Balan and Dheera: A Ride of Supernatural Fantasy
-Srishti Khanna
When was the last time you put down a book and got an urge to read it again? It rarely ever happens to me, but it did in the case of Balan and Dheera: A Tale of Kaliyuga (published by AuthorsPress, 2021).
I bought this book upon recommendation from someone with a good taste of printed words. The book’s cover was quite attractive and the synopsis on Amazon promised good content. But I have read books from this genre, and although some were extremely good, my hopes for this were prejudiced that it would be a typical storyline that most fantasy tales follow.
Boy was I wrong. The first few chapters appeared interesting with highly detailed murders that lay down the foundation for the story’s plot. The wheels are slowly set into motion as the trail of the killer leads the officers, Sathya and Maruti, both devoted to stopping Balan, onto a chase that would destroy them and those around them.
This is where the writer chooses to inject the power serum of a mythological, supernatural fantasy into the story. From there on the story picks on real pace, and each encounter between the forces of good and evil becomes a horror tale of its own. But if you think that is it, then you are horribly wrong. This is only half of the tale. The ride of supernatural fantasy from there on is something all readers must experience for themselves. You will experience a wide variety of emotions throughout the book. From goosebumps and disgust, to the startling surprises and humility. The story of the book is an epic tale of cultural fiction.
The writer has done a commendable job in creating the right links between the sequence of all the events that were happening. The best part was that there was rarely anything happening in the book that was not of importance to the plot. The evenly distributed content gave the story a good pace to keep the reader going.
The rarity of any side tracks to the story, and the emphasis on building the characters strongly made the reading into a good experience. Balan, Dheera, Baij Nath, Maruti and Sathya. The story makes you experience every character and existentially realize humanity’s role in the cosmos. But there is another surprise in the story, that will definitely bring a smile to everyone’s faces and leave them with the urge to introspect.
Being a new writer is a tough job, but, in my books, the author has experimented successfully with the blend of multiple genres in a single tale.
In my opinion, each chapter is a piece of a puzzle, and when the picture completes, the reader is left satisfied with the fruit of the effort. I had a great time with this book and am sure others will too. Hope to read more of Balan and Dheera.