“Spinning Silver” by Naomi Novik

🍁 “But I had not known that I was strong enough to do any of those things until they were over and I had done them. I had to do the work first, not knowing”
– Naomi Novik, Spinning Silver
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🌻 Set in a Russian Village, this fantasy story takes you through the lives of two female protagonists, Miryem, the daughter of moneylenders and Irina, the daughter of the tsar.
Both of them have lost a bit of their inner selves, became hard and tough against their own wills, for the better good of their families and even though they have resorted to their fates, luck brings them together to embark on a quest which will yet again test their will power and the ability to think through in the moment of crises.
Will they succeed in saving their homes from the clutches of dark magic.
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✨ Although I don’t cherish fantasies so much for the complex plot, this book was a happy surprise for its easy-to-understand plot and clarity of characters, and before long I was mesmerized by the magical realism so much so that I was reminded of the fairy tales I read as a child.
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🌼 The three female protagonists also make for a good story direction, by means of their own perspectives, so similar yet different in their own ways. The story is absolutely enchanting with various layers of character developed which isn’t too clunky, the subtle details to the imagery and the thought-provoking situations that are planted to keep the reader’s interest always piqued, this sure makes for a warm and satisfying read, which is sure to hit close to your heart for the resemblance of your favorite childhood fairy tales.
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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Genre: fantasy, fiction, fairytale, young-adult .

“The Black Dwarves of the Good Little Bay” by Varun Mathew

🍂”The Black Dwarves of the good little bay” by Varun Mathew is an epic dystopia, set in modern-world Mumbai now known as Bombadrome, for there is no land to live on, no resources to replete, and the only way to live is to live in suspended dorms hovered in the air.
When the ecological system collapsed, and the rains stopped all together ‘visiting’ this city, the newly formed government, with the promise to set things in order, proposed an artificially equated society, where everyone is equal and everyone’s lives are technologically driven to happiness, there is one but no man who remembers what it was like to live in Bom Bahia.
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🍂While the city is changed and there seems to be a state of utopia on the surface, the story of how the city came to be what it is now, is harrowing and highly relevant to times today as well.
Layered with elements of ecological deterioration, the protagonist’s childhood, his part to play in the new world order, political agendas and propagandas, the tale is a strong statement on the various facets of Indian society; its mob, its corruption, its casteism, its classism and more importantly, turning a blind eye to injustices if it serves one’s personal purpose.
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🍂Gripping narration, an engrossing storyline, and a scathing recital, peppered with subplots from the last and the present, this dystopian account keeps you on your ends all the time, wondering what will happen next.
Highly recommended.
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🍂 Thank you hachette_india for this gifted copy, in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Genre: dystopia, indian-literature, contemporary, science-fiction

“The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction” by Hachette India

“The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction” by Hachette India is a collection of contemporary sci-fi stories, focusing on themes such as dystopia, climate change, space travel, the arrival of aliens and man’s quest to find sustainable ways to live.
These are some tales from the masterful minds of some of the most inventive minds, and barring a few pieces here and there, all of the narratives were exhilarating and thrilling.
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The book being first of its kind of a selection of historical sci-fi and new age dystopia from the South Asian subcontinent to appear in the twenty-first century, did hold a lot of potentials and it was able to live up to the hype albeit by simple yet effective narratives that one can enjoy and be left with something to ponder on at the same time.
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Some of the anecdotes didn’t work for me, because of their long, tedious and unnecessary description, but the others more than made up for the experience, especially in the latter half of the book.
I absolutely loved the last one, a hypothetical future where a group of young scientists is trying to find a way to combat climate change by coming up with ideas such as sustainable colonies and to seek a way to communicate with the forest even though the web of life has reached a point of destruction.
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Read it with an open mind and overlook the minute nitty gritty and I am sure you are in for a culmination of laughter, wonder, amuse and intrigue.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Genre: sci-fi, south-asian-lit, short-stories, future
Reading Difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐/5

“The Palace of Illusions” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

“Love comes like lightning and disappears the same way. If you are lucky, it strikes you right. If not, you’ll spend your life yearning for a man you cannot have.”
– Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
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A novel take on the age-old saga of Mahabharata, narrated by Panchali or fondly known as Draupadi, this enchanting tale takes you to the beginning of her birth in the fire, to her earlier days in her father’s palace, to her stint as a woman with five husbands.
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We all are probably aware of the courses that Mahabharata took but do we ever think of what happened and why it happened especially from the point of view of a woman who was supposedly ‘modern’ and lucky for her time, being married to five men at a time?
The story provides answers to all these questions and opens up your eyes about the circumstance that led Draupadi to be the cause of the war.
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The narrative also provides important insights about her friendship with Krishna and a long lost love, that never came to fulfilment.
How were her relationships with the Pandavas? What were the sacrifices she had to make as a woman of that time and to support her husbands in the war?
Did she really get what she wanted in the end?
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Beautifully narrated, highly engaging and refreshingly stimulating.
The parts where the war is described does get a little boring because most of it is already been told so many times before, but the different take that the book offers on the war more than makes up for it.
Highly recommended for lovers of Indian mythology.
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Genre: indian-literature, mythology, war, fiction, fantasy, historical-fiction
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Reading difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐/5