Rise of the Grey Prince
By Arka Chakrabarti
Review By Ila Garg
Rise of
the Grey Prince by Arka
Chakrabarti is published by Srishti Publishers. The book’s cover is dark and
mysterious and gives a look of a thriller. The sword shining bright and the man
lingering in darkness intrigued me in an instant and I could not wait to sneak
inside.
The author is a twenty seven year old
tax consultant and a content writer who resorted to writing to escape the
mundane life. The success of his debut novel The Secrets of the Dark, along with the articles that he continues
to write for esteemed magazines like Tehelka and the world of professional
photography, have paved the way for the second part of the series ‘The Saga of
Agni’.
The blurb reads as, “That cursed
night at Nisarga had revealed the true reason behind his father’s sacrifice and
his own dark past. Each revelation now draws Agni into the sublime world of
secrets. With Vrish and Guru Sidak by his side, fighting the daggers from the
past and winning over the opponents of the present, somewhere deep down,
he knows that his journey has just begun.
The other scarred prince walks the ashes of his reality. Haunted by the glimpses of truth the same night, Yani had but one choice – to survive. His unknowing steps, trapped in cruel games of ancient powers had led him to a truth, a truth which shall mould a good man in the clay of misfortune, hate and lust.
Such is the world of Gaya, and thus shall be the Rise of the Grey Prince – the one torn between the darkness of evil and a lone ray of hope.”
This book is the second part
of series - ‘The Saga of Agni’. The story of the series revolves around Agni. Now,
I haven’t read the first one in the series so I thought I might not be able to
bridge the connection. Though much to my relief, the book has a recap ‘The
Story So Far’ and thus, one can read it even if they haven’t read the first
one.
The book is set in a
fictional land called Gaya, which is further divided into two continents - The
Land of The Rising Sun, and The Land of The Setting Sun. The story centers on
the main protagonist - Prince Agni, his guru Sidak, his friend Vrish and Prince
Yani, whose father took care of Agni during his initial years of childhood.
The story will appeal to all those readers who want
to read something different from the mainstream drama. The way this narrative
is written compels the readers to read on and get involved with this fantastic
tale. The author has managed to keep the story tight knit. The only flaw that I
felt could have been worked on is the complexity of the plot. It tends to make
the reading experience a little confusing as so many alien names come up and
sometimes it gets difficult to establish a proper connection. Also, the initial
chapters are a little drab and only a reader who keenly wants to reach climax
will have the patience to read through the details. It also gets challenging to
read this book in one go as the readers will find it difficult to keep
themselves stimulated.
There is a list of characters at the end but it only
has the characters introduced in the second part, the earlier characters aren't
listed there. The language is easy to comprehend but there are too many details
to keep a tab of. So many characters add to the confusion, though the readers
of the first part of the series may enjoy it.
The
214 page book manages to be a nice read, though it could easily be more interesting
if the characters were kept numbered and given proper space to develop. The plot and thrill
kept me glued to this book, although the grammatical errors kept irking the
flow.
‘Yay’
Factors: The
concept.
‘Nay’ Factors: The too many characters and details. Also,
the book could have been edited with a little more precision.
My Verdict: All in all, the
concept is well thought of but the execution lacks in a big way. There are too
many things happening in this book and the readers might just lose the patience
to keep reading. I have high expectations from the next part in the series. I really
hope the author will work on the feedback that he gets for this book so that
the corrections can be made in the following book.
Ratings: 3/5
This (Unbiased) book
review is a part of “The Readers Cosmos Book Review Program”. To get free books
log on to thereaderscosmos.blogspot.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment