Turkish Gambit by Boris Akunin – Book Review

Publisher’s write-up:

‘The Russo-Turkish war is at a critical juncture, and Erast Fandorin, broken-hearted and disillusioned, has gone to the front in an attempt to forget his sorrows. But Fandorin’s efforts to steer clear of trouble are thwarted when he comes to the aid of Varvara Suvorova – a ‘progressive’ Russian woman trying to make her way to the Russian headquarters to join her fiancé.

Within days, Varvara’s fiancé has been accused of treason, a Turkish victory looms on the horizon, and there are rumours of a Turkish spy hiding within their own camp. Our reluctant gentleman sleuth will need to resurrect all of his dormant powers of detection if he is to unmask the traitor, help the Russians to victory and smooth the path of young love.’

The protagonist created by Boris Akunin – Erast Fandorin, has often had comparisons with James Bond as well as Sherlock Holmes. On that note, I decided to pick this book up, to see how the author is managing to bring a mystery element into a spy thriller plot.

This is the second book where the police officer Erast Fandorin is featured. Here, he is in Serbia as a volunteer in the Russo – Turkish War in order to overcome his sorrows (I don’t know what as I haven’t read the first book but I can give my word that you don’t necessarily have to, to enjoy this book). At the same time, Varya Suvorova is on her way to Bulgaria to meet her fiancé who works as a cryptographer in the war for the Russian army. She has her luggage stolen which is when she meets Fandorin, who offers to help her and makes acquaintance of the British journalist McLaughlin and the French journalist Charles Paladin, who are covering the war.

However, soon after she reaches the Russian camp, a crucial letter to the General is edited, owing to which the Russian forces move to Nikopol while the Turks move into the strategically important Plevna unopposed. The only person who had access to the letter before it was sent was Pyotr Yablokov, Varya’s fiancé and thus, the reach the obvious conclusion accusing him of treason. The Russian troubles don’t end there, every attack led by the Russians, the Turks easily outmanoeuvre them, facing heavy losses.

In the meantime, Fandorin also talks about a certain Anwar, who is an astute Turkish official and a formidable opponent to face. He suspects that Anwar has a mole inside the Russian camp and is tasked with finding who changed the message and who is the traitor within the camp, as Russia’s fortunes depend on that, and in this, he takes Varya as his assistant who also has interest in proving her fiancé’s innocence.

This book was an amalgam of a lot of my favourite genres, to start with, historical fiction and then, there was an element of mystery, a rather interesting one. The start could have been a little difficult as the author would have introduced around 8-10 characters within the first pages, all of them with significant importance but once you could get a hang of it, there was no stopping with the book. The author did a good job in establishing the objectives of the warring factions considering the historical context, with Russia fighting for its Pan-Slavic ideals and the Ottoman Empire to defend their territories in Europe.

The author also did a good job in unfolding the mystery gradually – unlike some of the novels I have typically read wherein the culprit is found early on and the rest of the book is on chasing the person. There were sufficient red herrings to divert the attention of the reader and at the same time, without compromising on the progress of the investigation. Of course, for the satisfaction of the reader, ‘solve before the police’ is possible in this novel if careful attention was paid to every part of the novel.

Despite the novel being short, at around 266 pages, the author did a good job in building some of the characters, such as Varya herself, the progressive woman who strongly believes in suffrage – this was a frequent point of debate in the camp, where the highly conservative generals were opposed to her ideas. However, she did find support from the French journalist Charles Paladin, who had years of experience in covering events from Mesopotamia till Western Europe and thus, well-versed in the cultures of both Europe and the Ottoman Empire.

The frequent ideological conversations between Varya and the others in the camp might be viewed by some people as a compromise on pace but then, if you enjoy such conversations (I for one), you would certainly not feel bored, I had in fact found it rather insightful. There could also be disappointment on the mystery around Fandorin himself, considering till the end, I got to know very little about him barring the fact that he was a smart detective and no character talks much about him as he is in ‘sorrow’ but then, I would certainly read the first book to know more about him.

The author also used the genre to his advantage, wherein, characters make accurate predictions of the political consequences of various decisions in the future, to display the intellect of the character whereas the reader has knowledge of these events that happened in the future (such as the Russian Revolution) and know what the author is getting at.

