The magicians of Mazda by Ashwin Sanghi
Book review
Ebook via kindle
Fictional thriller
Rating 4/5 (if I can give that to Dan Brown then Ashwin definitely deserves it with the amount of research and details thrown in!)
The book starts with a bang and ends with another one!
No spoilers here since Ashwin’s book unlike his private series; the thrill is in the side notes!
After expansion of most Bharat stories Ashwin now takes on the Parsis or Persian religion or Zoroastrian or Zorathustra and how!
Every page is either a thrill ride or a religious history lesson with trivia thrown around like chocolate chips on a cookie!
The thrill you get when you read a Dan Brown like Angels and Demons or The Da Vinci Code is not the story as such but the different interpretations and almost magical examination of trivia and scriptures!
The thrill of a new rediscovery or a new interpretation of what we already know or the relation between two aspects!
Also how a known story is extrapolated to include the modern times! He did it in his previous books and now Ashwin does it again and how!
The novel starts with introduction speech which is itself a bomb! and then races on to a brave robbery attempt then races on to a kidnapping then goes on to another kidnapping and that kidnapping goes wrong and goes on to something more!
Then of course there is a rescue and the rest of the novel goes back and forth with history and thrill!
This is the second novel in recent times there I am listing or reading about the tense relationship between America and China And how the intelligence agencies in these countries operate
The previous one was a novel by Ken Follet which also had similar points to say
The crux of the novelist of course the history of the Persians or the Parsis or zoratrians or zorathusthra. Add in more points about their prophet Ahura Mazda and Humza Dara (mild spoiler here if you are clever!)
Then like always there is a priceless artefact which everyone wants to get their hands on. Then you can add the classic cross and double cross and triple cross and so many crosses than you don’t know the way across! But it creates a cross action stimulus in your brain and you want more!
The torture technique and the narration of the genocides makes sure that the gore is maintained at a high level even as the bodies keep piling up!
The narration is fast paced interrupted by the retelling of the stories of Parsis; many we knew while many are new! Even the fact about vultures and diclofnac piqued my interest and is very true!
The book is a page turner and the added fact that I was in a new place without Internet really made me jump into it full on and I enjoyed the ride!
There are many narratives and conclusions and point of views which are sure to raise some eye brows and it’s best to read the book and decide on that!
For those who can digest only the Dan Brown version they can wait for his next novel but this is more researched and more closer to you if only you broaden your mind and leave your Indian Author prejudices behind!
To be fair though even I read Ashwin’s first novel ‘The Rozabel line’ only because he had changed his name in the novel to Shawn Haigins! Which was an anagram to his actual name! And I thought it was some non Indian author! My eyes are open now! How’s your vision!?
Enjoy the magic!
ramadocblog 