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Read about the World of Meluha

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Get to know more about the Shiva trilogy

These two bits of news almost slipped by me however I must thank the Gods (Lord Shiva in particular) that Twitter helped me come across them. The Shiva trilogy by Amish Tripathi has been acquired for publication by Jo Fletcher books in 2013. I believe the deal is for all three books to be published. Currently the author has released two books “The Immortals of Meluha” & “The Secret of the Nagas”. Both these books have been huge bestsellers in the Indian Subcontinent and I can vouch for their fantastic content as I have read and thoroughly enjoyed the first book and the second book is on my ever-growing TBR pile. The third book is tentatively titled “The Oath of the Vayuputras” and will be out in late 2012 in the Indian subcontinent.

This series is basically a re-imagining of the myths surrounding Lord Shiva (one of the Hindu Trinity) basically thinking of him as a man whose feats became legends and then ultimately lead to godhood. The first book particularly reveals a lot of the setup and brings into play many characters that will be familiar to those with even a modicum of knowledge of Hindu mythology. For those who don’t know much, never fear, the author will be also be including a handy-dandy glossary explaining all the myths and terms to be utilized in the series. What is the most enticing part about these books (for me) is that it focuses on an important aspect of Hindu/Indian mythology and the author does his best to concoct a tale that utilizes ancient mythology and modern storytelling ethos

Here’s what Jo Fletcher has to say about Amish and his wonderful work: “Amish is a massive bestseller in his native India with the first two books in his Shiva trilogy. The first, The Immortals of Meluha, is the story of how Shiva, a barbarian tribesman from Tibet, comes to be known as the Neelkanth, the man with the blue throat prophesied by Lord Ram who will come to destroy evil. In the fantasy world we’re well used to authors using myths and legends to explore all manner of stories, and I found myself gripped by this one because I know far too little about the wealth of legend from one of the world’s most ancient civilizations.”

So fantasy readers be assured, I’ll be doing my best to review the trilogy when it gets released over here and until then feast your eyes on these Indian covers and book blurb for the first book “The Immortals Of Meluha”:

It is set in 1900 BC, in what the modern Indians mistakenly call the Indus Valley Civilisation. The inhabitants of that period called it the land of Meluha – a near perfect empire created many centuries earlier by Lord Ram, one of the greatest monarchs that ever lived.

The once proud empire and its Suryavanshi rulers face severe perils as its primary river, the revered Saraswati, is slowly drying to extinction. They also face devastating terrorist attacks from the east, the land of the Chandravanshis.

To make matters worse, the Chandravanshis appear to have allied with the Nagas, an ostracised and sinister race of deformed humans with astonishing martial skills.

The only hope for the Suryavanshis is an ancient legend – "when evil reaches epic proportions, when all seems lost, when it appears that your enemies have triumphed, a hero will emerge".

Is the rough-hewn Tibetan immigrant Shiva, really that hero? And does he want to be that hero at all? Drawn suddenly to his destiny, by duty as well as by love, will Shiva lead the Suryavanshi vengeance and destroy evil?