It is not often that I have been left speechless after reading a book but that was the case with this book. It was a well-crafted historical fiction cum mystery novel and would be thoroughly enjoyed by readers of either genre. On that note, I would award the book a rating of nine on ten.

Rating – 9/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

John F. Kennedy: A Life from Beginning to End by Hourly History – Book Review

John F. Kennedy; the charismatic President of the United States who was in office for barely two years, but is still well known even outside his own country, particularly for his speeches and the mysteries surrounding his assassination. This is a short biography of the former President from Hourly History.

The book starts off with describing Kennedy’s family background, who hails from a very wealthy Irish family with a Roman Catholic background. It is his father’s dream that one of his sons reach the highest office in the country and after the death of his eldest son, he pushes John to take up the ambition. The book then moves on to his campaigns, his time in Congress, his Presidency and his assassination.

By reading this, I didn’t have get any positive opinion on Kennedy, who is often tagged as an inspirational figure. Yes, his election meant US had transcended religious boundaries as he was the first President with a Roman Catholic background but at the same time, the book also established very clearly that he was merely living somebody else’s dream, that is, his father. There was some focus on Kennedy’s policies, especially his support for the Civil Rights Movement. There was also some focus on the Cold War as it was its peak during his tenure, with the ongoing Cuban Missile Crisis. However, when one mentions Cuban Missile Crisis, if there isn’t sufficient detail on the failure of the CIA led Bay of Pigs invasion, then the book is merely trying to glorify Kennedy’s tenure.

But for that, there was very little focus on his time in the US Navy, the famous debates between then Vice-President Nixon and Kennedy and of course, the famous speeches and quotes of Kennedy (written by Theodore Sorensen, but attributed to Kennedy, nonetheless). The focus seemed to be more on the scandals surrounding him than the more important matters in his life.

This was an Hourly History book which to keep it short, compromised on content and I was not satisfied. I would award the book a three on ten.

Rating – 3/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Sita: Warrior of Mithila by Amish Tripathi – Book Review

Publisher’s write-up:

‘India is beset with divisions, resentment, and poverty. The people hate their rulers. They despise their corrupt and selfish elite. Chaos is just one spark away. Outsiders exploit these divisions. Raavan, the demon king of Lanka, grows increasingly powerful, sinking his fangs deeper into the hapless Sapt Sindhu.

Two powerful tribes, the protectors of the divine land of India, decide that enough is enough. A saviour is needed. They begin their search.

An abandoned baby is found in a field. Protected by a vulture from a pack of murderous wolves. She is adopted by the ruler of Mithila, a powerless kingdom, ignored by all. Nobody believes this child will amount to much. But they are wrong. For she is no ordinary girl. She is Sita.’

This is the second book in the Ram Chandra Series of Amish Tripathi. However, this book is slightly different from the more famous Shiva Trilogy of the author wherein, the subsequent book picks up exactly from the point where the previous books left off. While the first book unfolded the character of Ram, this book focuses on Sita, the Princess of Mithila.

King Janak and Queen Sunaina come across a vulture defending a little girl from a pack of wolves and adopt her as the Princess of Mithila, a small kingdom in the east of Indian sub-continent. She grows up to be a strong young girl, taking interest in combat and horse riding. Mithila is a kingdom facing acute financial crisis and completely dependent on the Kingdom of Sanskhaya, ruled by Janak’s brother. However, a confrontation between Sita and her uncle over the unreasonable terms he proposed to Mithila changes the destiny of her kingdom and herself, as she is sent away for studies.

Sita’s growth was brought out well, a highly pragmatic individual who does what she believes is right and agrees to something only if she is convinced about it, even if it is from her teacher. This is often shown when she does not hesitate to speak her mind even in front of highly respected Maharishis such as Vashishta or Vishwamitra. There was also political unrest – ever since the defeat of the Ayodhyan Empire at the hands of the Lankan demon king Raavan and the trade sanctions thereon, the people are looking for a saviour who will save them from the menace of Raavan. However, the ones entrusted with the responsibility to find the saviour, have their own interests to look into and have a dislike for each other. Amongst this existing turmoil, Sita’s skills as the Prime Minister of Mithila is brought out where she improves law and order, builds new houses to increase the standard of living among various other things while also looking out for securing larger interests while going out on diplomatic missions as the Prime Minister.

