The vault of Vishnu by Ashwin Sanghi
Book review
Fiction
Rating 5/5 for the research 4.5/5 for the incorporation into modern times 3/5 for the flow which could have been more fluid 4/5 for the thrill and spoilers!
Spoilers- None in the review but there are a few surprises and twists in the book which though are true Ashwin Style are completely unexpected!
Ashwin of the Rozabel line is back and how! Though overall his keepers of Kalchakra was a good read, it was losing its identity to being a fiction to fantasy Fiction!
With a surname like that, it was natural for Ashwin to have changed his name for Rozabel line (Shawn Haigins!). Many Indians would not like to be caught with Indian author’s book! Glad that times are changing!
In typical Ashwin Style, here also you also have multiple narratives of the old and the new and multiple parallel narratives within them! At the offset the relationship here is of India and China and in the current scenario in the novel could not have come in a better time!
It starts with a small Indo China battle and investigation into the battle by Pam! Heartening to see a chief lady protagonist and only in India or a novel based on Hindu belief you can get away with that!
The central plotline is the travels and adventures of the famed traveller Xuanzang. In popular lore we know him as Hiuen Tsang and there is a popular ACK book on him which you can read for reference! But Ashwin just like his Chanakya Chant goes into the details and the attention to details is just amazing!
Sad that when Dan Brown’s novel is released once in a while with some research we all go weak in our knees while the same done by an Indian author and we ask, “Ashwin, who!?”.
The language and grammar is fairly simple and straightforward and does not beat around the bush! So don’t expect a deeper meaning in any line though when you need to think and expect a deeper meaning, the line is kept separate or highlited!
From searching the elixir of immortality to the herbs of recovery, you have the age old adventure of finding the cure for death! Or superhuman strength or vitality!
While the old and new places have been described so well, the narrative does make you dwelve on the history and age old practices…
While Keepers of Kalchakra like his other novels also gave lots of information and trivia, here that is given without much aplomb.
Without ruffling too many feathers Ashwin treads lightly on Chinese belief system and Indo China relationship!
After covering most of North India in his other books, he gets south to Kanchipuram and how!
Add in your regular dose of mad kills, gore, spies galore, crosses and double crosses and surveillance; and you have a typical thriller!
For a fan of such genre like me, this is unputdownable!
The chief story about Hiuen Tsang is how a Monk travelled so many thousand miles to find out treasures in India while we who live here are oblivious to the same makes me both happy and sad!
But for people who salivate only on the Dan Brown type of books, you can try this one for a change!
Regular Ashwin readers will like it anyway…
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