Review : Baramulla Bomber by Clark Prasad

Title: Baramulla Bomber

Series: Swastik Trilogy #1 (EKa)

Author: Clark Prasad

Publisher: Niyogi Books
Pages: 316 Paperback

Release : Aug 2013
Genre: Science Fiction Espionage Thriller

Buy the book: Flipkart

AN ANCIENT WEAPON FROM THE VEDAS & BIBLE
ONCE HUNTED BY THE NAZIS
POWERED BY THE SOUND OF UNIVERSE
REBORN WITH HELP OF QUANTUM PHYSICS
GOING TO BE UNLEASHED ON TO THE WORLD
AND KASHMIR HOLDS ITS SECRET

Multiple intelligence agencies are tracking Mansur Haider, a god-fearing aspiring cricketer from Kashmir. His girlfriend, Aahana Yajurvedi, is trying to locate her missing mountaineering team, who vanished after a mysterious earthquake strikes Shaksgam Valley.
Investigating Mansur and the Shaksgam Valley incident is Swedish intelligence officer, Adolf Silfverskiold, whose only relationship to god consists of escorting his girlfriend to Church.
A dual China-Pakistan battlefront scenario facing the Indian Home Minister, Agastya Rathore, whose ancestors carry a prehistoric secret linked to the stars. He is faced with the challenge of finding a lasting solution to the Kashmir crisis.
Which Biblical Weapon was Tested in Shaksgam Valley? Why is Mansur Haider Important? Is There a Solution to the Kashmir Crisis? Can Destiny be Controlled? Does a Cosmic Religion Exist?

My POV :

First you eat with eyes then you gobble down the food, right! Yes, it's just that with this hellova book cover. I loved the cover that I devoured it first then devoured the book. That hard mysterious face tells a story, and I wondered after reading the book blurb what it could possibly be, and whatever I expected right then, I was dead wrong. I tried many connections/combination between mythology and the politics and the rival nations and bible, Vedas and Quantum physics and cricket but this book surprised me like anything. I remember my first word when I received the book from Blogadda.com, it was "WOW". I was that impressed. The fonts go with the word 'Swastik' very well and being an art lover I really like the experiment with the fonts and color scheme is beyond doubt amazing.

NOTE: I am late in putting up this review, due to many other reasons revolving around festive seasons one of the reason is that this is not an easy-breezy read. No, this is one serious action-packed thriller and I enjoyed and devoured each page.

Now let's talk about the Story line, plots and sun-plots, author's writing style etc, though I can't tell much in story-line department because this is a spoiler free review, I can tell one thing, the story line is very well researched. Author Clark Prasad didn't just picked his pen and began writing, No, he knew very well what he was getting into, he made a point to weave the facts and fiction so poignantly and dynamically that in-spite of many sub-plots it never distracted me or irritated me. In fact the effective use of maps to make a reader understand the location of the situation at hand and proverbs from Vedas and Bible both by the beginning of a chapter made the whole experience much more interesting.

At some points story was predictable possibly due to the mix of facts or possibly because I was so into the story that I was almost part of it and predicting next step was easy which in some twisted way a big plus point in my opinion.

I can't say this book was evenly paced because first 120 or so pages were head on collision causing fast, giving heaps of information but then it slowed a bit in comparison giving my mind a rest then picked up, so yeah it was very well paced and spellbinding in some terms but I wouldn't say it was Dan Brown-ish paced but for a debutante, it was good .

The protagonist Mansur Haider is supposed to be the guy on the cover and in many ways he did match up to the details it was revealing, he is indeed interesting as he hails from an ordinary family, is a cricket lover. It's quite intriguing to see him weaving the web of Baramulla Bomber. The other characters like Adolf (one of my favs from the book) Agastya, Ahana, Samir and others were nicely formed who played their roles pretty well though I would have liked to see more of Adolf. Since it's a trilogy and this book had so many sub-plots I am not giving much thought to character development but next book better show some good developments in the personalities specially of Mansur :) .

The writing style of the author is quirky, witty, smirk-ish and Though there were some loopholes here and there which can be questioned by an avid thriller lover, otherwise for a regular reader it will definitely do and Author being debutante, I guess I can give it a pass.

Action-packed quirky-witty-techno-mythical head spinner,well paced to cause a head-on-collision. Poignant use of Maps and quotation from Vedas and Bible.

I am giving 3.5 coffee mugs to the story and .5 to the amazing cover, impactful use of maps and quotation from Vedas and Bible.

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About the Author:

Clark Prasad, alter ego of Suraj Prasad, could be called a mixed citizen. Born in a leap year (year of Rocky, All the President's Men, Omen, Hera Pheri and Kalicharan) in Lagos, Nigeria he lived most of his life in New Delhi and had his education in Lagos, Delhi, Mangalore and Kozhikode. His family background is from the town where George Orwell, author of 1984 (a dystopian fiction) was born, and where Mahatma Gandhi had re-ignited India's freedom movement - Motihari.

A pharmacist with a management degree who believes in conspiracy theories, Baramulla Bomber is his first book. His first education o he mysteries of the universe came via Carl Sagans Cosmos, and since then he never looked back on reading, watching and discussing about the universe. He grew up during the cold war days with BBC radio was one of his mysterious companions as a kid, when his father played the news regularly every day. World War II news and documentaries on CIA-KGB tussle kept him engaged that time.

As a kid he wanted to be an archaeologist or an astronaut, but fate had its own road and he got involved with Mr. Carbon akaChemistry. Currently he is a healthcare management consultant, based out of Bengaluru, Planet Earth

http://www.clarkprasad.com

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