but more flowery. In addition to that, vengeance is a strong word and to me it means a fierce and befitting reply to an extreme degree. However in this case, whatever information Indra tried spreading was all on Shukracharya's advice and on top of that it was not extreme at all. Everything depended on whether Shukracharya was right about Varurichi and whether Varurichi will reply in an expected way.

As already said, I just want to get past the last book :( 

* * * * *

Books in 2022: Vikramaditya Veergatha, Book 2: Conspiracy at Meru

Book #7

For the better part of the book, I was wondering why is the book named "Conspiracy of Meru"? Is it because there was a sub-plot of Indra's conspiracy against Asuras or is it because of that brief chapter where Shukracharya hatched a conspiracy with Indra against Vikram? Whatever is the case, does the overall plot of the book revolve around any of these conspiracies to name the book after it? I doubt.

While starting, I was unable to wrap my head around significance of every sub-plot. Like what was the use of Shukracharya creeping into Avanti if he anyway had to leave it at the end. After all, he could have learnt all the details from his mandalas. In addition to that, Queen going back to her slumber-like-situation took the story back to square one. Or for that matter, Huna's attack on Dwarka or Ahi's attack on Avanti, they had no significance other than making navratnas aware of their gifts. But finally, may be in last three chapters, there was some respite where Shukracharya laid the stone to a conspiracy and a brief plot twist happened with past-revelations of Kalidasa and his exit from the kingdom.

Although I am still not very satisfied with the series, since, there is not much conflict between characters and not much plot twists which can keep me engaged with story, yet, I will give it away to the author to up his game this time with politics. It was interesting to read Shoorasena's plot and how the mis-understanding of Rukma's marriage proposal is hatching up.

Looking to read the next book. It isn't bad enough for me to leave it in between.

* * * * *

Books in 2022: Vikramaditya Veergatha, Book 1: Guardians of Halahala

Book #6

After reading Mistborn, I was itching to read some Indian mythological fantasy series. I stumbled upon Vikramaditya Veergatha while searching for a series similar to Shiva trilogy which I read a few years back. Since the series had good reviews and the author chose an interesting plot I have begun reading it.

The first book is not a complete story in itself. It ends while Vikramaditya wins another battle against Devas but there are many more plots underway to be completed - like Indra's plan to reach Kuber for a third attack or Shukracharya's next step as the healer etc. I hope the author successfully brings everything together by the end.

Shatrujeet Nath's writing is really flowery. There is one GRE word thrown at you after every two sentences. But still, I think he has done a great job explaining the events and the setting. I could literally picture a movie in my head while I was reading it.

Particularly for me the book wasn't a major page turner. First of all, I was expecting some surprises or U-turns or some conflicts while the story evolved which kept me engaged. For example, while Vikramaditya was handing over the dagger to Betal he convinced him immediately. May be a conflict of interest, or a u-turn where Betal refused to accept the dagger may have raised my interest. Similar thing happened while Vikramaditya tried to convince Mother Oracle to live in the palace. There was some disagreement there but ultimately she agreed. I was expecting some things to not work, some failures or plot twists while these events happened. May be it's too early for me to judge and each of these events have some surprise element up its sleeves which will be revealed in coming books. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Second, the way story developed where Indra sent assassins one after another with different powers and plotted to do that again in the end, just seemed a bit comic-ish to read. Just like the Super Commondo Dhruv stories that I read when I was little kid. Ha !

And last, it has lot of characters to keep track of and they are thrown at you immediately as the story begins and at every other juncture. There is very less time to understand or may be deep dive into the prime characters, their behavior or gauge what's grey-ish about them.

Anyways, lot of critic but I admit that the book was a fast read. Looking forward to others in the series.

* * * * *