“his burden didn't feel any lighter. but he felt strong enough to carry it”

                                    ― Amish Tripathi, The Immortals of Meluha


In this blog, we are going to review the first book of The Shiva Trilogy  - The Immortals of Meluha which was the first book of Amish Tripathi, a graduate of  IIM, Calcutta was released in 2010. The book was an instant success and the demand was so high that the book has to be reprinted 5,000 copies thrice in a week.

The books have been transcribed into several languages like English, and local Indian languages like ( Odia, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Assamese, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil ) as well as in Bahasa Indonesian, English (UK), Estonian, Czech and Spanish.


My Rating -  ★★★★✩

Publisher - Westland Ltd

Genre - Novel, Fantasy Fiction, Fairy tale, High fantasy

Publishing year - 2010

Language -English

ISBN - 978-9356290525

Pages - 257


The Immortals of Meluha



Plot

“Lord Ram had himself said that any philosophy, no matter how perfect, works only for a finite period. ”
                               ― Amish Tripathi, The Immortals of Meluha

This book showcases the journey of how Shiva, a Tibetan immigrant and chief of the Guna tribe becomes the great Mahadev as we know him today. The story runs in an Empire called Meluha, which was created many centuries earlier by Lord Ram, one of the greatest kings that ever lived. 

The Empire now faces danger because of the dying river Saraswati and their rival Kingdom ruled by Chandravanshis who have joined forces with the Nagas. The worried Emperor of Meluha Daksha is in the search of Neelkanth, who will help him in restoring the old glory of Meluha, as well as defeat his enemies.

The unique feature of this book is the way Amish has presented the Legendary Gods, he has made sure that they are not just some powerful mighty characters but simply human beings with whom the common man can relate too and see that even the Mighty God Shiva has his demons to fight. 

The book has also presented a powerful lady character Sati, who in all ways is a symbol of women's strength. Sati is fighting wars, is a war counsellor, is a good mother etc. 

The story of Shiva is a very beautifully crafted story and will be in the minds of readers for a long time.


Critical Reception 

                                             Amish Tripathi


After its publication, The Immortals of Meluha received mostly positive responses from critics for its concept and the writing style of Amish was very much appreciated.  BBC wrote that " Amish is India's Tolkien and Asia's Paulo Coelho ".

Lisa Mahapatra from The New Indian Express wrote a positive review about the book by saying "the interactions between Shiva and Sati, intriguing. Age-old thoughts and philosophies were delivered in a very modern context, which I thought made for an interesting juxtaposition. The only downside throughout the novel, I was unable to get into the main characters—they remained mostly on a two-dimensional level.


The review from Hindustan Times was both sweet and bitter. It said that "There are many other subtle depictions of Lord Ram and other characters and overall it's very well written. I wrote to Amish to express one small observation, the script writing is not that sharp. You have words like 'Goddamnit', 'bloody hell', 'In the name of God what is this nonsense?' etc., which I guess would be great for an Indian audience but after you just finish a Steven Erikson novel you find it falling a little flat. 


Devdutt Pattanaik praised Amish by saying that the writer takes us on a sinister journey with the characters, who frequently sound as if they are one of us only.



Where to buy :