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A review by devinmelone
Cult of Chaos (Anantya Tantrist Mystery) by Shweta Taneja
4.0
100 points to Shweta Taneja for the ingenuity of the story and the setting.
At a time when fantasy fiction in India is riddled with just re-writes of our Ramayana and Mahabharata, Shweta dares to create a new fantasy universe of her own. And sets it alongside the modern Delhi that we all know of, at once adding believability and intrigue to the premise. This is still a fantasy, mind you, it talks of a world filled with daevas, rakshasas, spirits, crazy animal mutants, and a lot of other supernatural beings (or "sups", as is the slang word for it is in the book). But there is talent is making us believe that such a world could exist, just like the magical world of Harry Potter, and the author achieves it splendidly here. Everything works in the boundaries that the book sets for itself, and nothing feels too silly or far-fetched.
I would love to read more of this new fantasy world!
And to say nothing about the protagonist Anantya who goes by the rather "flashy" surname Tantrist. But there's a reason for that too. I loved how well thought-out everything was. Anantya has a past, a dark one, yet it is not revelaed like a knowledge dump. Little hints are dropped along the way finally allowing us to piece things for ourselves. Anantya is a revolution in Indian fiction. She's a tantric, and is pretty unapologetic of everything she does. She has casual sex, smokes beedis, has a foul mouth and a dirty mind too. In which universe would you have imagined that someone like that would be the heroine in an Indian novel? But she's indeed the prime attraction of this book, you really take this journey along with her (the first-person narrative helping tremendously) and you really root for her. Her fearlessness is something I think will inspire a lot of young girls. Yet, I'm a bit unsure the allowed age group for this book, as things get pretty graphic at times - both violence and sex. Good thing the book has on the cover 'Mature Readers only'. And that's just not being mature in age, it requires a maturity in your outlook as well otherwise you would coin this book as plain blasphemy.
Some of the things that did not work for me are the numerous inspirations from Dan Brown books. It distracted me from the flow a bit. And the sudden change in the sidekick from Madhu to Shukra, I understand it had to be done to fulfill the story but maintaining a single sidekick would have enhanced my investment in him. And I thought that a lot of the end felt a bit anticlimactic, at a point I just know how it ended and not worry too much about what paved for the ending. But it was an exciting read nonetheless!
After a lot of time, I've started reading Indian fiction and I'm glad that people like Shweta are pushing the borders on contemporary literature with entirely new concepts such as these!
Highly recommended.
At a time when fantasy fiction in India is riddled with just re-writes of our Ramayana and Mahabharata, Shweta dares to create a new fantasy universe of her own. And sets it alongside the modern Delhi that we all know of, at once adding believability and intrigue to the premise. This is still a fantasy, mind you, it talks of a world filled with daevas, rakshasas, spirits, crazy animal mutants, and a lot of other supernatural beings (or "sups", as is the slang word for it is in the book). But there is talent is making us believe that such a world could exist, just like the magical world of Harry Potter, and the author achieves it splendidly here. Everything works in the boundaries that the book sets for itself, and nothing feels too silly or far-fetched.
I would love to read more of this new fantasy world!
And to say nothing about the protagonist Anantya who goes by the rather "flashy" surname Tantrist. But there's a reason for that too. I loved how well thought-out everything was. Anantya has a past, a dark one, yet it is not revelaed like a knowledge dump. Little hints are dropped along the way finally allowing us to piece things for ourselves. Anantya is a revolution in Indian fiction. She's a tantric, and is pretty unapologetic of everything she does. She has casual sex, smokes beedis, has a foul mouth and a dirty mind too. In which universe would you have imagined that someone like that would be the heroine in an Indian novel? But she's indeed the prime attraction of this book, you really take this journey along with her (the first-person narrative helping tremendously) and you really root for her. Her fearlessness is something I think will inspire a lot of young girls. Yet, I'm a bit unsure the allowed age group for this book, as things get pretty graphic at times - both violence and sex. Good thing the book has on the cover 'Mature Readers only'. And that's just not being mature in age, it requires a maturity in your outlook as well otherwise you would coin this book as plain blasphemy.
Some of the things that did not work for me are the numerous inspirations from Dan Brown books. It distracted me from the flow a bit. And the sudden change in the sidekick from Madhu to Shukra, I understand it had to be done to fulfill the story but maintaining a single sidekick would have enhanced my investment in him. And I thought that a lot of the end felt a bit anticlimactic, at a point I just know how it ended and not worry too much about what paved for the ending. But it was an exciting read nonetheless!
After a lot of time, I've started reading Indian fiction and I'm glad that people like Shweta are pushing the borders on contemporary literature with entirely new concepts such as these!
Highly recommended.