The Pages of Destiny | The Four Elementals Trilogy by Yajat Sharma | Book Review

The Pages of Destiny | The Four Elementals Trilogy by Yajat Sharma | Book Review
Age, wisdom and talent are very separate entities. People often found them linked together, however, not always :).

Recently we came across works of a talented author – Yajat Sharma and it reaffirmed our this belief.

He might have been inspired by many books like Harry Potter series, Narnia series, Lord of the Rings series, Famous Five series,… but the work he came up with is original. Of course, you can find some visible threads of inspiration in his works.

He imagined a fictional world – the Dark World, somewhere beneath the Earth. It has two Suns. There are various fictional species living there. And yes, there are magical creatures, weapons, and inventions are rooted there. And, yes there are wizards too. Most importantly, where there is good, there is evil. Keeping these elements at the core, he wrote a book about Arcane Crown. The story went ahead there came another antagonist – the Skull Warrior. But the story doesn’t end there, it is moving ahead towards the Pages of Destiny!

Yajat, has thoughtfully distinguished this entire long tale into three books and thus came to existence – the Elementals Book Series – which is a trilogy. We have shared our unbiased views and reviews for the first two books in the series. Here are the quick links:

• Quest For The Arcane Crown | The Four Elementals Trilogy | First Book
• The Skull Warrior | The Four Elementals Trilogy | Second Book

And, today we are going to share our thoughts for the final instalment of the series. But before moving to that, let me share a quick link to an exclusive sneak peek into this book.

• The Pages of Destiny | The Four Elementals Trilogy | Third Book | Chapter 1

It is for the first time, we are witnessing the audio sneak peek into a paperback/EBook! We are fortunate to have this opportunity to share it with you.

Enjoy listening to the same :).

The Cover

If I ask, do you admire beauty? The answer will be obvious – of course, yes. It is human nature. And that’s why it often needs to remind – one shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Because, the cover page is responsible for making the first impression of a book.

The cover page of this book has a dark theme. You see a full-grown warrior accompanied by 3 kids – is looking into the space. In the upper half you see a skull and a book. All these elements represents some important characters and aspects of the book. If you have read previous books in the series, you will notice that one kid is missing. And, you also know, who and why!

While the cover page is tried be informative and faithful to the story, the characters look like toys and doesn’t impress much.

Overall, a moderately good cover page.

The Plot:

Let us take a bird’s eye view of the story explored in this book.

James, Archer and Daniel are back to their homes, but, they know that they need to leave soon. To save the Dark World, to support the Scavenger. However, they hope the things are running smoothly in the dark world.

The destiny, however, is full of unexpected twists and turns. And, their hope is also to be shattered soon. They got a call and they have to fulfil their duty, follow their destiny!

In a set of discouraging events, the kids had to come back to the Earth, just to go back to the Dark World – in a stealthy manner. As all points of entry in the dark world are under scanner of the antagonist, they have to find some other way. James thought of the Bermuda triangle! But, what inspiration he is looking for?!

Their ultimate target it somewhere in the sky and a few wormholes needs to be created to reach there and find a possible powerful weapon, which is considered to be a legend. No one knew if it actually exist. Of course, some people have faith and belief that it does exist. And, this time, the journey is even tougher. They need to visit the Red Spot on planet Jupiter and even need to fly towards – the Sun!

Will they be survived? Will they be able to find what they are looking for? Will they be able to reunite and save the Dark World? Well, all the questions are better get answered by reading this book.

Views And Reviews:

Connecting the dots in convincing manner while keeping the thrills intact – is the main challenge for an author when writing new books in a promising series. I got a chance to read all three books in The Four Elementals series from our team, and I can vouch that all the books in the series are gripping and delivers up-to-expectations.

The author has to weave various timelines, places (or should we say worlds), planets and other threads. It was easy to get “lost” during the journey. However, the author kept the things pretty tightly linked.

While exploring the fictional threads, he made sure that the contemporariness and “Earthen” attributes remain visible. You will find references to Bermuda triangle and the mystery associated with it, COVID-19 situation, Stephan Hawking and his book, and many other such points. In fact, finding Mr. Hawking’s book – A Brief History of Time – is an important event in the story that gives it an important turn. And, the following conversation is even more contemporary as many cities are having night-curfew/weekend-curfew/limited-lockdown situation due to COVID-19 pandemic while I am writing this.

“Where is everyone? It’s not that late. People used to walk around at this time after dinner,” Matt said.
“You forgot, Matt,” Daniel said. “The COVID-19 pandemic, remember?”

The book is primarily intended to be a thriller, and it remains so. In fact, it starts with lines like:

The messenger’s horse raced quickly through the barren path, rustling past shrubs and bushes.

And the author keeps the thrill going on in a cinematic view:

The messenger jumped from the speeding horse, who, with a whine jumped to the right, distracting the pursuers.

If you love explore something written in very articulate manner, using remarkable linguistics, you will enjoy reading lines like:

The letter in the sturdy casing travelled a hundred miles, beaten by the wind, trampled by the hooves of animals, soiled with dirt, crushed by rocks… but surviving till it reached its destination.

