Book flailing: Book One of the Gameworld Triology

[delfinnium]

(recommended to link here by Deepad. First post, first review thing!)

Thanks to deepad, I'm currently reading the series Gameworld Trilogy by Samit Basu. (can be found here. It can be bought here!)

And it does start off a little slow, in the beginning, especially if you're like me, and have very little familarity with the Ramayan other than a very vauge understanding of 'something happens, Demons evil attack! Princess is involved, there is a vanar, Lord of monkeys and a damn good archer, involved somewhere, there is a lot of fire, and a chariot happens to be there somewhere', you might be a little thrown by all the terms there.

And it's GOOD!

I like that!

I mean there are some books (like the God of War series) that use terms so obscure and strange that it is hard to actually understand what is going on in the world unless you read it several times (and I'm not so sure I'm drawn into it), but this world is not like that!

I mean there are creatures whom you don't know what they are - vaman, pashan, vanar (though since I know passingly from School the ramayana, i know what vanar are), khuldran, and so on and so forth, and Samit doesn't explain, not at first.

But then as the story opens up, you start to realise what they are. Vaman are the equivalent of dwarves, vanar are monkeys/apes, pashan seem to be troll types, asur are... I'm not sure what they are, really, other than that no one likes them and they do all the dirty shitty jobs that no one wants.

( Yet longer incoherent flailing review here! )

Just.

You like POC cultures and fantasy? Sick of male dominated Generic White Medieval Fantasy?

THIS WILL BLOW YOUR SOCKS.

Genre: SFF, fantasy, parody
Subject: parody, trope inversion, non-white fantasy
Author nationality/ethnicity: Indian

 

Comments

[badgerbag]

Buying it! Reading it! Thank you!

[delfinnium]

:D I hope you'll like it!

[badgerbag]

It is amazing! I'm really enjoying it! I feel so lucky.

[delfinnium]

I'm so glad! I'm honestly glad that Deepa recc'd the book to me because ohmygod it is just so DIFFERENT and everything I cannot believe it

I cannot STOP FLAILING about the book, seriously.

[badgerbag]

I finished the trilogy. Awesome stuff!

And so funny!

I think the 3rd book might not be everyone's cup of tea especially if you like a very structured plot of a certain kind. It maybe helps if you like the Mahabharata's giant battle scenes. Which I do. It is a whole book of apocalypse and really explores what that means in myth and to people and what a narrative can do with that.

[delfinnium]

I'm so glad you liked it!

I'm still on the second book (i'm savouring the serious even though normally I tear through books like water) because htere is just so much detail and FUNNY.

:D

I'll see how much I like the third book, but I've been assured that the ending is more or less happy, everyone gets complex endigns and it's satisfying, which is good for me.

[delfinnium]

you should post about it to the comm! :) Book flailing is good for these books and it's good to share the joy!

[badgerbag]

posted here just now actually: http://bookmaniac.org/book-roundup/

[sashajwolf]

This looks like exactly my kind of thing. Added to the wishlist.

[delfinnium]

I hope you like it! it really is an awesome book and a great start to the trilogy.

[kate_nepveu]

Oooooh. Thanks!

[delfinnium]

It's an awesome book .

I will not stop flailing!

[redcirce]

This sounds awesome, I'm going to check it out!

[delfinnium]

It IS.

:D you should get a copy! Badgerbag REALLY LOVED IT.