Goodreads blurb: WHERE DARKNESS EXISTS SO SHALL LIGHT
“…a great crusade shall ensue,
Manking will fight its greatest war,
At that time shall light shine through;
and Past, Present and Future Converge”
- THE CONVERGENCE CYCLE, circa 354th century
AN ANCIENT PROPHECY,
THE LARGEST METROPOLIS IN THE WORLD . . .
A PETITE SMALL-TIME ROBBER . . .
Meet Arya, a 17-year-old with the uncanny ability to open almost every locking mechanism ever known to mankind. Paid to break into a high-profile government vault, he unknowingly sets in motion events of apocalyptic consequences—The Tamisra is rising; mercenaries and shadow spirits have joined hands with humans to destroy the Equilibrium; and rumours abound of a Maayukh that links the ring, known as Avaasya, to the fate of the world.
Racing against time to undo what he has done, Arya finds that time is his biggest enemy and that he can trust no one in this race to return balance to the world.
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With Equilibrium, the author Paras Joshi takes us readers into a veritable roller-coaster ride as we join young Arya in his journey to Saatvikalok as a race against time. Set in the far future (354th century to be precise), the world as we know it hangs on a delicate balance of power between forces of light and darkness which keep creation in ‘equilibrium’. And as the saying goes ‘time and tide wait for no one’ and therefore it is almost time for the forces to cancel each other out and apocalypse to begin. In such a scenario it was but natural for both these opposing forces to make strategic moves to emerge the victor in the ensuing battle. However, this time around it looks like the dark forces seem to have an upper hand.
However, standing between them and certain victory is young petty thief Arya who unwittingly becomes a pawn in the bigger game. Is he a part of the proceedings just by chance, or is there more to his involvement in the current state of affairs? This book leaves us with this important question with the last page giving a huge hint to the answer itself.
It takes a crazy amount of imagination and creativity to come up with a fantasy fiction novel that is believable, likeable and engaging at the same time. And with Equilibrium, Paras Joshi has succeeded wonderfully well on all three counts. He manages to simplify things in the narrative while retaining enough of his creative license to play around with the settings, characters and the narrative.
Relying on the time-tried and tested canvas of good versus evil and following the ‘race against time’ template, Paras give us a likeable protagonist in Arya who we all end up rooting for during the course of his quest to reach Saatvikalok. The settings are similar to the Lord of the Rings trilogy and on more than one occasion remind us of the small villages and its residents living in perennial dread of the impending great final battle.
In a nutshell, this book is a sure-shot read for all lovers of good fantasy fiction and the young adult genre of books. Purchase the book from Flipkart [Link] or Amazon [Link].
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Disclaimer: A review copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
