Monday, May 12, 2014

Book Review: The Third Daughter by Susan Kaye Quinn

Disclosure: I received an electronic copy of this book through Library Thing’s Member Giveaway Programs in exchange for a promise of honest review. Here it goes.

The Third Daughter is a nice YA fantasy novel with elements of steam punk, political espionage and romance. It’s also coming of age story of princess Anira, the arrogant third daughter of the Queen of Dharia who is waiting for her eighteenth birthday, so that she would marry man she loves, and her metamorphosis from a careless princess to a lady who would sacrifive her love and life for her duty towards her nation.

But with the rumours of invention of a new airship by the barbarian Jungalis, as the war seems inevitable, the peace between the two nations depend on a political marriage between Anira and barbarian prince Ashoka Malik of United Province of Jungali. After the death of his younger brother and mother, Prince Malik is now heir to the throne of this mountainous country afflicted with poverty, population and infighting.
What follows is a tale of how people of two different cultures try to work together, and while doing so, learn a lot about each other. While the ending of the novel is quite predictable, the plot remains interesting nonetheless.

There is a Bollywood twist to the plot in the sense that the girl in the story is from a rich and powerful family while the boy who proposes her for marriage has a humble background. Throw in a few people who don’t want the couple to marry for their personal gains, and you have a story ready-made for Bollywood of 90s.

The author has modeled the fictional world on Indian subcontinent and has used names like Priya, Ashoka and Janak to give it an Indian feeling. Even some of the locations like Kartavya (capital of Dharia) is a directly a word from Sanskrit. However I was unable to find the meanings of the words in Devanagri Script that was at the beginning of each chapter. It seemed like random letters put together with no meaning whatsoever. May be it was just to add the “Indian feel” to the plot and could have been avoided.

This was my first experience with a purely Indian Steam punk novel, and I really enjoyed it. The plot is well paced and entertaining. The characters are well developed and the heroine of the story is everything other than a damsel in distress. I enjoy reading stories with strong female characters, and I am extremely thankful to the Susan for this fun read.

And yes looking forward to the second installment of the Dharian Affairs - The Second Daughter as the first book ends with a nice cliffhanger.
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Thursday, March 27, 2014

Manga Review: 07 Ghosts

     


Alt Names:  7 Ghosts | Siete Fantasmas |07-Fantasmas |セブンゴースト| 神幻拍挡07
Genres: Action | Adventure | Comedy |Drama | Fantasy | Josei | Manga |Supernatural
Author: Amemiya Yuki | Ichihara Yukino
Status: Completed
Rating: 4/5

Set in a fantasy world the story revolves around Teito Klein, the orphaned slave boy  who became a top student of  the rival empire’s military academy. With the unexpected turn of events, Teito is an escaping convict who is being pursued by the military of Barsburg Empire. He receives refuge in the church at District 7. This church according to the legends is protected by 7 Ghosts. As long as Teito stays within the church, the military of Barsburg cannot get their hands on him due to  District 7’s law of sanctuary. As the story develops we come to know that there are two powerful stones – Eyes of Raphael and Eyes of Mikhail. The royal family of Kingdom of Raggs possessed the Eyes of Mikhail  while the Eyes of Raphael  was held by Barsburg Empire. Several years ago, the Barsburg Empire had broken a pact and decimated the Kingdom of Raggs to seize the Eyes of Mikhail. Teito is the last descendant of the royal family of Kingdom of Raggs, and possesses the Eyes of Mikhail  without his knowledge.With his best friend Mikage now dead, the military after his life and Kor after his soul, Teito needs to unlock the mysteries of his past with the help of 7 Ghosts.

The plot seemed to be complex with  a lot of characters in play. It is  blend of Magic, Religion, Military, Church, Friendship, and Revenge. Readers need to go through the story slowly and steadily to enjoy it. I recommend this to readers who are 18+ due to the complex nature of the plot.
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Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Manga Review: Killing Bites



Genere: Action| Adult | Seinen
Author: Murata Shinya
Artist: Sumita Kazuasa
Status: On-going
Rating: 2/5 (Average)
Age group: 16+
Description:  Killing Bites are underworld duels between human-animal hybrids.
One beast who knows no fear will fight in this animalistic world full of fear and insanity.
This ultimate battle of the beasts will shock you to your core! 



Nomoto Yuuya’s acquaintances from college ask him  to drive them around to pick up girls one day to which Yuuya agrees. Later on that night he realises that his acquaintances were planning to rape a girl in their car. Yuuya tries to persuade them stating that it is a crime, but it was too late as they pointed out that he himself was an accomplice in the act, even though he was merely driving. Hitomi, the schoolgirl who is kidnapped is a human-animal hybrid with physical strength far greater than an average human. The girl slaughters both acquaintances of Yuuya, but spares him. Soon Hitomi is appointed as Yuuva’s bodyguard for the next three months.

