Have you read this book- Immortals of Meluha

Who is Amish Tripathi?

Author Amish Tripathi is a finance professional turned best sller author, educated from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C). He has worked in the financial service industry for about 14 years before turning to writing as a career. 

Where was meluha?

A number of scholars suggest that Meluhha was the Sumerian name for the Indus Valley Civilization. Meluha is based in the areas of the modern Indian provinces of Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and the whole of Pakistan. It also includes parts of eastern Afghanistan.

Amish Tripathi

Where was Swadweep?

Swadweep comprised the modern Indian provinces of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh,Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Meghalaya and all of the country of Bangladesh, besides most parts of Nepal and Bhutan.T

This the first book of Shiva’s Triology written by Amish Tripathi, which is a best seller. The story of this book goes like this……

Meluha is a near perfect empire, created many centuries earlier by Lord Ram, one of the greatest kings that ever lived. However, the once proud empire and its Suryavanshi rulers face severe crisis 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 who have joined forces with the Nagas, a cursed race with physical deformities. The present king of Meluha, Daksha, sends his emissaries to North India in Tibet, to invite the tribes that live there to Meluha. One of those invited are the Gunas, whose chief Shiva is a brave warrior and protector. Shiva accepts the proposal and moves to Meluha with his tribe. They reach the city of Srinagar and are received there by Ayurvati, the Chief of Medicine of the Meluhans. On their first night of stay at Srinagar, the Gunas wake up amid high fever and sweating. The Meluhans, under Ayurvati's orders, carry on the healing process. However, Ayurvati finds out that Shiva is the only one devoid of these symptoms and that his throat has turned blue. The Meluhans announce Shiva as the Neelkanth, their fabled saviour.

Shiva is then taken to Devagiri, the capital city of Meluha, where he meets King Daksha. While staying there, Shiva and his comrades, Nandi and Veer Bhadra, encounter a beautiful and mysterious woman, who has a look of penance on her face. They later come to know that she is Princess Sati, the daughter of Daksha and is a Vikarma, an untouchable in this life due to sins committed in her previous births. Shiva tries to court her, but she rejects his advances. Ultimately Shiva wins her heart and they decide to get married. Enraged by the so-called obsolete law, Shiva declares himself as the Neelkanth and swears to dissolve the Vikarma law. Daksha allows Sati to get married to Shiva, amid much joy and happiness.

During his stay in Devagiri, Shiva comes to know of the treacherous wars that the Chandravanshis are carrying on the Meluhans. He also meets Bŗahaspati, the Chief Inventor of the Meluhans. Brahaspati invites Shiva and the royal family on an expedition to Mount Mandar, where the legendary Somras is manufactured using the waters of the Saraswati river. Shiva learns that the potion which made his throat turn blue was actually undiluted Somras, which can be lethal when taken in its pure form. However, Shiva was unaffected, which was the first sign that he was the Neelkanth. He also learns that Somras was the reason why the Meluhans lived for so many years. Brahaspati and Shiva develop a close friendship and the royal family returns to Devagiri. One morning, the whole of Meluha wakes up to loud noises coming from Mount Mandar. Shiva and his troops reach the hill to find out that a large part of Mandar has been blasted off and many of the inventors killed. There is no sign of Brahaspati, but Shiva finds the insignia of the Nagas, confirming their involvement in the treacherous wars of the Chandravanshis.

Enraged by this, Shiva declares war on the Chandravanshis. A fierce battle is fought between the Meluhans and the Swadweepans in which the Meluhans prevail. The Chandravanshi king is captured but becomes enraged upon seeing the Neelkanth. The Chandravanshi princess Anandmayi explains that they too had a similar legend that the Neelkanth will come forward to save their land by launching an assault against the "evil" Suryavanshis. Hearing this, Shiva is dumbfounded and utterly distressed. With Sati he visits the famous Ram temple of Ayodhya, the capital of Swadweep. There he meets a priest from whom he comes to know about his karma, fate and his choices in life, which would guide him in future. As Shiva comes out of the temple, he notices Sati standing out of the temple waiting for him and a Naga standing near a tree. The book ends with Shiva charging to save Sati.

