Sauvastika: The Struggle of Shantiputra | A Short EBook By Ashwin Sanghi | Personal Review

August 2020 is a very special month in many contexts. While COVID-19 pandemic (which is also referred to as China Virus pandemic by many) is getting murkier and people’s lives seem too far from being normal. Or possibly, the new definition of “normal” going to change soon.

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We will talk about the positive things that happened during this month (so far). Let us talk about what can be called a “Reader’s Delight”. Amazon India released 11 new titles from well-known authors to read absolutely free from its prime members. Of course, it is part of promotional offers for prime day, but, for a reader, an interesting book deal is all that matters, right?! 🙂

Here is the quick link to the same:

• 11 New Releases in August 2020 – Amazon Kindle EBooks – Free for Prime Members

From Team ThinkerViews, I got a chance to explore the catalog and when I saw a book titled Sauvastika: The Struggle of Shantiputra by a popular and talented Indian author Ashwin Sanghi, I skip rest of them and decided to pick it for reading.

And, I am delighted for taking this decision :). Here are my views for this short EBook.

Book Cover:

Be it a full-length book or a short story, the cover plays a vital role in making its first impression. And thus, is responsible for many purchase/reading decisions.

The cover page of this book is quite interesting. The black background gives it a rich look and it also reflects the theme of the book. The illustration of a pendent occupies the most of the cover page. It plays a vital role in the story, so the illustrator’s decision to include it on the cover page is right. The details on the locket are eye-catcher and show the involvement of the designer in making it.

On the whole, I found the cover page attractive.

Book Plot:

The story is very short (36 pages), so I will try to give you a bird’s eye view of the content without revealing as many spoilers as possible. However, please read with consent, as some of the spoilers may need to be included.

The story starts in an interesting manner and gives you the thrills of reading a science fiction.

The story is set up in the future at a fictional place named Saptadweep (i.e. 7 islands). As the story progresses, we are introduced to Rahul, Pankaj, Shalini, Aruna, Sankatputra, Shantiputra and others. Each of the prime characters lives on the different island. Interestingly, they all belong to different backgrounds and lives a completely different life style.

Some of them get a mysterious pendant each. And they all find their respective pendants attracting them to perform certain actions. At a specific point in time, they all perform those actions from their respective places. And, they all travel through the portholes appear in-front of them. Strangely, they all meet at a specific point. And, we found a common goal is waiting for them.

What is that common goal?

Views And Reviews:

The short story is actually a starting point for a Sci-Fi, Thriller. It is quite possible that it may have a few books (or short books) in the series to carry the story forward. We can expect at least one book as a sequel.

Gradually Ashwin Sanghi has mastered the art of writing gripping thrillers. More importantly, this book is not just a thriller, but it conveys various messages to the reader. Most important of them is to “save the environment” to save the future of mankind and entire earth.

In the second half of the story the names of the places, as we know it, are revealed (some of the readers may link them up earlier). Ashwin has elaborated on the way we are living and consuming natural resources without a limit, quite interestingly. Rather than preaching lectures about saving nature, he elaborated the possible dark future in the form of a thriller story.

The way, the seven islands are explored, along with the people and their way of living, is amazing. The author brilliantly infuses his knowledge about various stuff during this exploration. For example, the way he talks about various species of fishes when talking about an island, or the way talk about the nature and its elements when describing the locales of islands…

I found some interesting lines in the book that remained with me even after completing the book. Here are some of them:

The sea was calm that day, but it was a mischievous child putting on an innocent face.

In their view, happiness was not about having what one wanted, but wanting what one had.

You see, the inhabitants of Mumbai had gotten used to ignoring the signs provided by regular floods. Some years, the local authorities would say that the arterial river, more like a sewer, has clogged. In other years, the wise scientists would say that the rainfall in that particular year was much higher than the historical average for the city. …

Unfortunately the sea never forgot how it had been duped. It always nursed the hope that it would be able to reconquer ceded territory. And it did one day.

As you can see, nature and its elements are nothing less than living characters in the book. You can also find some links between the possible future names of the locations and their current names. For example, Khoon Kot, Kalisthal, Madhyabindu, Dhili… and others.

The research work, the author has done for writing this book is visible, throughout.

The characters grow interestingly. The main two characters are given the least time, and you can expect them to be explored in detail as the saga continues.

Telling more will lead to the spoilers, so let us stop here…

Summary:

I found this thriller quite interesting and I am looking forward to the future installment(s) of the same. And, being an Amazon Prime member, it is available for me for free :), so yes, I’ve enjoyed reading it by all means.

Around 8.5 stars out of 10.

Quick Purchase Links:

• Buy – Sauvastika: The Struggle of Shantiputra By Ashwin Sanghi -Kindle EBook
• Buy – Sauvastika: The Struggle of Shantiputra By Ashwin Sanghi -Kindle EBook

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