I have always been reviewing this story as something totally distinct from Ramayan despite the novels being based on the book and thus I wouldn’t comment on the deviations thereon. However, I can’t help but notice a few things. For one, I am tired of Amish trying to milk from the populist sentiment going on in India at the time of the release of his books – he did in the first book, The Scion of Ikshvaku (click here forreview). He did it again here – for instance, there was a reference to surgical strike drawing parallel to India’s cross border military operations during September 2016 (click here for more details). There was more, wherein, there was a part in the story dedicated to Jallikattu – a bull taming sport in Tamil Nadu, southern India, where there were massive protests against a ban on the sport in the state of Tamil Nadu during January 2017 (click here for more details). He went on to describe how the sport was far superior to similar sports played in ‘far away foreign lands’, an open reference to the Spanish bull fighting sport – and similar arguments were used by proponents of the sport in Tamil Nadu which the author has merely reflected in the book. I was tempted to do some research whilst reading those sections and I found that the story, according the author was in 4500 BC whereas, neither Spanish bull fighting nor Jallikattu are that old. Of course, there is also the author trying to pander to the overall Indian nationalist sentiment at present by mentioning the word India at every possible opportunity (which was not the case with Shiva Trilogy) and of course, the trademark catchphrase, wherein, Sita was entrusted to ‘Make India Great Again’ (everyone knows that stupid tagline of the current office bearer of The President of the United States of America).

 I would say that I would laud the author for choosing a different format to present the new series (that is dedicating a separate book to build the main characters) and also the way in which Sita’s character was built. But the philosophical discussions, I would say that he was at it again with his ‘masculine thought’ and ‘feminine thought’; and what I could understand by it was that by the former, he meant conservative ideas and by the latter, he meant liberalism / centre-left ideas – he really need not have associated any gender to these.

To conclude, I would say that this novel did enough to keep me gripped but then, was not free from flaws, and I would have really liked if he had just altogether avoided the populist references, especially where some of them had no relevance to the story. I would award the book a rating of six on ten.

Rating – 6/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Charles Darwin: A Life from Beginning to End by Hourly History – Book Review

Charles Darwin, is a well-known British naturalist who challenged the very idea of creationism by proposing the theory of evolution, which is debated by creationists till date. This is a short biography of his by Hourly History.

Charles Darwin was born at the time when the Industrial Revolution was reaching its peak. He initially studied medicine but very quickly dropped out and started learning taxidermy and about animals which is where his fascination for nature began. The book then goes on to describe his voyages around South America in his ship Beagle and his observations thereon in his book On the Origin of Species and The Voyage of the Beagle.

The book covered a good amount of Darwin’s work and also his personal life. It focused on both, Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and the Theory of Natural Selection and the subsequent discussions and debates between various naturalists then. However, Darwin was different to Galileo in the sense that despite opposing a popularly held belief of a religious body, he was well recognised by his country and was well respected in his field. This fact was brought out well wherein, many do have the notion that Darwin too might have had a difficult time considering his theory but that certainly wasn’t the case.

This is a good book giving an insight into both Darwin the person and also his works and if a person needs a quick reference, this could be a good refresher. On that note, I would award the book an eight on ten.

Rating – 8/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Narcos (Season 3) – Review

‘Agent Peña, how much do you know about the Cali Cartel?’ was a question directed from the DEA Operations staff in US to Javier Peña, the last words of Season 2 of Narcos (click here for accessing the review of the first two seasons). This story’s entire focus is on the Cali Cartel, which had a very minor role in the Pablo Escobar saga as the patron’s main rival.

From left to right: Matt Whelan as Daniel Van Ness, Pedro Pascal as Javier Peña, Michael Stahl-David as Christ Feistl

Javier Peña is now the narrator in the story and is sharing some light moments back home in Texas before leaving for Bogotá. He has now been promoted and he has two Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents under him – Chris Feistl and Daniel Van Ness. This is the first time we get to see Peña as the boss -  who plays very tough in front of his subordinates but actually tries to facilitate easier working for them from behind the scenes. It also brings out his courage, being in a more responsible position, he is often seen to take on powerful people within the US Government and the Colombian government.

