October 07, 2017

Review: HARAPPA: Curse of the Blood River by Vineet Bajpai



Title: HARAPPA: Curse of the Blood River
Author: Vineet Bajpai
Series: none
Genre: historical fiction, fantasy, mystery

The story oscillates from history to mythology, from occult to religion, from exorcism to gunfights, from taantrics to warriors, from love to ambition. It knits 3,700 years, powerful ancient and modern-day characters and a nail-biting conspiracy - all in one literary thriller. Harappa is the first among a series of four books.

2017, Delhi – Vidyut’s dying ancestor summons him to Banaras. The old Brahmin chieftain of the Dev-Raakshasa Matth, or the God-Demon Clan, bears a chilling secret. Their bloodline carries an ancient curse that will plague mankind - towards its own violent extinction.

1700 BCE, Harappa – Harappa is a magnificent city on the banks of the mighty Saraswati river. The darkness of treachery, taantric exorcism and bloodshed unleashes itself on the last devta, paving the way for his devastating revenge…and the horrifying truth behind the fall of the glorious civilisation.

2017, Paris – The world’s most powerful religious institution is rattled. Europe’s dreaded crime lord meets a mysterious man in Paris. A lethal assassin boards a train, as Rome fears the worst. The prophesied devta has returned.

What connects Banaras, Harappa and Rome? What was the ancient curse and who was the last devta? What is the terrible secret behind the fall of the colossal Indus Valley? Read on as you travel through a saga of violence and deceit, gods and demons, love and ambition.



Amazon US | Amazon UK






SANDY’S REVIEW


*Unpopular opinion ahead*

I usually never read mythology/fantasy books. This was strongly recommended by Amazon.in, what caught my attention was the blurb. My curiosity was piqued when I saw this book contains a parallel story where we have two heroes/demigod, one from past and one in future, the curse, and a secret behind the fall of the most glorious civilization. To my utter disappointment, this book didn’t deliver what it claimed. The story/secret was pretty much clear in initial few pages, what followed, later on, was one big exaggeration on how great and perfect all the characters were. To be honest, all the characters were one-dimensional. Mr. Bajpai (author) said his inspiration is Dan Brown and we would find some similarities in his writing, *overestimation much?* even Robert Langdon is flawed! Don’t get me started with colloquial dialogues…I don’t think we Indian use ‘yaa’ at the end of every English statement we make, let alone an entrepreneur or a journalist!

It took me close to 40 days to finish this book, to my surprise it ended with a cliff-hanger. I don’t think I can sit through another ordeal of “grandeur” that is our demigods or unnecessary usage of ‘half human half god’ phrase every other page.

Apart from these shortcomings the writing was actually good, though the execution of the story was bad, the premise of this plot was rather interesting. Could have easily cut short some 100 pages with unrelated information.

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