Devourers from Suryaksh: Race to the Last Eventuality (Time Travelers Book 2) By Varun Sayal | Book Review

Devourers from Suryaksh: Race to the Last Eventuality (Time Travelers Book 2) | Book Cover
The perks of being a professional and genuine book reviewer team include getting exposed to new talents :). We strongly believe in the fact that a journey to anywhere starts with a small step. Then it is all about retaining the consistency and trying to improve the gestures. This is the toughest part of the journey though.

During our quest to find some genuine books and share our unbiased views and reviews for the same with our readers, we met a gentleman named Varun Sayal. Varun writes in Sci-Fi genre.

I am glad to share with you all that from our team, I got a chance to read Varun’s first book Time Crawlers and I liked it. Here is my review for the same.

• Time Crawlers (Stories from Parallel Universes) by Varun Sayal | Book Reviews

Some of the stories from the book really made my day. They are good in quality and the presence of a potential author is unmissable! And, to make our instincts true, there came another book, “Demons of Time: Race To The 7^th Sunset. The book is again a delight to read.

• Demons of Time: Race to the 7th Sunset | A SciFi By Varun Sayal | Book Review
  

Eventually, Varun seems has mastered the art of delivering a book at regular interval along with doing the day job in IT field (he is a data scientist). And there come his third book Devourers from Suryaksh: Race to the Last Eventuality (Time Travelers Book 2). When he has approached us with the ARC, we were quite loaded with the long “books to be reviewed” queue, but, were intrigued to read this book as well. Ultimately, our urge to read this book out of turn won, and fortunately, I got a chance to read it :).

I strongly believe in the proverb saying “Never judge a book by its cover“. But, at the same time, I acknowledge the influence of the first impression. The cover page serves as the gateway to the fantasyland explored within, and thus, is the first thing to come to the notice of the reader. And, I have no two thoughts about the fact that a well-designed cover page influence book reading and purchase decisions.

The topic and the title of the book is quite challenging to present on the canvas. Time traveling is not the only challenging thing, actually, representation of the protagonist in the backdrop of so many timelines and that too with the presence of darkness is a tough job.

The designer has done a good job of choosing the color scheme for the cover illustration. It is impressive. I, however, think that the illustration of the protagonist in the midsection is slightly getting lost in the light coming from behind, and thus it looks a little fuzzy and shattered, especially our the hands of the character. Also, is he wearing a chain of bullets, and holding a sword?

I consider it moderately good cover page which could have been better, but, nonetheless does the job it is intended for.

Book Plot:

As it is revealed in the first book, Tej has overpowered two time-demons, Kumbh and Vetri and send them to the deep sleep and chained their bodies in a way that they cannot escape till eternity. And, that is not the only victory he and his team secured. It is the exposure and capture of the real villain, Rigasur.

But, if good people have their supporters then the shady characters too enjoy this luxury. There comes a new clan known as “Kshins” lead by Nefe, a brutal, powerful and commanding female. In the absence of Tej, they came to visit the Ashram, observe the captured prisoners and,… Well, strangely not to free them, but to find the time reader and Time Crawler who will interfere with their plans to take the entire planet into their custody.

Whom they are finding? They don’t know anything about Tej yet.

In the modern world, Vedica Sharma and Rubina Vance run an AI company named “Vedvance”. The artificial intelligence is no more an “exploring at the primary level field”. Vedvance – especially has touched the horizons of research work and thus the power and wealth both. The time is changed and no one cares about considering LGBT community an exception or abnormal. These two ladies are married and having a daughter too.

They are having a fantastic presentation and will be advancing their plans in getting a major breakthrough in the field of AI (Artificial Intelligence). But, at the same time…

Well, various timelines keep connecting and disconnecting from this point and eventually, we meet many characters and watch their journey as a reader. The characters include Tej, Rigasur, Lorem, Clones, Vedika Sharma, Rubina Vance, Jiten, Bombean, Andrele, Nefe, Pete Morales, Kshins, Kuleens, Histor, Jake, Kuntala Nozeek, Michelle, Jarna, Rasheed Jain. Needless to say that we come to read many phrases and technical stuff regarding Time demon, Time Traveler, Time Crawler, Time Prison, and more.

Writing a Sci-Fi despite having the word “fiction” in it, is not an easy job. You need to balance the “science” part as well. So, you need to mention scientific reasons and argument to look your representation of story convincing and yet not boring. I must say that with every book Varun keeps growing as an author.

He seems to be a very reasonable person with an open mind. In the first book of the series, he revealed the protagonist’s attraction towards same-sex persons. It was a little undertoned presentation, but the response from the reader could have encouraged him to go ahead and has shown the “Vedvance couple” having a baby too. The same-sex marriages and having babies reminded me a Sci-Fi named Ascendence by Sadhna Shanker.

There are various scenes in the book, be it a multi-story parking, car chase scenes, etc. will give you deja-vu feelings if you love watching movies like Matrix. I am intentionally holding to mention many aspects of the book in order to keep the spoilers at the bay.

The character and place names are well-thought. For example, Bombean and Histor does the job you can expect from them. And if you know the “Miranda Law” in USA, you will relate it to a character with the same name in the book. Some mixed-clan names are also there, to represent the advanced time, eg: Rasheed Jain. I can mention many names like Lorem or Pete Morales and how to link their work with their name, but I leave it up to you. I cannot stop the urge to mention Jiten, who does a similar job he does in real life in a very small role. The name I like the most is “Vedvance”, it is not just the combination of the names of both the partners, but is also Soundex similar to “Very Advance” (AI technology) in which it deals. There are other aspects of it too, but, well, I will let your imagination catch them all.

