Sinners The Dawn of Kalki by Naveen Durgaraju |Review by The Quill Company

Sinners The Dawn of Kalki

Naveen Durgaraju

Author: Naveen Durgaraju

Publisher: PepperScript Publishers

Rating: 4/5

Summary:

The world has ended.

It is prophesized that when sin reaches its pinnacle in kaliyuga, Kalki, the final avatar of Vishnu will descend upon Earth to cleanse the world. Now, a mind-scrambling psychic wave from a child whom many believe to be Kalki, has caused unprecedented doom, heralding the apocalypse. The tattered ruins of the Indian wastelands are now populated with clueless survivors, dangerous factions and their grim motives.

Heroes rise and fall, men and monsters duel and humanity collapses in this radiation filled land of despair, dread, sharp claws, dull knives and old guns. Amid plots of treachery, betrayal, love, revenge and stark terror, the innocent and the wicked clash with and often among each other for survival.

Will those who survive, overcome these odds and their inner demons? Or will they succumb to the wrath of the wastelands?

Review:

Mythology is not one of my preferred genres and going by the name, this book definitely fell into that category but Sinners The Dawn of Kalki reels you in from the cover itself. The classic black and grey colour scheme adds to the abnormal yet fascinating figure on the cover. It gives off a different vibe when you pick up the book and you know this is not just another mythology and that there’s more to the story. A fan of crime and action thrillers, this book raised a lot of expectations for me with the cover design.

The story is set in the backdrop of the coming of Kalki, the avatar Hindus have been waiting for. Except, this isn’t the world we expected once that happened. A world post the apocalypse with humans being wiped out on the basis of their sins is how the book begins, right in the middle of all the action.

The story combines different POVs, proceeding ahead with every POV. There are numerous characters, the nature of each character dissimilar from the other. The plot unravels with ease through the various individuals and their actions. Every person has their own tale and the author has managed to weave them in a parallel manner which is rarely seen by Indian authors. Though I couldn’t connect to the characters, the sketches grew with the story which is another highlight. The plot is complex and yet flows smoothly.

I did feel that the story was too quick-paced initially with all the action being thrown my way page after page but the story slowed down after the first few pages and ran decently. There were a few grammatical errors but nothing that gets in the way of the experience of reading the book. The description of some scenes in the story did lack detail though which would have added a lot of weight to the overall read. There was a romantic angle to the whole plot which I felt was unnecessary and did nothing to add to the actual story and its presence made no real impact.

The author has a very creative imagination which could be seen in the different creatures introduced in the book. What stood out to me was the fact this was a completely different yarn on mythology, a very contemporary and modern twist. It was refreshing as a reader and I look forward to the next book as this one ends on a cliff hanger.

I would definitely recommend this book to fans of sci-fi and mythology. The author, Naveen Durgaraju, has penned another book, Vajra, if you are looking for more by him.

Sinners The Dawn of Kalki is available for purchase on Amazon.

*** The Quill Company received this copy from the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review***

 

Neha Kabra

The Quill Company

Drenched Heart by Shweta Kesari |Review by The Quill Company

Drenched Heart

Shweta Kesari

“I’m old enough to marry

This is worth enough worry

People asks me for my age

I say count my wage”

Author: Shweta Kesari

Publisher: Kalamos Literary Services LLP

Rating: 0.5/5

Summary:

Emotions, a gateway to the human heart. Drenched with a variety of emotions, this book is penned for all those who to re-live some emotions. Just like listening to lyrics of a song that reminds you of some memorable moments. Poems in this book hold such memories which can home in your heart.

Review:

Literature is a dying breed. I have said this statement many times, in reviews or otherwise. One of the major factors of this is the decline in the content being published. It seems correct to say that publishing is now solely money based. If you have money, you can print whatever you want. Publishers can only see the moolah being raked in and not the fact that they are turning their backs on the essence of literature.

Drenched Heart is one such book. The entire book, and I mean the ENTIRE BOOK, is made up of grammatical errors only. It seems as if the first draft which was submitted by the author was published directly. No editing was carried out at all. Words that are not related to each other have been just put together to form phrases which again, lend no meaning. Punctuation has gone for a complete toss.

Even if we ignore the grammar, which seems like an impossible task as errors present in every line, the work is neither coherent nor cohesive. Words have been carelessly used and flung about. There is literally no head or tail to what has been printed. The only point of this book seems to have achieved is rhyming as that is all there is. Phrases and words that do not make any sense at all have been used, only because they rhyme.

Furthermore, two words in every line do not constitute any form of poetry. There are several pages that are filled with only a handful of meaningless words strung together.

Overall, this book is a complete disappoint from page 1. A mediocre writing style and lack of any proficiency in English stand out from this book.

Drenched Heart is available for purchase on Amazon.

*** The Quill Company received this copy from the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review***

Neha Kabra

The Quill Company

The Right Escape by Hajra A Shakih | Review by The Quill Company

The Right Escape

Hajra A Shaikh

“It was you who taught me

that people could be beautiful and ugly

while wearing the same skin.”

Author: Hajra A Shaikh

Rating: 2.5/5

Summary:

It is a collection of thoughts and words on love, separation and self discovery.

Review:

The Right Escape is a self published collective of thoughts. At first look, it is a simple book with a subtle yet elegant cover design. The book draws you in with its simplicity and unorthodox look. It is a very quick read of 104 pages with easy language.

When I started reading, I started getting a Rupi Kaur vibe from the words. The writing style seems heavily inspired by Kaur with the small couplets and paragraphs of prose. The thoughts seem to be a reflection of a personal journey by the author. There were, however, a few grammatical errors here and there.

