Pralay: The Great Deluge by Vineet Bajpai : Book Review

On The Jacket:

“Even death is afraid of the White Mask…”

1700 BCE, Harappa – The devta of Harappa has fallen…tortured and condemned to the dungeons of the dead. His murdered wife’s pious blood falls on the sands of the metropolis, sealing the black fate of Harappa…forever.

2017, Banaras – A master assassin bites into cyanide, but not before pronouncing the arrival of an unstoppable, dark force. A maha-taantric offers a chilling sacrifice.

325 AD, Bithynian City (modern-day Turkey) – Unable to foresee the monster he was untethering, an extraordinary monarch commissions a terrifying world-vision spanning millennia.

1700 BCE, East of Harappa – A mystical fish-man proclaims the onset of Pralay - the extinction of mankind. The Blood River rises to avenge her divine sons.

What happens to the devta of Harappa? Is Vidyut truly the prophesied saviour? Who are the veiled overlords behind the sinister World Order? What was the macabre blueprint of the mysterious emperor at Bithynian City? Turn the pages to unravel one of the world’s greatest conspiracies and the haunting story of a lost, ancient civilization."

Now, Review Time –

Experimentation with mythology is something new in popular Indian English writing. Every time I pick up a mythology/historical fiction, I try to gain knowledge as much as possible from that particular book and about that particular time in which book is set. Last time when I picked up “Harappa – Curse of the Blood River,” I had only one question in mind what this had to offer me and when I was done reading it, I was blown away with the storyline and I was left with expecting more. This is the only time after Amish, I was waiting eagerly for the second book in the series.

The book starts well with a glimpse of the previous book where the first book ends. It takes some time to get the pace right initially as sometimes you need to keep going back to the story. But after that point, the story hardly lose the grip on the reader. The story keeps switching between different timelines like from 1700 BCE to 325 AD and finally to the Banaras in 2017 AD. Sometimes, it was hard to keep track of everything happening all at once.

Summing Up:

Plot researched in depth and solid characterization worked for both books in series. It trips forward without any amazement and lots of twists that you cannot pick well before. Some characters are flat and not well developed. But some characters are sketched very well, and they make book and plot more interesting. The plot reveals all the cards on the table and ties all the characters and story very well together. It will definitely surprise you at times. We recommend that you should read this book if you are mythological/historical fiction lover as it will take you on the new journey itself.

Mythological books require a lot of research and the author has done complete justice in this department. The book is almost error-free. Narration skills of the author are awesome. The author’s grip is steady throughout the narrative, feeding only those facts that he wants the readers to lap up.

To be honest, the author has built a lot of expectations for me for his next book as well. I would like to rate it 4 out of 5. If you like mythologies, you surely should give it a shot. It definitely worth a read.

This book review is a part of The Readers Cosmos Book Review Program and Blog Tours, for details log on here.