With only 2 chapters available, it is too early to rate this manga. So I reserve the right to review the ratings after a few more chapters. There is plenty of action as the name suggests. Seems like there will be quite a few “revealing moments” (i.e., nudity) along with blood and gore. Hence I recommend it for readers who are 16+.
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Manga Review: Shimizu no Ryosuke aka Immortal Hounds

Alternate Names: Fushi (Shinazu) no Ryouken | Fushi no Ryouken | 不死の猟犬
Author/Artist: Yasohachi Ryou
Genres: Action | Mystery | Seinen | Tragedy
Status: Ongoing
Rating: 3/5

Description:  Kenzaki Shin'ichi is leader of the Anti-Vector Task Squad. He's in charge of hunting down Vectors, humans that carry with them the deadly Resurrection Deficiency Syndrome, a disease that can keep someone from resurrecting when they die.

The story seems to be set in an alternative dimension or a futuristic society where most of the human race are able to resurrect themselves automatically after death unless it's a death due to old age. These humans are immune to all the diseases, except one,  Resurrection Deficiency Syndrome (RDS) which prevents the affected person from resurrecting after death. Human carriers of this disease are known as Vectors. There is a mysterious organization which protects the Vectors from execution by Anti-Vector Task Squad, and arranges for the shelter and fake IDs and documents for the Vectors. But even with these executions and arrests, the number of Vectors is at an all time high, which has resulted in the development of some conspiration therories regarding the same.

Is the government wrong? Is this organization aiming to cause bio terrorism by making more and more humans infected with RDS? How does this RDS spread among humans?

Yasohachi Ryou's story is available up to the 7th Chapter, and interestingly enough, I am waiting for the next chapter's arrival. The rating that I have provided is based on the first 7 chapters that I have enjoyed. In future I may decide to revise the rating based on the plot.

In a nutshell: If you are a sucker for Sci-fi, mystery and action, I would suggest you to give it a go.
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Sunday, March 23, 2014

History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi - Review


I had heard quite a bit about this anime on the cyberspace, and managed to watch it recently. Here is my quick review about it:

Anime: History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi (based on: Shijō Saikyō no Deshi: Kenichi )
Genre: Martial arts, Comedy, Romance
Story: 6/10
Animation: 5/10
Sound: 6/10
Recomended Audience: 13+ (No nudies, little blood)

The story revolves around timid Kenichi Shirahama, a high school student who is bullied by many in his school. He joins a karate club in school to learn marshal art so that people stop calling him weak-legs.

Gradually he meets Miu Furinji, a new student in his class who introduces Kenichi to Ryōzanpaku, a dojo where she stays. The several masters who live in the Dojo, take Kenichi under their wing, and what follows is bone-breaking training for Kenichi.

Between the training, Kenichi has to fight several opponents from Ragnarok, a gang of delinquents. The more Kenichi wins against the members of Ragnarok, more he gains attention from Ragnarok’s elite Eight Fists, the top 8 generals of the gang who controlled their own teams.

As a guy with no talent for Marshal Arts, his masters at the dojo cram him up with various techniques and trainings that improve his strength and skill to  new height after every match, until he faced the next opponent of yet superior skill.

The story line is simple with the themes of honesty, hardwork and friendship. The story is actually about the growth of Kenichi’s personality from a timid teenager to someone who believed in protecting his loved ones from the harm’s way.

The masters at Ryōzanpaku have interesting characters. As correctly described in the review by THEM :

“Hayato, the dojo's elder (and Miu's grandfather), a blond, bearded giant of a man, has a friendly demeanor and outgoing personality, if a vaguely intimidating one. Akisami is a jujitsu master as well as the dojo's intellectual (on the side, he's a philosopher, sculptor, painter, and "bonesetter".) Sakaki is a karate master (and street fighter, which is the skill most pertinent to Kenichi), and has a "gruff uncle" manner toward Kenichi. Kensei Ma is the Chinese martial arts master, and token dirty old man; we'll see some of his family members over the course of the series. Shigure is the token female master; a weapons specialist, she speaks rather slowly and haltingly. Throughout the series I felt she was rather under-used (apparently she got more attention in the manga.) Finally we have Muay Thai boxer Apachai, the main comic relief, a hulking doofus who doesn't know his own strength.”

Don’t expect too much from this series. It’s for those who are interested in Martial Art themed animes. The story is light hearted. Nothing to complicated to give a thought twice to understand.

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Thursday, January 23, 2014

My Reading List for 2014 (for now)

With so many members of blogosphere publishing their reading challenges for the year, it was about time for me to share my reading list for the year:

  1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Hard Luck) - Jeff Kinney     Reading
  2. The Descent- Jeff Long     Read
  3. Krishna Connection - Ashwin Sanghi   Reading             
  4. Chander Pahar (Bangla)  - Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay  Read
  5. Rise & Fall of Third Reich  - William L. Shirer   To Read
  6. The American Black Chamber - Herbert O Yardley To Read
  7. The Demonologist - Andrew Pyper  To Read
  8. The Soul of a Butterfly - Mohammed Ali   Reading
  9. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion - Reading
  10. The Hindus: An Alternative Histoty - Wendy Doniger  To Read
  11. Tokyo Vice - Jake Adelstein   Reading

I know what you are thinking... The list isn't that long.. That's because I plan to spend more time watching my favorite animes that I had missed earlier. :p

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