The Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi- book review

Amish became a literary figure in Indian English fiction thanks to this book, the first on in 'Shiva trilogy'. Amish has invested a lot in marketing the books and he has succeed in carving out a niche for himself. Youth, especially youth who devour all types of easy reading (including chick lit) English fiction, are his fans of his type of writing.

The story takes a leaf out of a Hindu God, Shiva, who is highly intriguing as a character. He then weaves some myth and mythology to make it a believable story for readers of Indian origin - a huge market spread over the world. But it might raise the hair of some Hindu believers for depiction of a highly revered figure as an ordinary man with some extra-ordinary powers and skills.

As a fantasy and story, the book gets good marks.

Amish has made his characters with effort; he has tried to make them 'rounded', believable. He has succeeded in that if you are not biased by your religious (Hindu) beliefs - because as a Hindu, your expectations from a fictional character and that from a deity might clash. Good that he did not make Shiva an almighty; he could have, as the author says he is a devotee of Lord Shiva. The problem with some characters is that they are brought in the novel from Indian mythology though they do not seem to belong here. So, while trying to bring Shiva from mythology to this world looks fine, you cannot bring in Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh - the trinity with much bigger meanings including spiritual in fiction.

By my experience I find that (at least in north India) youth who do not have good grinding in their culture seem to have been fascinated by this genre of fiction. They seem to feel rooted by reading mythical fiction of this type, in which the mythology as well as history are twisted for the sake of drama. No wonder,a new breed of writers has mushroomed in India following him, and many of them are doing well!

The style is not superb; narration drags at times. Besides, the book is quite lengthy. 

The book should get between ⭐⭐ and ⭐⭐⭐ out of 5.