The Mists of Brahma (The Pataala Prophecy – Book 2) by Christopher C. Doyle | Book Review

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Reading books by Christopher C. Doyle has always been a pleasure for those who love exploring the “mythology retold” genre. We, at ThinkerViews always try exploring new books in various genres and share our unbiased views and reviews with all our readers. We were curious to read The Mists of Brahma (The Pataala Prophecy – Book 2) by Christopher Doyle, since its release. Due to various reasons, it took a while, but finally, we got a chance to read it. And, today I am sharing my thoughts about the same.

The book, as expected, moves the story ahead from where it was left in Son of Bhrigu (The Pataala Prophecy Book 1). Have you read it? If not, then also don’t worry, you can read this second installment as a standalone book. Of course, there are many things you need to imagine in terms of connecting dots, but, otherwise, it will a nice reading experience. Of course, it will urge you to read the previous book in the series, as a side effect :). By the way, here is a quick link to our book review for the same:

• Son of Bhrigu (The Pataala Prophecy Book 1) by Christopher C. Doyle | Book Reviews

By the way, we are planning to give away a paperback copy of Son of Bhrigu (The Pataala Prophecy Book 1) in near future 🙂 . Just let us know your thoughts about the same and based on your response we can plan to host the giveaway.

Let us take a look at the book cover.

Book Cover:

How many times you bought a book based on its attractive cover and later you found it not up to the expectations?

A fantastic book cover doesn’t guarantee to have an equally interesting story weaved within the book. But, it definitely affects the purchase and/or reading decisions for sure. Definitely, we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but a great book requires an impressive cover too, to be recognized by the reader.

The challenge for the cover designer is to reflect the story and title both through his/her design. Here the designer has the following objects to think for: a prophecy and mists. The prophecy is written in Brahmabhasha (i.e. the language unknown) so he/she need to keep that in mind as well. The designer did a decent job here. Due to the representation of the “mists”, the cover page has a light background. For the object on which the prophecy is written, the color of the wood is picked. Various letters and symbols written in the background gives the cover page an interesting look.

Overall, a modest cover which remains true to the story and the title.

Book Plot:

After the tragic attack on the Gurukul, it is still recovering. Arjun along with his kshatriya friends is busy in taking his warrior lessons, while their Rishi counterparts are undergoing their Mantra training. It seems that they are back in their routine.

Jignesh and other members of Sangha are busy evaluating the events and finalizing their next plan. Obviously, finding the missing parts of the prophecy is their priority. However, they know that they cannot approach Deva-lok for that by any means, at least at this stage. So, finding what they can from the Gandharva-lok is their main task. They also need to predict the next action of Shukra – the son of Bhrigu, which seems almost impossible. But, they need to prepare their security against almost everything that can go wrong!

Maya is busy with her lessons from Maharishi Satyavachana. She has to master the art of traveling anywhere using her soul, using her thoughts. It is indeed a very tough (the word tough seems quite tamed here) task and even learned rishis find it difficult. But, well, there is no other option.

Police officer Ranjit Kapoor finds the events happened at Mr. Upadhyay and Mr. Trivedi’s houses quite mysterious. He wants to go to the root of the cause. When he is trying to explore and connect the dot, he found it getting more and more mysterious. If that is not all, there is another curious case of a mysterious death came to his kitty. A girl seems dead before 15 days of her death! How can you explain this? And, the trails to all these incidents lead him to investigate in Allahabad too. If that is not all, he needed to prioritize other cases in between, as per the commissioner’s order. The only positive thing in his kitty is the subordinates he found to work with at Allahabad. They have a quite similar attitude as their leader, and they are logical and intelligent too.

But, what Shukra is doing? Well, he is busy with many conspiracies, as expected. He is closely watching almost everything he can. He wants to test the abilities of Vishwaraj and Arjun both. In a battle, it is equally important to know your strengths and weaknesses and the same of the opponent(s).

Where does “mists of Brahma” came into the picture then?

Well, you need to explore the story and know it by yourself. It will be more fun knowing it that way rather than discussing it in a summarizing manner.

Views And Reviews:

I will try to keep as many spoilers at the bay as many possible, but please be advised that some of them are inevitable, so, read with that consent.

The canvas of the story is quite big. The fictional incidents happened in the story explored in this book happens in Bhu-lok, Gandharva-lok, Deva-lok and Various layers of Pataala in addition to the “Mists of Brahma”. The author, however, is capable enough to bind them all with a link in a very convincing manner. The incidents have happened in various timelines, but, mostly the story moves ahead in a linear manner.

