The Secret of the Nagas - Amish Tripathi
One of the advantages of getting on to a series late in the day is that you don’t have to wait for the sequels :-). So, when I finished with "The Immortals of Meluha", I could simply go and pick “The Secret of The Nagas” on my next visit to a bookstore. (Tough luck, that I still have to wait quite long for the last book in the trilogy - The Oath of Vayuputras).
It took me a long time to write and post my thoughts on Book 1, and for Book 2, it has taken even longer. But, at last, I have got around to it, and here it is, ready to share.
The Book 2 (The Secret of The Nagas) covers a lot of ground, literally and figuratively. It sees Shiva undertaking more travels, in search of the evil, the truth, and the self. During this journey, more revelations and realizations dawn on Shiva and his co-travelers, and many more characters and events from mythology are weaved into the narrative.
With so much happening, it is difficult to write an outline of the plot, especially without giving away the story. To summarize, I would just say that Shiva finds himself confident enough to own the responsibility that people's faith have given him, to question the acceptable/accepted conventions of the society, and to think, decide and lead. Though he is not prepared to assume the divine aura of Neelkanth that legend attributes him, he no longer refutes it if he believes that it will empower the people, and strengthen the common cause - that of finding and destroying the evil. He unites the people for this cause, and the end of book 2 finds Shiva entering the highly secret and fiercely guarded Naga territory, alongwith Suryavanshis, Chandravanshis and the Nagas.
Many of the threads started in book 1, and earlier parts of book 2 come to their conclusion. There are others that start taking form, and I expect that these would conclude in the third book. However, there are a few things I hoped to find an answer in this one, but did not. The end, or the "secret" of the Nagas, was rather an anticipated one, but many other revelations in this story were not.
I enjoyed the second book far better than the first one. It relates sub-stories of several other characters, and does the due justice to these. The jarring tone - the use of the modern language in dialogues - does not break the flow as much, since you have got used to it by now. The language at some places, specially the dialogues, could have been much better, but as far as the storyline goes, it is one of the best books I have read in recent times. It moves at a fast pace, but with just enough details, and kept me on the hook - what happens next?! It was really difficult to put it down - I kept reading it through a lot of interruptions on a long and partly bumpy journey, and could not go to sleep before finishing it, at the end of a tiring day :-)
With so much happening, it is difficult to write an outline of the plot, especially without giving away the story. To summarize, I would just say that Shiva finds himself confident enough to own the responsibility that people's faith have given him, to question the acceptable/accepted conventions of the society, and to think, decide and lead. Though he is not prepared to assume the divine aura of Neelkanth that legend attributes him, he no longer refutes it if he believes that it will empower the people, and strengthen the common cause - that of finding and destroying the evil. He unites the people for this cause, and the end of book 2 finds Shiva entering the highly secret and fiercely guarded Naga territory, alongwith Suryavanshis, Chandravanshis and the Nagas.
Many of the threads started in book 1, and earlier parts of book 2 come to their conclusion. There are others that start taking form, and I expect that these would conclude in the third book. However, there are a few things I hoped to find an answer in this one, but did not. The end, or the "secret" of the Nagas, was rather an anticipated one, but many other revelations in this story were not.
I enjoyed the second book far better than the first one. It relates sub-stories of several other characters, and does the due justice to these. The jarring tone - the use of the modern language in dialogues - does not break the flow as much, since you have got used to it by now. The language at some places, specially the dialogues, could have been much better, but as far as the storyline goes, it is one of the best books I have read in recent times. It moves at a fast pace, but with just enough details, and kept me on the hook - what happens next?! It was really difficult to put it down - I kept reading it through a lot of interruptions on a long and partly bumpy journey, and could not go to sleep before finishing it, at the end of a tiring day :-)
When I had finished reading The Immortals of Meluha, I felt it was no doubt a good book, but not worth all the hype the book and the series was accorded. Well, I am glad to report - I stand corrected!!
1 comment:
I read all the 3 books and well the first one is best, followed by second and and distantly followed by the 3rd edition.
This gets boring and lengthy in the middle till the end. The only good aspect about this book was introduction of kali and ganesha and why they are the way they are.
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