Operation Shiva: Shadow Wing #1 By Aparna Sinha | Book Review

The perks of being a book lover includes getting exposed to many talents who are capable of creating a virtual world through their words!

As you know, we at ThinkerViews, are always keen to explore books from various genres. Over the course, we found Ashwamedha by Aparna Sinha long ago. We found the book worth reading. You can find our detailed book review for the same at:

• Ashvamedha By Aparna Sinha | Book Review

She came up with back-to-back 3 books as a book series named “Shadow Wings“, a while ago. Her books were on our radar since then, but, it took us long to read them and here I am sharing our personal and unbiased review for the first book in the series Operation Shiva on behalf of Team ThinkerViews.

Book Cover:

Being a gateway to the virtual world explored within, the cover page serves as the gateway to the book. And thus, it plays a very important role by making the first impression of the book. We, human beings, by nature has a soft corner for beauty and so, it is obvious that an interesting cover page can catch our attention.

As you can see, the cover page of Operation Shiva: Shadow Wing #1 is simple yet attractive.

The upper half of the cover is dominated by a person having a pistol in his hand wearing a suit looking sideways and his back is towards the reader. This is one of the most popular representations of a spy. You can see a well-lit metro city in the bottom half dissolving into darkness. The colors and layout gives the cover page an impression of a movie poster.

The fonts used for the book title and the logo illustration for the fictional “Shadow Wing” adds to the positives making the cover page more attractive.

It will catch your eyes for sure.

Storyline:

Let us take a bird’s eye view of the plot.

It all starts at the Indian embassy in a foreign country where two young boys were waiting eagerly to get entry. When finally they are allowed to enter in a special case, they demanded to talk to Colonel Aditya Rathod only! Their precise demand was:

“We will speak only to Lt. Colonel Aditya Kumar…” then he completed reading from his hand, “… Rathod.”

It is not an easy task to find an army officer with just rank and name, even if the embassy and their channels in the government of India are willing to do so.

Ultimately though, the kids get a chance to talk to Aditya.

It is revealed that the kids are sons of Asif Al- Ansayari whom Aditya met last in Balochistan over a year ago!

But why his sons want to talk to Aditya?! And, what they wanted to talk about?

Well, their message was:

“The bird wants a new nest.”

Aditya understood the meaning, and found the need to find the kids’ father. Upon meeting with Aditya, Asif reveals that he has a potential information about planned mayhem to tear India into pieces with a chain of events!

Will, he be able to pass on the details to Aditya before getting disappeared/killed? Will, Aditya be able to decode the information and help save the country?

Well, you need to read this short EBook to get your answers! You will meet Adity ( Lt. Col. Aditya Singh Rathore), Asif Al- Ansayari (Asif Ansari), Sunita Yadav, Attaché Aniruddh Ranjan, Divya Singh (Sr. Analyst from NTRO), Field Marshal Prahlad Shivashankar, Major Arun, Mariyam, Nafisa, Tarun, Shashank, Professor Lubna Saraf, Prafful Rai, Prabhat Ojha, and others; on your journey.

Views and Reviews:

It is a very short EBook (58 pages). And, it is available only as a Kindle edition, so if you are a fan of physical version of a book, you may be a little disappointed. However, if you are a subscriber of Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program, you will be delighted to know that it is available to read for free you (when I am writing this review).

However, the length of the book (or for that matter any media) is not always in proportion of the worthy reading experience. So, let us talk about various aspects of the same.

I will try to avoid spoilers as far as possible, but as you can understand, some of them are inevitable; so please read with your consent.

We can see that she has progressed positively since her first book – Ashwamedha.

The characters in the story are not perfect.

Of course, there are no two thoughts about their intentions. Though, we see one by one layers of the characters are revealed periodically, they remain true to their original persona.

What I meant here is the protagonist or his team are no superheroes. They make mistakes. They are humans and they trust wrong people. They don’t hit bull’s eye all the time. And, that is what makes them more real.

And, most of the readers these days love realistic exploration of the people and the society as a whole.

In fact, even you see James Bond bleeding in his movies in recent installments – as the biggest proof. Realistic cinema or TV and for that matter any media is not limited to so called “Art” zoner. In fact, those boundaries are getting thinner and thinner. So, I think, most of the readers will like these characters.

Of course, too realistic stories may not appeal a reader. So, the book has its own dose of fictional stuff, chasing, exploring, filmy situations, co-incidences and other stuff as well. And, the protagonists found saying:

There is no fun in the fight till you meet the right opponent.

The author also introduces us to various agencies and their divisions working for the national security. She goes ahead and also introduces us the people heading those agencies and top management.

If you read the book carefully, you will got the idea that why the “Shadow Wing” is called so. And, she brilliantly reveals her reasons for naming this operaiton – Opraiton Shiva. In her words:

The Shadow Wing called it “Operation Shiva”, as the mission needed three eyes. Two for things they could see and control, and the third one for things beyond their comprehension. They also used a three- pronged approach to tackle it.

The author doesn’t shy away mentioning various notions the society keep. She says:

With the kind of schedule they had; it was very easy to confuse one emotion with another.

And, she is neither complaining here and nor trying to justify it. She mentions it in matter-of-factl-ly manner. And, here she refers the thought-process of involved parties also, not only the onlookers. A really mature piece of writing.
She also elaborates the psyche of mass quite effectively.

… when children are harmed, the mobs are angriest, and could be easily manipulated. Kids are a great weapon.

Very true!

And when it comes to individuals, she has the following lines to say:

In a way, her discussion with Radhika had cleared her misconception about people branded as intellectuals.

You can draw parallels with a few real life people and incidents here. And, if you can connect the dots of the story to the real world, it is the author’s success.

The author re-affirms the fact:

A country so divided can easily be broken, my father’s friend told me. Not from the outside, but by making it hollow, by making it so vulnerable that it breaks on its own.

The way we are emotionally attached to the work we do with passion, is also found its place in the book:

Acceptance to failure comes with difficulty, especially when you have worked hard.

If I have to quote only one line from the book, in terms the best message or wisdom it has delivered. I will settle for the following:

You can never undo what you have done in your life.

The book has missed a full-stop at many places where the sentences Also there are lines which could have been written better. For example:

That was not easy too, N could Nasik, Nagpur; F could be Faizabad, Fatehpur and so many cities with letter A…”

But, these small proofreading errors doesn’t affect a casual reader’s reading experience.

Summary:

A complete entertainer. If you love thrillers, you will enjoy reading it.

ThinkerViews Rating:

Around 7.5 stars out of 10.

Quick Purchase Links:

• Buy - Operation Shiva by Aparna Sinha - Kindle EBook - Amazon IN
• Buy - Operation Shiva by Aparna Sinha - Kindle EBook - Amazon US

Over To You:

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