The Immortals of Meluha – Amish Tripathi
The first book of the trilogy that has sold a mind-boggling 2.7 million copies making its writer a big star. So is this really so good? Hard to answer if it deserves to sell 2.7 million copies but it certainly is an extraordinarily interesting book. Shiva lives in a small tribe near Mansarover lake and is brought into India to help the righteous Suryavanshis against the villainous Chandravanshis – only to discover – after a lot of bloodshed and mayhem – that its not all black and white. The world building is great, Shiva, very human – with both good and bad in him. The writing is weak, the attempts at humor onerous. But overall, the book works. You remember the vivid imagery and relate to the story at many levels – the story, the legend, and the spiritual. My biggest disappointment – after building up a lot of suspense Amish Tripathi doesn’t give us all the answers and wants us to read the 2nd part of the trilogy. Not fair I say. Have read trilogies before (Amitav Ghosh is the most recent example) but each book is complete in itself.
Recommendation: Read but be prepared for a bit of disappointment in the end.
Rajat Narula 