Reading this book will remind you of many James Bond, Schwarzenegger or even Bollywood movies. Here are some such lines:

Once I take a bounty, I complete it without fail. That’s my unwavering ethic. I have a reputation to keep.
What good is a reputation of you aren’t there to keep it.
— — —
All right, I will help you. But that’s the last you are seeing of me.
I wasn’t planning on a long-term relationship either. …

I like the way in which Varun has represented the influence and then taking over of the technology over human lives in this book. The following line is pretty simple, but, it holds an important and dangerous fact.

He was addicted to the luxury of technology.

We can see it being happened in our surroundings also right? And, then we talk about spreading awareness about enjoying the real-life and not letting the technology take over us! And, how do we spread these awareness campaigns? One of the prime characters in the book says the following, which I found quite relevant.

Do you see the irony of it all? Using every piece of revolutionary technology available to them, these so-call rebels curse the same. If this is not asinine, that what is?

Of course, it has a spelling/grammar mistake. I found a couple of such mistakes in the book, but, I think the message these lines want to convey is conveyed, so we can overlook it.

Moving forward, the author mentions a hard-hitting truth.

Technology is the double-edged sword of our times. Whoever controls technology controls the world.

And, have you noticed the actions of billionaires where they are investing too much in data? They are smart people who know the future and the things can be “set up” beyond your imagination. Again, I will leave it for you to connect the dots.

Here is one nice conversation block which missed a word.

Tell me something, boy. When a surgeon cuts into a human body, it’s all good, but when a killer does, its’s all bad. Why?
Well, the doctor doesn’t want to hurt the human.
But he is hurting the human.
Yes, but the doctor wants good for the patient.
Exactly, my boy. Intentions. When you do something with a good intention, then it can’t be wrong. That’s how you decide what right versus wrong.

I enjoyed this conversation. I also urge you to not to miss the essence of the following line which comes at a point when the comparison between a character and a mortal is being done.

Tej had led a normal human life for so long. he always understood the inevitability of death…

Believe it or not, knowing and understanding the inevitable things keeps away a lot of complications, and fears.

I found the following block interesting:

I can’t take part in this battle,…
Why?
Because I am an ocean. Oceans don’t take voyages, Sailers do.

The factual philosophy in the following lines cannot be ignored.

As individual entities of the universe, we all are in charge of our own deeds.
— — —
Billions of sheep, ruled by thousands of tigers. Sheep never revolt; they only follow.

Any Sci-Fi reader may have a question that if one can travel through the time then his/her action can change the course of events, is it really possible? It is often the central theme of a Sci-Fi book or a Sci-Fi movie. I like the way in the author has mentioned that whatever is to be destined has to be done in most of the cases. Probably, even superior powers and side-effects of the actions taken to alter the course of events open actually another way of doing the same thing? This is where the spiritual stuff comes into the picture? Well, probably yes.

I know several different paths still lead to the same outcome. A man misses accident but dies of a heart attack five minutes later.

The following lines reminded of Satyavati urging Bheeshma to follow the course of actions desired at a specific point in time in Mahabharata (though he didn’t follow the advice, but Ved Vyas did his bits).

Desperate times call for desperate measures, Tej. In these times we need to sacrifice personal principles for the larger good.

Should we keep our words or be flexible, should we be men of words or being a person who can change according to the circumstances? Well, everyone has his/her views.

This is the best advice a character in the book gives which can help one when he/she is in a dilemma and yet to take an action. Probably that is why Gandhiji, despite is his shortcomings as a human being is still respected.

Don’t worry, Mr. Morales. I will speak from my heart, and I will speak the truth. That’s the best arrow I have in my quiver.

As you can see there are so many good lines in the book in terms of literary aspects too. But if you want me to choose just a single segment which I found the most interesting, I will go for the following:

Your superpower is not time travel or human possession. Your superpower is your ability to take in a lot of negativity and still do good for this world.

So, the book has some nicely developed characters, science is blended with fiction and the modern world is blended with the mythology in a quite interesting way. The quotes above are evidence of the quality of writing you can expect in the book. And, as mentioned the book will remind you of some quality movies when it comes to battle, race and other scenes. Some brutalities are there, but they never cross the limit and yes, some typographical errors are there, but they can be counted by hands, so can surely be ignored. The climax battle scene is interestingly written.

A reader associated with Science stream in any way will find many interesting discussions/mentions in the book, be it about the wormhole, nuclear fusion or fission, weaponry, time travel, the analogy of Suryaksh and Surya-X,… or others. A regular reader will also enjoy those things, and that is the success of Varun as an author.

And yes, the book ends in a way that you will eagerly wait for the next installment in the series.

Summary:

Definitely a good Sci-Fi with a balanced mixture of both genres. The imagination of the author is quite admirable and the way he infuses his beliefs within the story is interesting. If you love reading SciFi books then you should go for it. It can compete with any international bestsellers without a doubt.

Around 8 out of 10.

Quick Purchase Links:

• Buy Book From Amazon India – Kindle EBook
• Buy Book From Amazon US – Kindle Ebook

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