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Monday, September 1, 2014

The Archer's Revenge : Destination Infinity : A Review



BOOK TITLE: The Archer’s Revenge
ASIN: B00KO95UQ6
AUTHOR: Rajesh K
GENRE: Fiction
NUMBER OF PAGES: 105
FORMAT: Digital / ePub
SERIES / STANDALONE: Standalone
REVIEW BY: Dhivya Balaji
HOW I GOT THIS BOOK: The author contacted us via mail and sent us a copy in exchange for an honest review. We thank him for choosing us to review his first novel!
SUMMARY:
          Aryan's father is killed by a powerful Minister. No one, including the Police, is ready to help him get justice for the death of his father. Can the Minister be allowed to get away with a murder just because he is powerful? What can a mere unarmed individual do?
          But Aryan is not totally unarmed - he has been training to get an Olympic medal in Archery. Can one man with bows and arrows bring a powerful Minister, protected by the Police, down to his knees? Can archery win against guns and might?

          Set in contemporary India but written for International readers, this tale is bound to change your perspectives about a number of things in life: Underdogs are not always underdogs. Friends are not always friends. Destiny doesn't always favour a select few.
REVIEW:
          When the author sent us a mail requesting a review, the summary interested me and I took up the review. The plot centred on Aryan, the son of a chief officer in the Renewable Energy ministry. Aryan’s father is murdered by a minister from another department because of power politics. Aryan decides to take revenge on the minister with his learned skill.
          He sets up his plan to take down the minister in the temple town of Tirupati (enough description of this town is given in the book). The minister’s habit of visiting the temple town twice a year gives Aryan a chance to plan his attack using bows and arrows (the sport that his father has trained him in, and which he aptly uses to avenge his death). Just when he executes his plan, he finds the minister hit by another arrow launched from an unknown attacker.
          Aryan’s plans were foiled and he finds himself saving the woman who attacked the minister before he could. Divya, enigmatic and puzzling, tells Aryan about her own sad story, being the daughter of another victim of the minister’s evil plans. Together, they hatch plan after plan, with great efforts, to kill the minister and finally, Aryan fails in one last attempt before the story twists in a totally unexpected fashion. Whether or not the corrupt minister was killed is what forms the crux of the story.
          The plot started with hope, of the oldest style, avenging the death of a loved one. It did seem interesting. But the story lacked in one aspect. The execution of the plot could have done in a better fashion. There are lacking moments, some drag to the story, which gets into little details about the geography of the place and the positioning of the arrow… so much so that the pace becomes lagged. The characters and twists are decent enough, and there is a small undercurrent of tension.
          The language is grammatically satisfactory, but the vernacular translations are evident. It doesn’t, however, ruin the reader’s enjoyment of the story. The summary and the overall organisation of the story are pleasant, and the seasoned reader can really appreciate the efforts of this first time author.
SPECIAL MENTION:
          The author, Rajesh, gets a special mention for giving some of the quickest and promptest replies ever from authors we have worked with in Readers’ Muse. His honest replies and the clarifications he made with ease to all the questions that arose to me while reading the story makes me give a special mention in this review. We hope we get to review more of your books for Readers’ Muse, Rajesh. And include the same ‘about the author’ page in your future books, too!
WHAT I LIKED:
          The plot and the use of the unique concept of Archery.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER:
          The story needs tighter editing and refined character sketches.
VERDICT:
          Go for it, if you can remember it is by a first time author.
RATING: 3.8/5
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
*Shortest ever description in this section- A first for Readers’ Muse*
Rajesh is a blogger, Author & Sustainable Living Enthusiast.
No amount of description in this column could do justice to the author’s own description of himself in the ‘about the author’ section of his book.
EDITIONS AVAILABLE: Paperback, Digital
PRICE: Rs. 100

BOOK LINKS: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KO95UQ6

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for your frank review. This being my first self-published book, there are bound to be glitches. I hope I can write better books in the future, especially after reading succinct reviews like yours.

    Destination Infinity

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