E-Paper
BOOK OF THE WEEK: From the heart of darkness
This book is set in the bustling metropolis of Kol where strange races play their mindgames in a fantastical universe.
The Manticore’s Secret
Samit Basu
• Price — Rs 295
• Publication — Penguin Books
“Apart from the occasional croaking of a small and angst-ridden tree frog, the circular clearing in the heart of the Great Forest is silent in the darkness.” And from the heart of this darkness emerges the chimera like grotesque form of the Manticore with its huge molars, blood-cased lips and poison darts.
Samit Basu’s science fiction, The Manticore's Secret, is set in the bustling metropolis of Kol where strange races play their mindgames in a fictitious and fantastical universe.
The book, a gripping sequel to The Simoqin Prophecies — the first in the Game World trilogy, takes us to a darkly attractive landscape inhabited by strange and sombre creatures.
Those of us who have read The Simoquin’s Prophecies, will find several new characters introduced in The Manticore’s Secret through delightfully descriptive passages filled with humour and allusions.
Infact, this is a very pictorial book the readers can visualise every macabre detail. The author’s description of the pack of wolves chasing Behrim is one of the most intense etchings of the book.
Basu, perhaps the most famous drop-out of IIM-Ahmedabad, presents a struggle between the good and evil in The Manticore's Secret where a mysterious dark lord and his grotesque army threaten all that is good on earth.
For those of us who have read The Lord of the Rings for the seventeenth times and yet hungered for more, The Manticore's Secret is a must read. It is a spellbinding web of myth and literature.
After reading the second book of the trilogy, we wait for the final title The Unwaba Revelations. And this time the author must put in more actions to attain the sparkling brilliance of The Simoqin Prophecies!
