My Rating - 4/5
Author - Amish Tripathi
The Immortals of Meluha is the first book of the Shiva trilogy. This book tells us the journey of Shiva, who is a simple tribal, from man to God.
What if we were wrong? What if Lord Shiva was not a figment of a rich imagination, but a person of flesh and blood? Like you and me. A man who rose to become godlike because of his karma. That is the premise of the Shiva Trilogy, which interprets the rich mythological heritage of ancient India, blending fiction with historical fact.
PLOT
That is what the book is based upon. Imagining Shiva as a human and how he becomes a Mahadev (God of Gods). Initially Shiva and his tribe is brought to Meluha, an advanced city occupied by the Suryavanshi's, as they promised them land and jobs for a better living. But once Shiva drinks the Somras his throat turns blue, thus turning the legend of the Neelkanth into a reality. Though Shiva doesn't know what exactly he is supposed to do, he decides to help the Suryavanshi's against the terrorist attacks from the combined forces of the Chandravanshi's and the Naga's.
Meluhan's are rule followers, the rules set up by Lord Ram, who is considered the seventh Vishnu. Shiva ends up changing a major law, thus marrying Princess Sati. He did not change the law just for her but for everyone as he felt it was unjust.
The Suryavanshi's make him believe that the Chandravanshi's are the actual enemy and after the death of Shiva's dear friend whom he considered as a brother, in the attack of mount Mandaar, the battle between the Suryavanshi's and Chandravanshi's happen and once the battle ends (resulting in the victory of Suryavanshi's) the whole plot changes and that's where things get interesting. The book ends with the suspense of the hooded figure in the process of attacking Sati.
REVIEW
There's no doubt whether there is suspense or not, because the story takes crazy turns and twists along the way. The biggest mystery is the Naga hooded person who keeps trying to kidnap Princess Sati. His identity is not yet revealed so the upcoming books in the trilogy will have the answer to that. Despite all the suspense and mystery Shiva does have a great sense of humour.
The characters and their timeline, in this book, are actually mixed up when compared to the actual Shiva stories. For instance, both Daksh and Parvateshwar are together playing different roles at the same time. Vidhyunmali is also seen here but not as the son of Tarak, it'll be interesting to see what this character ends up doing in the upcoming books, etc. Apart from these the book is very well written. It's the imagination of the author who needs to get major credit.
There are a lot of questions that arise while reading the book and most of them have well explained answers. Few scientific explanations on things like why the colour of the leaf is green etc. can also be found.
The biggest dilemma, that Shiva faces at the end is the question of who/what is the actual enemy he is supposed to face. All he knows is who is not the enemy at this stage and finding out the enemy is his next big step in fulfilling the role of the Neelkanth.
Amish's writing style is different compared to other authors and no wonder this book became famous. It was definitely a risk, taking a historical tale and making it fictional but it was totally worth it. Overall, it's an interesting book and it's worth reading. It'll be interesting to see how the story progresses and what new characters are introduced in the future.
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