Saturday 27 December 2014

Lord of Darkness by Vikrant Shukla: Review

Title: Lord Of Darkness
Author: Vikrant Shukla
Publisher: YS Book International
Page Count: 267
My Rating: 4/5


Blurb: Arpita, a studious, grade seeking student from Pune University, finds it really hard to get a replacement for her old hard disk under a thousand bucks. But, when she finally finds a second-hand disk through the help of her friend, Shipra, she couldn't help but notice that things in her life are no more as they used to be-  the horrifying death of Anwar, the one who installed the disk, the presence of a mysterious, password protected folder in that disk, named ‘Billycan hill’, and a presentation that vaguely mentions a location where one can travel through past and future. After numerous efforts, they finally locate this bizarre spot and decide to visit Moghal Empire to sell a few electronic items to these ancient people to make some money. But, Dobler, an ardent follower of Satan, bullies them to change their plans at the last moment. Finally, Arpita and her chaps end up in the Satanic era near the ‘Church of Satan’ in the pursuit  of the mighty  Ring of Beelzebub, and this is where the deadly game of lust and power begins.


Verdict: ‘Lord of Darkness’ is the third novel by Vikrant Shukla. This plot of the book is different from the regular with spine chilling thrill and twists.

The first thing the reader will notice the wonderfully designed cover. The black theme and the blue face generates and eerie feeling among the onlookers. I loved the name not just because it suits the cover but it goes with the content too. The page quality was good but the book is pretty heavy to carry.

The forwards has a lot of eminent personalities praising the book which will raise the bar of expectations among the readers and gave the book a well needed start. The start of the book was a bit hazy and was looking like an unsolved puzzle. Several plots are running simultaneously and each plots has its own excitement. The thing I loved the most is the way the author linked the plots.  

The author very efficiently distributed the story in small and crispy chapters which keeps the flow alive and force the readers to complete the book in one go. The change of scenes in every second chapters maintains the buzz among the story. When the readers starts to get the missing part of the jigsaw puzzle the book becomes unputdownable.

The narrating style is not very good and remains in the down side of the book. The author has chosen a very simple narrating style, which is very much in the trend but the misplaced words or the average sentences disturbs the flow of the plot. I could have call the book a perfect if the narrating have been a bit more mature.

The characterization is exceptional and executed in a well-disciplined way. Almost each characters have a specific role to play. The detailing of the dark characters and the magic hexes makes this book all the more interesting.

The readers will appreciate the author for the amount of research he have done to frame such a delightful plot. This book is wonderful blend of science, history and imagination. There are few editing and proof reading errors are spotted but the twists in almost every page makes the readers overlook the errors. Overall a nice effort by the author and kudos to him for showing courage to come with something different.

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