I did continue to read the Shiva Trilogy by Amish Tripathi. The second book, 'Secret of the Nagas' was better than the first. The quest for the 'evil one' continued in the second book. Shiva, accepts his role as the one to save the race from evil and goes in search of the 'Nagas'. When you hear the word, 'Naga' you somehow think of a serpent king or queen and that they are half snake and half human. However, the Nagas of Amish's books are not exactly snakes. They worship the Snake God but are quite human, only, disfigured. They seem to bring on fear by their very presence. And hence Shiva takes on the brave task of finding the city of the Nagas. The suspense is quite good throughout the book. As readers, we do not know why the Nagas are so secretive and why they are so powerful either.
There is a long description of the dense forests in the south. The journey into the heart of the Naga land is quite captivating and keeps us hooked to the book. At the end of the book, you do know the real reason behind the dread or fear about the Nagas. The Nagas finally do come on the side of Shiva but it takes some time for the normal people to accept that the Nagas are not evil afterall. Evil is not necessarily a person, but something which induces a good person to do something bad.
So the Shiva's task is unfinished and this brings us to the third and final book, the 'Oath of the Vayuputras'. We know the source of evil by the end of the second book. The third book deals with what Shiva has to endure in order to fight evil. The book starts with a bang. There is lot of violence and Sati, Shiva's wife is almost dying. During this climax, comes the decision to continue fighting. It all comes down to political strategy and practical thinking in order to get the right people to help Shiva to finish his task. The Vayuputras are the ancient tribe who were responsible for maintaining peace in India. Shiva turns out to be a descendent of this secretive, ancient tribe. The story is all about the origin of the tribe and the rules by which a Vayuputra has to live his life. Does Shiva manage to find the truth about his origin and does he manage to destroy evil? That forms the rest of the book.
I liked the second book more than the last one. This was because there was a lot of suspense in the second book which made it quite interesting. Shiva travels the entire breadth of India and the description of various places kept it very lively. By the third book, there was no more suspense, just a lot of description of wars. It became a verbal description of war which was fought in the 'Mahabharatha' style. It might have been good for a movie but after a point, you just get enough of imagining all the fighting. Anyway, a really interesting twist to our otherwise 'Godly' mythological stories. I actually felt like reading more of 'Shiva' stories, from the Amarchitra Katha series. Many of my own memories of the Shiva folk lore, goes back to my childhood, reading them as Amar Chitra Katha comics. So thanks to Amish Tripathi for bringing back the interest in Indian history and mythology.
There is a long description of the dense forests in the south. The journey into the heart of the Naga land is quite captivating and keeps us hooked to the book. At the end of the book, you do know the real reason behind the dread or fear about the Nagas. The Nagas finally do come on the side of Shiva but it takes some time for the normal people to accept that the Nagas are not evil afterall. Evil is not necessarily a person, but something which induces a good person to do something bad.
So the Shiva's task is unfinished and this brings us to the third and final book, the 'Oath of the Vayuputras'. We know the source of evil by the end of the second book. The third book deals with what Shiva has to endure in order to fight evil. The book starts with a bang. There is lot of violence and Sati, Shiva's wife is almost dying. During this climax, comes the decision to continue fighting. It all comes down to political strategy and practical thinking in order to get the right people to help Shiva to finish his task. The Vayuputras are the ancient tribe who were responsible for maintaining peace in India. Shiva turns out to be a descendent of this secretive, ancient tribe. The story is all about the origin of the tribe and the rules by which a Vayuputra has to live his life. Does Shiva manage to find the truth about his origin and does he manage to destroy evil? That forms the rest of the book.
I liked the second book more than the last one. This was because there was a lot of suspense in the second book which made it quite interesting. Shiva travels the entire breadth of India and the description of various places kept it very lively. By the third book, there was no more suspense, just a lot of description of wars. It became a verbal description of war which was fought in the 'Mahabharatha' style. It might have been good for a movie but after a point, you just get enough of imagining all the fighting. Anyway, a really interesting twist to our otherwise 'Godly' mythological stories. I actually felt like reading more of 'Shiva' stories, from the Amarchitra Katha series. Many of my own memories of the Shiva folk lore, goes back to my childhood, reading them as Amar Chitra Katha comics. So thanks to Amish Tripathi for bringing back the interest in Indian history and mythology.
