WARRIOR

Hello Earthlings!Have I been missed?Apologies as I had been aboard the Quantenspalteschiff and had no idea about elapsed time but now realize that it might have been a few days since I last posted here.

Of course I was reading 'Warrior'.A mythological science-fiction set in modern day world.

Mumbai is on the brink of destruction which begins with an unexpected blizzard followed by blood rain, panic and merciless killings by people losing their minds.The situation continues to worsen heralding an apocalypse,when Saam,a superhero demigod(Son of Shiva) in the guise of a simple watch-mender realizes that something bigger is at play and finds out soon enough that it is upto him to save everyone from the End Of Days.Turns out there is a group of demigods called the Peerless who abide by a Covenant and never reveal or publicly display their superpowers so that human life is not disturbed.They are bound by an oath of secrecy.When they gather together to find a solution ,they are confronted by a message from a faceless enemy who asks them to either try and stop the end in three days or subjugate and join his side.While most of them are ready to cross over,there are a few who are ready to accept the challenge and amongst them is Saam's estranged half-brother Ara.Saam is forced to join hands with Ara and soon enough there is a motley group of six members ready to accompany him in this quest ,one of them being his mortal beloved Maya.However Saam does not know who the enemy is and to find that and end this catclysmic catastrophe is no mean feat.He has to travel across India and to places unknown,face the perils strewn across his path with death looming large and in the midst of all this try to come to terms with love,loss,betrayal and his past.

My Views :I read lived this book over three days.I travelled with Saam as his seventh companion to save the burning city of Mumbai from destuction.Let me be honest and say that I have occasionally imagined snow in India sometimes but always as the beginning to something good-better times, a better place and my imagination stops right there.However the blizzard in Mumbai and the ensuing calamity,found me reading page after page to find out what happens next.I liked the fact that though Saam is a demi-God, he is as real as any one of us and has a past to come to terms with.The descriptions are vivid and stomach roiling but it's not all gory blood bath.Ara managed to diffuse the tension just at the right moments,making me laugh at his quips.It was fun to imagine the Snake world and then just as I was getting comfortable with doing that,I was taken to a tea-party with sandwiches and cookies.What a ride!

I travelled on the Ship of Worlds and didnt want to come back.Moreover I could relate to the shadow prince and what he was fleeing from.I wanted to get the pure glass home.What fun it would have been to be able to do that.I admit I got a bit impatient towards the end and I faced a lag in the last part because all I wanted to know about was the final encounter,but then it was important not to leave any loose ends in the story.

Things keep happening in the book when you least expect them and I loved the mind-boggling imagination which did get a bit murky at times but then what the heck!It was an escape from reality.Science and Technology and a different take on mythology.Different but good.Sometimes I felt I was Alice in wonderland,at other times I felt I was in Narnia and Lord of the Rings.At the heart of the story was a good message that the world is full of incongruities which can easily co-exist.There is noone or nothing which is completely bad or completely good and in the face of adversity,sometimes you should just trust your instincts.

And maybe if we are not careful enough the End Of Days might soon be a reality.Now that's a scary thought and let me not get too ahead of myself.

I rate it a 4 out of 5