I found some simple yet effective lines in the book proving that there is no need to have long and detailed explanations to build a scene:

In the middle of the room stood a wizened, aged man, dressed in a long cloak and carrying a staff.

The most important attribute for a book is how its characters and their attributes are explored and conveyed to the readers. In this book, I found it done in a convincing manner.

“I am Commander Greene. We are the Greenies,” he said. “Not Jupiterians. Not celestial beings. Not Gods. Not Demons. Not Aliens. Just Greenies. Am I clear? Tell me, why are you here?”

I am not going to apologize, James. While I appreciate you for your brilliance, I would prefer to choose my ego, which has got hurt since you did not involve me in making the plan.

In both these blocks, you can easily understand the nature/psyche of respective characters. The characters also brilliant and they understand why the other character behaved in a specific manner.

Warrior tactics. We might be imposters. Pyros needed to be sure.

The book has nice explored – the Pages of Destiny. Even the page numbers (fictional, of course) are mentioned (Page 499 and 500, 501 and 502). And, the author has mentioned that theBook of the Universe has 1007 pages. And, he give a briefing about how it came to existence.

The legend goes that the ancient Sages – who existed just after the creation of the Universe – had created the Book.

And, you can find some interesting lines, exploring riddles in the book like:

A mighty wind, red storm,
Oval, now smaller in form,
Red, red, red everywhere,
The First Page lies right there.
Hotter than the rest,
Fight through the tempest,
You need power,
Find the tower.

The antagonist in this book is even more dangerous, because he is OSAY! Yes, OSAY. This segment reminded of an interesting Sci-Fi named – Doomsday of Tamas: Race To The Second Apocalypse by Varun Sayal.

The Sci-Fi segments are found through out the book. Be it about building the space ship and its recharge mechanism (also the way it helped in the climax is brilliant); creating some weapons, doing some journeys and other aspects.

Here are the line where this antagonist makes appearance.

The voice replied, “Well, James, the sleep is because of melatonin. I am sure you know what that is. And the numbness is due to metronidazole. If you are as intelligent as every says, then it should not be difficult to guess a lot about me. Don’t worry about my name, but do remember that I will always be one step ahead of you.”

The book has some lines that you will find in spy movies to make light moments.

Journeying with the most wanted man in the Dark World – it’s like a dream!

And, at the same you will find the “natural behaviour” of characters mentioned in “matter-of-fact-ly” manner.

The next few hours were boring for the children as the Scavenger wracked his brains with Thomas and the others, understanding the Island’s geography.

I found some lines in the book are good psychological analysis of our behaviour, as an individual and as a species.

Some amount of selfishness is always there in humans, you see.

While you can find references of weapons like the Slayer, you will also find refences for some interesting species like Amozaks, Octerpillars (a combination of octopus and caterpillar), Turtoons (a combination of turtle and mammoth). Interesting imaginations right? The book talks about many fictional places like:
The Kingdom of the Dark World, The Castle of Fate, the Kingdoms of Necron, the Cotton Village, The Master Library, The Brenntinute, Rakezin, The island of Humans,…

In addition to James, Matt, Archer, Daniel, their parents, the Scavenger, the Skull Warrior, here are some important characters you will meet in this book: Ekthatep, Othos, Aproph, Kakhom, Thekten, Lynx, Pyros, Commander Greene, The humans, the King of White City, Florence, Skazen, Cayden, Staler, Arthur, Ronal, Ms Hilary, Thomas, Bate, The Unicorn King, Paragon, Rath, Oni, No One,…

The book has some formatting issues (Kindle EBook) like:

“See the sand there. It’s protruding. Over
there – there’s a mound.

There are some lines which could have been written better:

James was aware that as soon as they reached the Great Red Spot, they would be ravaged by storms.

Also, a glossary could have made the book even better. But these are the small points, that doesn’t affect reading experience.

I found the book – a right mixture of imagination and thrills. The way the world of magic and science blends with each other is interesting. The characters are developed really well, and some surprises about their true identity keep you glued. To avoid spoilers, I have to skip some segments in this discussion, but ,the quotes above must have given you a fair idea about the quality of the book.

If I need to take away a wisdom line from the the book, I will settle for:

Your Earth can be a blessed place provided you remove all evil from there first.

What a wonderful way to convey an important message!

It would be interesting to note that, though this is the last (planned) book in the series, it ends in a way that in future, you can possibly see the story continues through book, if and when the author decides so.

Summary:

A nicely written conclusive part of the trilogy. If you love books from Harry Potter series, Narnia series or The Lord Of The Rings series, you will also enjoy reading this series for sure.

ThinkerViews Rating:

Around 8 to 8.5 out of 10.

Quick Purchase Links:

• Buy – The Pages of Destiny By Yajat Sharma – Paperback – Amazon India
• Buy – The Pages of Destiny By Yajat Sharma – Kindle Ebook – Amazon India
• Buy – The Pages of Destiny By Yajat Sharma – Paperback – Amazon US
• Buy – The Pages of Destiny By Yajat Sharma – Kindle Ebook – Amazon US

Over To You:

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