Title-The
Shadow Throne
Author-Aroon Raman
Published by-Pan Macmillan
India
Pages-330
Price-250 INR
Source-Review Copy (from
the Author)
The
Indian writing in English is going through an interesting phase
now.The ChetanBhagat-AmitTripathi-AswinSanghi effect in the Indian
publishing industry
has paved the way for an era where there are more writers than ‘actual
readers’!Many
techies and management professionals turned writers overnight and as a
result the
market got flooded with a lot of paperbacks written by first timers.
Being a
blogger,I have had the previlege to review quite a number of works by
these new
gen debutant writers and I must admit that atleast half of them(which I
have
reviewed) were nothing but junk.So when this book(again, by a debutant )
came
for review my expectations were quite low.After having gone through this
book,I should say that I’m really glad for having taken this book up
for review for
it turned out to be a brilliant page turner.
The
Plot-A mysterious looking Asian is murdered at the Qutab Minar.The
officer in
charge(Inspector Syed Ali Hassan) of the investigation calls upon his
close
friend Chandrasekhar,an ace journalist to have a look at the crime
scene.Joining
them is Meenakshi,a history professor and scholar.With her help they
come to
the conclusion that the victim was a member of an extinct cult sect.What
began
as a murder enquiry soon becomes a game of hide- and- seek within the
shadowy
world of Pakisthan’s ISI and India’s RAW.Played out in India,Pakisthan
and Afghanisthan
-‘The Shadow Throne’ is a no-nonsense, edge- of the- seat thriller which
is
chillingly believable.
The
writing-The language is pretty simple and the narrative quite
smooth.Though the
writer’s efforts in evoking patriotic feelings in the reader remains
mostly un
successful he should be lauded for not making those attempts look silly
or jingoistic.The
book is fast paced and there are ample twists and turns which ensures
that the
reader is never bored.The climax suspence is nothing but terrific and
I’ll be
lying if I say that I had seen it coming.The Tom-Clancy/Dan Brown
influence is
particularly evident at times but you can’t really consider it a
negative
because the story which Aroon Raman wants to tell us is very much
genuine and
most importantly-distinctly desi.
The
Characters-Chandra/Chandrasekhar,the big boned,baby faced journo(who
resembles
Rishi Kapoor in the film Bobby) who is still to recover from the loss of
his
beloved wife Yamini is the principal character of ‘Shadow
Throne’.MeenakshiPirzada(a
history professor and Chandrasekhar’s friend),Inspector Syed Hassan are
the
other integral characters in the story.One thing which I particularly
liked
about Raman’s characters is that they are never too Bollywoodish andthey
behave like ‘normal’ human beings
for the most
part.For example,at some point
in the book Chandra says he was half expecting a James Bond like figure
but was
surprised when he realised that the ISI agent was actually a pot bellied
man who
could have been easily passed off as an ordinary Government servant!It’s
instances
like these which makes Aroon’s characters believable and tangible. On
the
downside,some of the peripheral characters seemed not well etched out.
Positives-
1.Plot-Thrillers dealing with
terrorism and Jihad have always been the bread and butter of commercial
fiction
writers .Even In India we have had quite a number of books belonging to
the
genre(ShashiWarrier’s ‘Sniper’,Mukul Deva’s ‘Lashkar’ being the first
ones to
come to my mind).But the basic problemwith most of the Indian works is
their predictability.‘The
Shadow throne’ was quite a heavy subject for a first time author.What
makes it
different from the other assembly line thrillers is that it deals with
an
hitherto un explored angle also(read RAW/ISI/Nuclear War).The central
theme of
the book called for a good amount of research and tremendous patience
from the
part of the author.I’m happy that Aroon Raman could do full justice to
it.Though
the reader is bombarded with a lot of facts and historical details in
quick
succession, Raman tries his best not to overburden him with too much of
them.For
instance,the portions related to the ‘Hazaras’ are written extremely
well.
2.Execution-One
of the biggest positives of this book is Aroon Raman’s writing style.As I
had
said earlier there are a lot of scientific facts/historical-political
events
mentioned in the book.The book also dabbles with themes like the
Indo-Pak
relations,conspiracytheories,ISI-RAW,the Kushas- to name a few.
Basically there
was every reason for the normal reader to get confused or irritated with
excess of these facts/details .But it’s the
author’s writing style and his uncanny knack of explaining the most
complicated
of things in the simplest manner that saves the day.
3.The Cover Design-Well,it was pretty cool!
4.The Pricing-Modestly priced at 250
INR,this book has got the potential to become a very big commercial
success(the cover
tells me that it has already become a National Best seller!).It’s
racy,interesting and most importantly affordable for the
middle class Indian reader.
5.The
length-Aroon Raman doesn’t drag things un-necessarily and it’s
pretty evident
that he is intelligent enough to know where to stop.’The Shadow Throne’
is not
a very lengthy one and you can easily finish reading it in one
sitting.The Font
Size is also optimum(neither too small nor too large) which means you
don’t have
to strain your eyes much while reading the book.
Negatives-
1.Unconvincing
Situations-Some of the scenes and situations in the story looked
half-baked and
unconvincing.Especially the events leading to Chandrasekhar’s
association with Gul
Mohammed and the ISI looked rather amateurishly written.
2.Cliches and abrupt ending-The book isn’t
entirely devoid of clichés.Likewise,I felt that the ending was also a
bit abrupt.
3.The
action sequences-Well,this is strictly a personal opinion.I think
the action
sequences were strictly average.May be a little more detailing could
have been
done here.
Verdict-'The
Shadow Throne' by Aroon Raman is a racy thriller.It has got a
decent plot which
is executed in a highly competent manner.I hope Raman’s next book will
also be
as good as his debut work.Rating-3.2/5
PS-
Aroon Raman’s next work is getting released this December.
-nikhimenon |
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