The Tales Pensieve

The Temple of Avinasi by Ayush Pathak is the first of seven books in the series that tells the tale of a boy who discovers that his life is anything but normal and that he is anything if not extra ordinary. He discovers that he is actually the last of the avatars Kalki and is a Dev; that his mission in life is to protect the Nashwars or humans from the Nishchars.

I am sure that your mind is thinking Harry, Slytherins, Muggles and much more and you would not be the only one. The book which has several parallels with the Harry Potter series including the mystery as to where the loyalties of Angel should be directed – the Devs, who believe that he is Vishnu‘s last avatar come back to protect them and the Naswars or the Nishachars who actually believe that he is their dark lord?  Is Angel a God or an Asur? Is Harry best suited for Gryffindor or Slytherin?

If I had one grouse about this book it is this – the fact that the book has too many similarities to  Harry Potter including what I have mentioned above up to the fact that this is also a 7 book series! Now that I have said that and got it out of the way, I would like to talk about other attributes of the book that make it appealing.

• First up the language is very simple and makes it easier to read. The book moves at a decent phase and though it drags in between, the author makes up for it as one moves ahead.
• The author has taken inspiration from something novel as the Dasavathars and tries to tell the story of the avatar that we all know very less about – Kalki. Considering that there have been so many versions of the Ramayana and Mahabharatha, Siva and Devi out there this is indeed a noteworthy attempt.
• The book does a good job in depicting the fantasy of Devs and Nischachars based on Indian mythological knowledge of heaven and hell. The chapters where Angel gets some mentoring from the ninth avatar Krishna and the freeing of the white stallion will definitely keep a reader glued to the book.
• Considering that the book is fantasy fictional take on Indian mythology I would have preferred that the names of the characters were more Indian as compared to names like Angel, Betterclouds and Shelly…This had me a bit confused in the beginning.
• Also for the first installment in a series, the book has too may characters and complex mythological plots  that have been cleverly weaved into the plot. I am not sure what this spells for other books in the series as a lot has happened in the first book itself. The author needs to trust the readers memory if he needs to tie these together in the future books.
• I should give special mention to the cover – with a warrior on a white horse surrounded by an aura of mystical blue and those pious words from the Bhagavadgita, Yada Yada hi dharmasiya….” this book will definitely pique the interest of a Mahabharatha fan

This is a great book for young readers especially those that enjoy the fantasy genre. If you are a loyal Harry Potter fan, it will take you some time to appreciate this book but the author succeeds by the end of the book.

Title: 
Author: Ayush Pathak
Publisher/ Imprint: Leadstart Publishing
Pages: 389
Genre/ Sub-Genre: Fiction/ Fantasy
Rating: 3.50 of 5
Reviewed for: Author

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