Goodreads blurb: The Horseman had come to your apartment?
Adri nodded.
‘What did it want?’
‘My goddamn soul.’
Tantrics. Necromancers. Exorcists. Talkers to the dead. Summoners of Demons. An ancient art. A select few. The only ones in the land allowed by law to inscribe upon themselves the magical tattoos of the profession.
The city of Old Kolkata. Dark. Devastated. War-ravaged. Unforgiving.
Adri Sen, a banished Tantric, wakes up one morning to find the horseman, death, sitting at the edge of his bed.
The Apocalypse cometh. Wraiths whisper. Ancients bleed. Demons stalk. Fallen Angels rise. Assassins attack. Storytellers spin.
In every legend, a small grain of truth.
Run for your soul, Adri. Run.
———————-
Now with a cover like that and a blurb which has been presented above, how can a reader resist from picking up this book from the shelf and start reading it. And man, was this one hell of a journey or what?
With Tantrics of Old, the author Krishnarjun Bhattacharya takes us on quite an adventure through the city of Old Kolkata with the protagonist Adri Sen, banished Tantric who is on the run from Death himself, with his companions, Maya, a Demonology student, her brother and an assassin who is sworn to protect Maya.
The setting of the novel and its action are Old Kolkata which is ravaged by a civil war between MYTH, representing the new order and founder of New Kolkata and the free Demons, a group of magical creatures led by the enigmatic and ruthless Ba’al. It is in this situation that Adri finds himself being hunted down by one of the legendary four horsemen; Death, himself and his only way to save himself would be to travel deep into Old Kolkata with Maya. The novel chronicles his journey and the subsequent adventures he encounters thereof.
In my opinion, writing a novel in the fantasy fiction genre is an extremely tough ask as it not only involves coming up with a believable storyline but a lot of detailing has to be done in setting up the story appropriately in terms of the locations, the timelines, the history, the geography and a whole lot of other details. And it is precisely in this department that the author scores really high. The level of detailing and the narrative style employed transport readers right into the milieu of Old Kolkata, its sights, sounds, smells and the distinct feel of being in a war-ravaged city.
Further, the fact that the setting also involves magical elements, practices and more such as Tantrics, Necromancers, Demons, Witches, Angels, and such like means that the author had to make all of them as believable as he could, while ensuring that they integrated well with the overall narrative. And I have to say that he has done an extremely credible job of the same. Not at any point in time did I feel that the narrative was so unbelievably fantastic with its treatment of any of these characters or their actions, and they all blended in really well with the narrative as well.
One aspect which kind of irritated me a little bit was the fact that the character of Maya which had a promising introduction and was involved with the early action suddenly is rendered helpless and spends almost the entire book without being too involved, albeit it was her predicament that drove most of the narrative forward. However, this minor irritant sorted itself out right at the very end of the book, which promises a sequel to this lovely book with Maya promising to take over the main protagonist duties in the next book.
For sure, this book is a must-read for all fantasy fiction readers, and my only hope is that Krishnarjun Bhattacharya comes out with the sequel to this book really soon. Go ahead and click on any of the following links to purchase the book from Amazon [Link] or Flipkart [Link]. Yes, I will make a small commission if you do so, but rest assured, it will not increase your purchase price of the book.
Disclaimer: This book was offered for review by the publishers, but the above review is independent and unbiased.
Related information
Book Tantrics of Old
Author/s Krishnarjun Bhattacharya
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