After finishing writing The Immortals of Meluha, Tripathi faced rejection from many publication houses. Ultimately when his agent decided to publish the book himself, Tripathi embarked on a promotional campaign. It included posting a live-action video on YouTube, and making the first chapter of the book available as a free digital download, to entice readers.

Ultimately, when the book was published in February 2010, it went on to become a huge commercial success. It had to be reprinted a number of times to keep up with the demand. Tripathi even changed his publisher and hosted a big launch for the book in Delhi. It was critically appreciated by some Indian reviewers, others noted that Tripathi's writing tended to lose focus at some parts of the story. With the launch of the third installment, titled The Oath of the Vayuputras, on February 2013, the Shiva Trilogy has become the fastest selling book series in the history of Indian publishing, with two million copies in print and over 500 million (US$8.3 million) in sales.

The books have been translated into a number of local languages like English, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Assamese, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Bahasa Indonesian.

Have you read this book?- KILLING MACHINE by Jack Vance

Recently I laid my hands on a famous book of not so famous (Unjustified) American science fiction writer Jack Vance. To me it was a pleasant reading, a book which maintains the thrill and curiosity throughout and I could not leave it until it was finished. Let me share it with all my friends. 

courtesy-Wikipedia

Who is Jack Vance?

Jack (John Holbrook) Vance American mystery, fantasy and science fiction writer born in San Francisco on August 28, 1916 born in  and died in  Oakland on May 26, 2013). He received many awards for his fiction.writing. Notable among these are- 

• Hugo Awards, in 1963 for The Dragon Masters, in 1967 for The Last Castle, and in 2010 for his memoir “This is Me, Jack Vance!”
• Nebula Award in 1966, also for The Last Castle
• the Jupiter Award in 1975
• World Fantasy Award in 1984 for life achievement and in 1990 for Lyonesse: Madouc
• Edgar (the mystery equivalent of the Nebula) for the best first mystery novel in 1961 for The Man in the Cage
• He was Guest of Honor at the WorldCon in Orlando (1992)nd he was
• Named a SFWA Grand Master in 1997.

Since his first published story, "The World-Thinker" (in Thrilling Wonder Stories) in 1945, Vance has written over sixty books. His work has been published in three categories: science fiction, fantasy and mystery.

1. The Dying Earth Quartet:

• The Dying Earth 
• The Eyes of the Overworld 
• Rhialto the Marvelous
• Cugel's Saga 

2. The Big Planet Duo:

• Big Planet
• Showboat World 

3. The Five Gold Bands 

4. To Live Forever 

5. Slaves of the Klau 

6. The Languages of Pao

7. The Dragon Masters 

8. The Demon Princes Quintet:

• The Star King 
• The Killing Machine
• The Palace of Love
• The Face
• The Book of Dreams

9. Galactic Effectuator 

10. Son of the Tree

11. The Houses of Iszm 

12. Space Opera

13. The Blue World

14. Nopalgarth 

15. The Last Castle 

16. The Planet of Adventure Quartet:

• The Chasch 
• The Wannek 
• The Dirdir
• The Pnume

17. Emphyrio 

18. The Durdane Trilogy:

• The Anome 
• The Brave Free Men 
• The Asutra

19. The Alastor Cluster Trio:

• Trullion: Alastor 2262
• Marune: Alastor 933
• Wyst: Alastor 1716

20. The Gray Prince 

21. Maske: Thaery 

22. The Magnus Ridolph Book(s):

The Complete Magnus Ridolph
(this has all 10 Ridolph tales)

