The Rig Chronicles (The Secret of the Sudarshan) by the young writer Siddhant Bora, is a book worth reading if you like fictions drawing encouragement from history. This is a fast paced, action packed book, which will (I will be brave enough to say this), give you Dan Brownish feels while you read it.
The book is about The Rig, a group of secret agents belonging to IGS(Intelligence Groups and Services). Their leader is murdered by an assasin and one member, Ravish, is getting anonymous calls. While trying to get to the bottom of this, they come across their worst nemesis and the secret that he has unveiled. There is hint of romance, lost love, betrayal by a friend, a strong anti-villain and also the promise of a sequel because the story ends with a cliff hanger.
I loved reading the book. Its a page turner for sure but it was a bit too fast paced for me. The actions move very quickly from location to location and it gets confusing a bit for me as a reader. But giving that this is only the writer's debut novel, it is a wonderful attempt and I look forward to his works of the future. The chapters where the villain draws reference from our epics and mythological stories to justify his actions, are detailed and really makes us think. Shows us the writer's grasp of knowledge on these topics. The language is free flowing and easily understandable inspite of a few editing mistakes.
But I have one very big complain. The final action of the book really fails to stand up to the build up to it. The hero and the villain are so intense that a fight between them should have been the same. The build up was so prolonged that I had expected a Big Bang at the end, an 'aha' kind of moment... but I didn't get it. Maybe that's just me but this indirectly shows too how much I had expected from this book, it was so good. Hoping, the sequel, if there is one, will satisfy my hunger.
Definitely worth a read.