Retelling mythology and weaving a completely new story by referring some of the original characters and linking them to the fictional ones, is not an easy task. Christopher does this challenging task in quite a convincing manner. What I like about the book are the “SciFi” elements. While the fictional part is quite larger, the author has brilliantly tried infusing scientific explanations where possible. I consider it as a success of the author that the fictional incidents looks convincing. Be it the “body armour” concept or traveling “without physical bodies” or “opening of the portal” (which will remind you of a wormhole, though the word is not mentioned) they all are explained very well.

While reading the book you cannot stop yourself from appreciating the author for his extensive research work. In the acknowledgments section he mentions various of his sources. I like the use of Sanskrit phrases and mantras as various spells. The author has mentioned taking the help of Subha Vilas and others for the research work. It is good to see the camaraderie between the two authors.

The book has many characters. Here are some of their names: Maya, Arjun, Adira, Agastya, Satyavachana, Kanakpratap, Jignesh, Vishwaraj, Shukra, Diksha, Sriram, Mr. Kapoor, Mirza, Ratan Tiwari, Usha, Parth, Varun, Tanveer,… It is not easy to give all of them their own importance. The author tries balancing the same. And, he is successful at a large extent.

I like the way the characters of Kapoor, Mirza and other fellow from the police department are explored. They are hardworking, intelligent and reasonable. No matter, how many bad experiences we have with the department or such cases come to limelight, there are many honest officers who does their job like a prayer, and that is what makes the institution still relevant.

The way the character of Maya is explored in the book is quite commendable. She is a strong-willed girl. Of course, she is vulnerable. Who is not? And, exploration of her vulnerabilities and weaknesses makes her real. She is the protagonist of this book. So, those who talk about female empowerment should see the exploration of her character in this book and will understand what a strong female character should look like.

If you are a “Harry Potter” stories fan, you will draw a lot of parrels, from characters to spells-mantras, terms like muggles-sadhs (word possibly derived from – Sadharan – common man), and much more. These parallels work both positive and negative ways. It also shows how much we are engrossed into the western way of storytelling and their stories that we forgot some of our ancient tales. Of course, we must get the best from all the cultures and ethnicities, but we must also know the things from our own vault of stories.

The pace of the book remains gripping almost throughout. It will force you to finish the tale as soon as possible. When I’ve looked at the list of chapters in the book, I thought, this book might have covered a lot, and it is quite possible that the story is complete with this installment itself. I am quite wrong though. Despite being a long book, it is gripping and it makes you crave for the rest of the story.

The book has some fantastic lines which are character-defining or conveys an important message. It has some one liners and yes there are some satirical punches too. Here I am quoting some of them so you can get the idea about the quality of writing you can expect from the book. I have a strong urge to talk abutt each of the quotes I mention below. But, I think, I should restrict myself from doing so, to avoid spoilers :).

None of us is born superior to any other human or inferior to others. It is the attachment to the material world and its distractions, or the lack of it, that sets a person on the path to remaining a sadh or breaking free.

You cannot fear something that you are connected to, that you are a part of.

“He will be ready soon,” Kanakpratap admitted grudgingly.
“Soon. But will it be soon enough?”
No one spoke.

“Nothing is impossible,” he said finally. “We are limited only by our thinking, by the boundaries that we set for ourselves. …”

And remember, the use of force and violence to achieve one’s goals is the refuge of the weak or the desperate. When I can get what I want through the use of intelligence, cunning and guile, why should I resort to brute force and mayhem?

Arjun said nothing, but his silence carried more meaning than any words could.

… It didn’t matter if the rules made sense or not; for Agastya, they were sacrosanct. They existed, therefore they had to be followed. Without question.

And I need to have friends like you who can tell me where to get off.

That’s the mark of any great leader, isn’t it? To be able to listen, to accept contrarian opinions and change course when required.

If you can control your thoughts, you can control your emotions and you will achieve peace.

“Suspend your judgement,”… “All of us humans are born with an innate capacity to make spontaneous and instinctive judgements about everything around us. We look at something and judge it as good or bad. And very often, we do this without even knowing much about whatever we are judging…

No one can ever be completely ready to face the unforeseen.

You really don’t know what you have until you no longer have it.

Not all of us are ready to confront new truths about ourselves.

… our past life and our actions in it do influence the circumstances of our birth and some of the things that happen in our present life. But many things that happen in our lives are a result of the choices we make and the decisions we take. …

I find some of the lines in the book could have a better impact if the author has used different words. For example:

We cannot wait any longer. We have humoured you so far and acceded to your request to wait, but I must ask, why are we waiting?…

Here, instead of “humoured”, “honoured” seems a better word.

Summary:

Overall an interestingly told mythology blended a little into a science-fiction which is a good choice for thriller lovers. I like reading this book.

Around 8 out of 10.

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Over To You:

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