Cali Cartel was very unlike Escobar’s Medellín Cartel – while Escobar channelled his excess funds to the people of Medellín to gain public support, the Cali Cartel ran banks and were in good touch with the elites. The story revolves around the patriarchs of the cartel – the Rodríguez brothers (Gilberto and Miguel), Chepe (their man in New York) and Pacho Herrera. With Escobar’s fall, Cali’s cocaine business flourishes even more but then, Gilberto makes a revelation, that in six months, the cartel is going to surrender to the police under a deal and in these six months, they are going to maximise their wealth.

From left to right: Matias Varela as Jorge Salcedo and Francisco Denis as Miguel Rodríguez

The story showcases a lot of aspects here, such as how the Rodríguez who were so united – start to see cracks in their relationship as a crisis emerges – there is ego clash, the need to show who is a superior boss, among various other things. On the other side there is Peña, who tries his best not to repeat his past of employing any means to justify the ends but sometimes he is forced to give in. There is also the continued story of corruption in Colombia’s police force in Cali and also among politicians, at the very top level. The frequent arguments between Peña and the Stechner (the CIA agent in Colombia) was definitely one of the highlights of the season.

Another side to the story is that of a security officer of the Cali Cartel – Jorge Salcedo. Cali uses high end technology and Salcedo is an engineer who is in charge of the security of Miguel Rodríguez. Unlike the traditional security men, does not carry a gun and instead, watches what is happening by tapping phones, going through computer records, etc. He wishes to leave the cartel and start his own firm but is unable to come out of the cartel and the show brings out the problems he faces in his personal life owing to the continued association of his with the Cartel.

An aspect that could have been better was to have focused a little more on Feistl and Van Ness who were merely being Peña’s puppets. Even Feistl was occasionally shown to be an intelligent person and someone with a strong sense of judgement but Van Ness seemed a mere addition to the whole plot.

However, I would say that this scored on fact checking better than the previous two seasons wherein most of the main characters were in fact real, barring the fact that it was not Javier Peña who was involved in bringing down the Cali Cartel as he had returned to US along with Steve Murphy after bringing down Escobar.

The producers of the series had a good story to tell, with characters built with good amount of detail, especially Jorge Salcedo and Javier Peña, but then, one could say that it was a little too short and the mighty cartel fell apart in quick succession. However, out of that, serendipitously, there was extreme pace at which the season was carried out keeping the viewer gripped till the very end.

On that note, I would award the series a rating of seven on ten.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Thomas Jefferson: A Life from Beginning to End by Hourly History – Book Review

The name that immediately comes to our mind for an early American president after George Washington is that of Thomas Jefferson, the 3^rd President of the United States. This is a short biography of Thomas Jefferson from Hourly History.

Jefferson is from Virginia and was part of the elite of the society. His family owned plantations and several slaves and he himself owned several slaves during his later years. However, he also pursued a career in law and has several times, argued for the freedom of certain runaway slaves. The book then goes on to his disagreements with President John Adams whilst he was vice-president, then on to his own Presidency, where he organised the Louisiana Purchase and enacted certain controversial Acts removing the natives from the area. The book then focused on his post retirement career of an academic, establishing the University of Virginia.

It was a well-structured biography – from the times Jefferson was a patriot to the cause, then his stint as an Ambassador in Paris, followed by his entry into politics, presidency and finally retirement with each given an individual chapter. The various disagreements he had with his political masters, his paradoxical personality (refer the above slave example) – was brought out very well. There was also a decent focus on his personal life without going too much into it.

However, the book also excessively referred to aspects of US history surrounding the independence even in places where Jefferson was not involved and need not even have been mentioned. Without it, perhaps the book could have focused on some of the finer aspects of Jefferson’s presidency without compromising on the ability of the book to be read within an hour.

Based on the structure and the depth of the overview that the book gave, I would award the book a rating of seven on ten.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin (#1 of A Song of Ice and Fire) – Book Review

Age group: 16+

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher’s write-up:

 ‘Kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars, lords and honest men. All will play the Game of Thrones.

Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun. It will stretch from the south, where heat breeds plot, lusts and intrigues; to the vast frozen north, where a 700-foot wall of ice protects the kingdom from dark forces that lie beyond. The Game of Thrones. You win or you die.’

Ever since HBO launched a TV show based on George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire; where the TV show was named after the first book of the series, Game of Thrones. While I was suggested the TV show by many of my friends, I could never get past twenty minutes, for I found it too gory but then, I decided to give in years later when I picked up the first book of the series.

 It happens in a new world created by the author which is simply referred to as the known world­ in the books. The story is divided into chapters told from the third person perspective of the main characters which include Eddard (Ned) Stark, Catelyn Stark, Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Brandon Stark, Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen.

In Westeros, a continent to the west of the known world, Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King (chief adviser) of the Seven Kingdoms, dies under mysterious circumstances. Eddard Stark, the Lord of Winterfell and a close aide of King Robert Baratheon succeeds as the new Hand and moves to the capital with his two daughters and starts investigating the cause of Jon Arryn’s death. His daughter Sansa is betrothed to Joffrey Baratheon, the song of King Robert and Queen Cersei. However, strange events start to unfold – Ned Stark’s young son Brandon is pushed off the tower and whilst he was being treated, there was another assassination attempt on him. Catelyn Stark, the Lady of Winterfell gets to know that the knife used in the assassination attempt belonged to Tyrion Lannister, from the house which Queen Cersei belonged to. This leads to political instability and a war between the House of Stark and the House of Lannister.

On the other side, in the continent of Essos, you have the Targaryen siblings – Viserys, the pretender to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms and his sister Daenerys, plotting to retake the throne for the family. The Targaryens were ousted by Robert Baratheon twelve years ago by means of a rebellion. Viserys is trying to form an army large enough to travel back to Westeros and retake the Kingdom and for this, he secures an alliance with a nomadic tribe, the Dothrakis, by marrying his sister to their leader Khal Drogo.

There is also another angle to the story, from the point of view of Jon Snow, who joins the night watch, who guard the Northern Wall of the Seven Kingdoms. Jon Snow is the bastard son of Ned Stark and the more he spends time at Night Watch, the more he gets to know the truths of the order.

The plot was slow, and the title was highly misleading, for, the Game of Thrones does not even begin till the death of the King, which took place after I was much more than half into the novel. Till then, all I had was some childish fighting between teenagers – Sansa and her sister Arya, Arya and Prince Joffrey. The first 500 odd pages of the book effectively seemed like a filler wherein the story was going directionless, there were three different perspectives, and within that, excluding Daenerys and Jon, the six others are at different locations within Westeros, each of them pursuing different interests. And when you have so many perspectives, inevitably you also have so many characters that it was becoming extremely difficult for me to keep track of characters, events, the setting and the whole unfolding of the plot lacked coherence. I had to take multiple breaks while reading this book and from the time I started reading this book till the end, I read six books in between to keep me distracted from the utterly boring pages of this book.

I understand that this is a long novel and I have experienced something similar with The Luminaries (which is slightly longer than Game of Thrones) and there too, I felt lost for the first 200 pages but it didn’t run as long as in the case of this book. But I would concede that the author did a reasonable job in establishing the characters during the initial stages – Ned Stark as the man bound by honour and duty to the king, Tyrion Lannister – the cunning yet witty dwarf of the Lannisters, Cersei – the manipulative queen, Joffrey the arrogant young prince who feels too entitled, Sansa the conformist and Arya the rebel. I felt that Tyrion Lannister proved to be the only saving grace whose presence would help the reader to at least look forward to the next chapter from the perspective of Tyrion for at least, they were interesting.

After the death of King Robert, the novel, took the turn for the better, with things moving fast, the war for succession getting very tense, with the Starks on war against the Lannisters, the King’s brothers staking a claim to the throne, I breezed past the final third of the novel and considering that the series would continue along similar lines, I would give the series another chance and would eventually read the second book in A Song of Ice and Fire.

With that said, an interesting final third does not exonerate the author for boring me with fillers for a substantial part of the book and on that note, I would award Game of Thrones, a mere five on ten.

Rating – 5/10

Have a nice day,
Andy