It was a chance that I stumbled upon the blurb of Immortals of Meluha.
The moment I read about the plot I was hooked and wanted some of it. The plot promised so much there was much anticipation. So I ordered the both the available books of The Shiva Trilogy, and am I glad that I did.
The basic plot of story, Shiva being an ordinary man who has been visioned as the ultimate savior, ’The Neelkanth’, holds immense potential for narrative, character building and story telling. Author Amish Tripathi has done a very good job at spinning a gripping narrative. He takes time to develop characters, sub-plots & storyline. At no point do you feel that it is being stretched for sake of it.
The novel is well written and is pretty detailed without being overtly sketchy. In the beginning of the novel, you can actually feel the coldness of the Mansarovar lake and chilliness of wind at Kailash. Finer nuisances of characters like Shiva’s indulgence with weed, Nandi’s build and his servility or Bhadra’s friendly loyalty towards Shiva, are very well woven into the narrative. Since the plot is based on the basic premise that our mythology is truth disfigured by time, the narrative is well connected and explains a lot of things in a new light. Author with his immaculate style makes you believe in the narrative and somewhere down the line the difference between the set mythology and this Multiverse begins to dissolve.
All characters, like Sati & Brihaspati, are introduced in due time and are very well placed. Character development is handled very efficiently throughout the novel. All the characters sketches are kept close to their original stereotype but with a logical deduction and sound reasoning.
Immortals of Meluha is Mythology married to Matrix. If there really are Multiverse, than it can be no different than what Amish has written. A must read for fresh perspective on Hindu Mythology.