Varun Sayal, I can't thank you enough for these review copies!
Disciples of Trikaal is a prequel to the first book of the Time Traveller series. However, after reading it, I would say that one could read it even as a standalone or at the beginning of the series. The story is a short and crisp one. Due to paucity of time, I took a few days to finish this, but it can be easily read in one sitting. For me, it worked as a short story.
The Story: The story follows the life of two young men - Nemi and Aru, the two Disciples of Trikaal, and how their venturing on two completely different paths shapes the world as we see in the other two books. There is a very clear protagonist and antagonist, so it is easy to side with characters. If one has read the other two books, they well understand how the choices made in this book form the basis for the other two books.
The narrative: The story is gripping from the word go. Since I read the other two books in the Time Traveller series before I picked up this one, I was very keen on knowing how the characters/storyline were connected. While there are no big suspense reveals in the book, it surely keeps you hooked on. That's because Disciples of Trikaal is one of those books which move so fluidly that the small events make for a bigger plot.
The Language: Like Varun's other books, the language is lucid. There is no unnecessary jargon. At the same time, the author manages to paint a picture with the use of descriptive yet simple language, which is quite a feat.
I think the book, very subtly, gives out some really good messages. These are some of my takeaways:> With absolute power comes absolute corruption.> Greed and selfishness have no limits.> Karma bites back. What goes around will, definitely, come around.> With power comes responsibility.> Sometimes we have to make big sacrifices for bigger good.> No good deed goes unpunished.
Like his every other book, I would recommend this book. If you haven't read any other book by the author, this would be a great place to begin (along with Time Crawlers, of course). It will give you an insight to the world of mythology meeting sci-fiction.
*****
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