This is the review of Ritika Kochhar’s Weapons of Kalki – Book 1 – The book of love.
- Title – Weapons of Kalki – Book 1 – The book of love.
- Author – Ritika Kochhar
- Format – Kindle [Paperback edition also available]
- Print lenght – 390 pages
- Publishers – White Falcon Publishing; 1 edition (23 April 2019)
- Price- INR 340 [Kindle] / INR 425 [ Paperback]
Circa 1969, Uttar Pradesh, India
When Vishnu Vyas Thakur, who belongs to a politician’s family from the Shambhala village in UP, insists on marrying Princess Parvati Devi Singh Sahib of Arjungarh, they are both aware that their child will be Kalki – the tenth avatar of Vishnu. What they are not prepared for is the viciousness with which their family will be ripped apart by the Daughters of Mara, as the evil creatures start the descent of humankind towards a kind of evil that can cause the end of the world.
It’s not just the supernatural Kalki has to contend with. Both sides of his family want to use Kalki’s fame as an Avatar for their own political and personal ends.
But even before he is born, Kalki has protectors – the most powerful of them being Parvati’s older daughter, Chandika. And then his twin sister – Kali. She’s so powerful that, even as a baby, she becomes a target for humans and immortals alike who are scared of what she’s capable of!
As Kalki gets caught in human and superhuman power struggles, Kali must survive. And to do so, like her mother and sister before her, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
The story is around the Kalki Avatar but in a modern setting! So its kind of mythology based fiction and it is good!
Mythology is one of my favorite genre apart from Thrillers and mystery and this book did the job of intertwining these two genres.
The book starts with the wedding arrangement of Vyas who is the son of a politician from Uttar Pradesh and Parvati , the Princess of Arjungarh.Vyas and Parvati have been destined to be the parents of Kalki.
The characters and the plot are well formed and helps enjoy the story even more.
You can gather a lot of information about the main character – Kalki and also about those who surround him, his clan and all the troubles and emotions that they go through and even some small experts on Vishu’s other avtar.
Though there are other sub stories/plots , the author has tied it all together in a good way so that it is not confusing.
The book finishes at an exciting point and all we can do is wait for the second part to read the rest of the story!
The book is a bit lengthy and it took a while for me to finish it.
The language is simple and I felt it got slow a bit in between but since it was quite thrilling, it can be overlooked.
The cover of the book could have been better,more to relate to the story line/ characters.
If you like Mythology you will like this one too! And the cream to the cake is that it is a thrilling one set in the modern times!
Ritika Kochhar returned to writing 5 years ago after spending over a decade in management and advocacy in organisations like the British Government and the Times of India where she looked at issues like sustainable development, education, science, leadership, cybersecurity and politics.
Almost all of them still interest her, except as a writer, she now uses art, culture and mythology as her prism. They have inbuilt stories within them of gender and social politics, conservation, history and common sense.