23. The Lyonesse Trilogy:

• Suldrun's Garden
• The Green Pearl
• Madouc

24. The Cadwal Chronicles Trilogy:

• Araminta Station
• Ecce and Old Earth
• Throy

24. Night Lamp

25. The Ports of Call Duology:

• Ports of Call
• Lurulu

26. The Short-Story Collections:

• Future Tense 
• The World Between, and Other Stories 
• The Worlds of Jack Vance 
• The Best of Jack Vance 
• Eight Fantasms and Magics 
  Green Magic 
• Lost Moons 
• The Narrow Land 
• The Light From a Lone Star 
  The Augmented Agent and Other Stories 
• The Dark Side of the Moon 
• Chateau D'If 
• When the Five Moons Rise
• Wild Thyme, Green Magic 

(And who can say how many more?) 

And now about killing machine

The Killing Machine is a science fiction novel by American writer Jack Vance, the second in his "Demon Princes" series, written in 1964,  in which Kirth Gersen, having brought arch-villain Malagate the Woe to justice, sets his sights on Kokor Hekkus, another of the Demon Princes. The name Kokor Hekkus, which means "killing machine" in the language of the planet Thamber, does not refer to Hekkus's own predilection for homicide, but to his fondness for horrific and murderous devices, including the giant robotic executioner that first gained him his nickname.

To hone his skills, Gersen spends time as a "weasel", a police spy in the lawless Beyond, and is sent on a mission in which "Billy Windle" intercepts a “Mr Hoskins” with license to kill if necessary. Mr Hoskins is killed, though not by Gersen, who recovers two pieces of paper that were being exchanged. One paper provides information on how to become a “hormagaunt,” an undying monster that steals children and lives on the mythical planet Thamber, and the other paper contains technical specifications that Gersen does not understand.

Gersen is made aware that Billy Windle was Kokor Hekkus. He then learns that Hekkus is masterminding a series of kidnappings. The victims are taken to Interchange, a planet in the Beyond, where exchanges between kidnappers and ransomers are facilitated. Gersen learns that the latest victims are the children of a high-ranking Fellow of the powerful Institute, Duschane Audmar, who must remain aloof under all circumstances. Gersen convinces him to underwrite a fact-finding mission to learn more of Hekkus’s activities and to ransom the children.

Gersen learns that Hekkus accumulates funds to ransom a young woman named Alusz Iphigenia Eperje-Tokay who claims to be from Thamber; she fled her homeworld when Hekkus became interested in her and settled on Interchange as her only refuge, since even he would not dare interfere with the organization. She had set her ransom at 10 billion SVU. Hekkus raised the sum by kidnapping the loved ones of the Oikumene’s hundred-wealthiest citizens, ransoming them for a hundred million apiece.

Gersen also meets Myron Patch, an engineer from Krokinole. Patch had built Hekkus a many-legged walking “fort” resembling a giant centipede, but when Hekkus was dissatisfied with the result, Patch refused to refund the money already paid, and was kidnapped and shipped to Interchange to recover the sum. Gersen ransoms him as well as the Audmar children, and temporarily takes a controlling interest in his engineering company.

He determines to lure Hekkus within his reach, and has ideas how to correct the faults in its walking mechanism. Gersen demands more money from Hekkus’s agent Seuman Otwal for the alterations, but when it is time to deliver the completed fort, Gersen is captured and ordered to repay the money; when he cannot, he is dispatched to Interchange.

While there, Gersen sees an old newspaper article that identifies “Mr Hoskins” as a senior bank official. He recalls the cryptic fragment of paper he recovered earlier and surmises that it describes marks used to authenticate banknotes. He forges enough money to free himself and returns to ransom Alusz Iphigenia. The money goes to her (minus Interchange's fee) – and since she is uninterested, Gersen becomes fabulously wealthy.

Gersen hopes that Alusz Iphigenia will be able to guide him to Thamber. She has no knowledge of astrogation but is able to complete a nursery rhyme that allows Gersen to deduce the planet's location.