Contemporary writing is one of my favourite choices of literature but I felt this work lacked depth. I couldn’t resonate with the writing or the thoughts behind it. There was nothing new that this book had to offer me as a reader. It seemed to be full of the everyday clichés surrounding romance and heartbreak.

Most of the work seemed to me like I have read it somewhere else, just in some other form or play of words. Plagiarism is not involved but the work seemed redundant.

It looks like a good first attempt from the author and I would look forward to reading more from her in the future..

*** The Quill Company received this copy from the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review***

Neha Kabra

The Quill Company

Letters in the Rain by Anubhav Shrivastava, Ananya Roy |Review by The Quill Company

Letters in the Rain

Anubhav Shrivastava, Ananya Roy

Author: Anubhav Shrivastava, Ananya Roy

Publisher: Write India

Rating: 1/5

Summary:

Quite early in his life, Aman had been labelled a ‘weirdo’. His side-parted, oil soaked h made hair and gawky physique made him the butt of jokes among his peers. There is nothing spectacular in his life – he studies all day, has never had an interaction with a girl that lasted more than five minutes, and scribbles his inner musings into his best friend, a personal diary.

Deep down, however, the guilt of being considered a social killjoy by the society starts to have a negative impact on him.

When forced out of his solitary shell into the action-infused warehouse that is ‘college’, Aman’s life takes a drastic U-Turn. Owing to a Chemistry project, he is forced to partner up with Kiara – a cheerful, carefree soul who tucks away her dark, brooding past upon arriving in Manipal.

What follows is a series of awkward encounters and quirky adventures; ones that throw them in the deep end and make them face their worst fears.

Review:

Though India has seen a rise in readership, we have seen a sharp decline in the quality of reading content so much so that most avid readers prefer foreign authors to Indian ones. In order to supply the demand of the Indian reader, we keep shelling out book after book with mediocre content which is the case with Letters in the Rain. The book is first and foremost sexist and misogynistic in its views and portrayal of characters and is filled with stereotypes. It also shows dealing with issues such as bullying in a negative light.

This story is about a young man being friend zoned (read Indian cliché). The man is unable to deal with being friend zoned and he lashes out at Kiara, who happens to be the heartthrob of the college, because this is India and that’s all that happens here. The rest of the story is built upon this and other such typecasts.

The problem with young adult fiction in India is that our imaginations are limited to the scripts of Bollywood movies. We either aim to turn our book into a film script or take inspiration from these scripts. Both these trends have contributed immensely to the poor class of the books and plotlines churned out by such authors.

Aman, who was bullied by his classmate, somehow in pursuit of not being bullied, started sitting on the back seat in the class and later even shared his test answer sheet with the bully following which Aman is invited to the bully’s birthday party as well. No one protests about this behaviour and therefore the book depicts this to be the correct way to resolve such an issue. One would expect more maturity from a story when more than one author is working on it.

Even if we try to ignore the screaming stereotypes, the book is cluttered with grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors. The book is decently paced but the errors in language can hardly be overlooked as more than a handful are spotted, every few pages. The plot twists are forced and too predictable. The story seems to move towards redemption near the ending but in entirety, it falls flat. The protagonist is himself a writer and hence, a few of his poems were mentioned, which one would have appreciated if there was the presence of pauses and paragraph changes.

Overall, this was a highly disappointing read. No part of this book seems to be thought out or genuine. As a reader, writer and reviewer, I feel cheated and mocked.

Letters in the Rain is available for purchase on Amazon.

*** The Quill Company received this copy from the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review***

Vanshikha Kanojia

The Quill Company

 

Main aur Madira|Review by The Quill Company

Main aur Madira

“Tujhe dar dene walon mein,
kabhi mera naam na aa jaye,
meri maut tujhe gham dene wala
eklauta kissa ho.”

Co-authors: Shubham D Krishnan, Nadima Azhar, Naveen Dhart, Shivani Bilthare, Jagrit Mehra, Deepshikha, Simran Vijaywargiya, Ahesan Bukhari, Vandana Prajapati, Insha Asad, Saksham Kaul, Yogesh Pal Singh, Aysha Huma Sheriff, Yash Kotai, Ritika Gulati, Praveen Kumar Sharma, Vedant Kadu, Shalini Singh, Saumya Vishnoi, Harshit Gehlot, Aditya Wadode

Publisher: Writersgram Books

Rating: 3.5/5

Review:
Main aur Madira is a poetry anthology comprising of works by 21 poets from across India. The book is made up of couplets, poems and some prose. The pieces touch upon love, loss and a few social issues.

Having the work of 21 different people, one would expect a lot of variety in the pieces and writing style. However, most of the pieces are full of everyday clichés and one finds the pieces quite repetitive in terms of subject and style.

There are some interesting subjects that have been talked of, however, such as Casting Couch, Ambition, Society, Acid Attacks and Career. The different forms of poetry have been explored by almost all the poets included in this anthology though I find the couplets to be most powerful. Almost all of the artists have written their best in these short two-liners and the words leave a mark.

Pieces to look forward to are Casting Couch by Naveen Dhart and Laashon k Mele by Simran Vijaywargiya and the couplets by Shubham D Krishnan. All the poets featured in this anthology show a lot of potential to grow and I hope to read more from their repertoire of work soon.

If you are a beginner at contemporary Hindi poetry, pick this one up. The language is very easy to understand and the pieces are on relatable subjects.

Main aur Madira is available for purchase on Amazon.

*** The Quill Company received this copy from the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review***

– Neha Kabra
The Quill Company