Thamber is home to a quasi-medieval culture with barbarian tribes into whose hands Gersen and Alusz Iphigenia fall. He fights the leader of a war-band to save her from sexual slavery, and they accompany the warriors to Kokor Hekkus’s castle. There the barbarians easily defeat Hekkus’s foot soldiers, but then Patch's mechanical fort appears. It mimics one of Thamber's greatest terrors, an animal called the dnazd, and the barbarians flee in panic before it. Gersen, however, had foreseen the possibility of facing Patch's creation and had installed an Achilles heel. He disables the war machine and takes its crew prisoner, in the process noting that one of the men aboard,

Franz Paderbush, resembles Seuman Otwal and also Billy Windle, in height and build.

He takes the fort to the castle of Sion Trumble, at one time Alusz Iphigenia’s fiancé. Trumble offers the services of a friend who knows Kokor Hekkus, but the man denies that he is Paderbush. Gersen has his suspicions and allows his prisoner to escape, but then forces his way into Trumble’s private quarters. There he finds Paderbush in the process of transforming himself into Trumble, for they are one and the same, and both are alter-egos of Kokor Hekkus. Hekkus has no face, having concealed his hideous un-face beneath a series of masks. Gersen identifies himself, reminding Hekkus of the Mount Pleasant raid in which his home was destroyed and nearly all of his family killed, and after giving him a few seconds for the news to sink in, executes him. He then returns to the Oikumene accompanied by Alusz Iphigenia, promising to send ships to bring Thamber back into contact with the rest of humanity.

Hindi science fiction: Historical Perspective Part-1

Arvind Dubey

History of Hindi literature dates back to the end of nineteenth century when first Hindi science fiction work “AASHCARYA BRITANT (Strange Tale)”, by Pandit Ambika Datta Vyas,  

published in 1884, in “PIYUSH PRAVAH”, a popular contemporary Hindi magazine from Madhya Pradesh. For the sake of convenience we may divide Hindi science fiction in- Proto science fiction, Pseudo science fiction and Contemporary science fiction.

1. Proto science fiction

It means the scientific fiction written before recognition of Science fiction as a separate genre. There are many anecdotes, stories and passing references found in our sacred books such as Puranas, Upanishads, Brahmans and mythological literature like Mahabharat and Rmayana, needs attention. Among these SrimadBhagvat, Mahabharat and Ramayana are full of these so called science fiction stories, which needs no further elaboration. Many scholars of Science fiction do not consider these anecdotes, as Science fiction because they don’t any science in these.

 Science is an ever developing domain. When these books were written in 1000 to 1500 BC, scientific concepts would have been in very primitive stage. Mental energy was only

powerful gadget available to these writers to stretch their imaginations. So the imagined to do the impossible things possible by this gadget. I personally don’t find it nonscientific because that was the limit of the science of that era.

 Don’t we accept even implausible fantasy of Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, Frankstien by Mary Shally as a work of science fiction? Now when scholars are tracing the history of Science fiction to “Epic of Gilgamesh a seventh century epic poem

from ancient Iraq, I plead that a serious thought may be given to these anecdotes.

2. Pseudo Science Fiction

I have fabricated this word purposefully to describe the literature which apparently looks like the work Science fiction but really it is not based on scientific principals. Please do not mistake it with “Science Fiction in Pseudoscience”.

Devaki Nandan Khatri, the first author of mystery novels in Hindi. First of these was “Chadrakanta”, published in 1918. People were so mesmerized by the works Chandrakanta, Chandrakanta Santiti and Bhootnath that they started to learn Hindi just to be able to read the works. Although these are “Tilism” stories, cannot be classified as Hindi science fiction yet the prepare ground for development of science fiction in Hindi.

Besides this there were many pseudo Science Fiction stories appeared in the form of novelettes, comics and Television serials which we collectively call as “Pulp Science fiction”.

(Continued)