Publisher's write-up:
'”Age of Hiblisk: A Story with a Soul” is the journey of
Prince William and Princess Sara, the protagonists , through the
magical and spiritual worlds of Pantolis, Hiblisk, and Ikra. As their
voyage unfolds, they realize the true motive behind the terror
employed by the forces of Dushtt to claim supremacy over the lands of
Pantolis and beyond. Every new revelation brings to light the
methodical madness employed by the dark forces and secrets of Mother
Nature, which have been safely guarded for ages by the various
civilizations of the secret worlds.
Their journey also introduces them to the divine forces that
monitor the functions of the world and gives them access to
legendary, mystical weapons and advanced spiritual knowledge which
illuminates the flow of their understanding actions towards various
aspects of life. They use the knowledge gained, to try and bring
peace to their war ravaged lands and fight the ever growing might and
influence of the mysterious dark forces that haunt their kingdoms.
Will the light of all that is divine, fighting under the banner of
Prince William and Princess Sara, flicker away into oblivion against
the might of the dark forces under Dushtt, or will they survive? …
Only time in her womb holds the answer, potent enough to change the
outlook of the very world we live in.'
Age of Hiblish: A Story with a Soul is a novel written by the Sumukh
Naik, a HR professional turned author. This is his first novel
although it might come as a surprise to some who have read the book
without knowing that as the book hardly showed any characteristics
similar to that of one written by a callow author.
To say something about this book in a few words is, it is nearly a
standard fantasy novel with a good mix of adventure and philosophy, a
prince and princess fighting against an evil plot threatening the
very existence of their world, well written along with nicely
constructed dialogues.
The story revolves around three worlds; Pantolis, Hiblisk and Ikra
with Pantolis being the land inhabited by normal humans but for a few
shamans and members of the order who ensure the smooth functioning of
Pantolis whereas Hiblisk is a world of diverse magical creatures with
unknown secrets and several unexplored lands and Ikra is an
illusionary world.
The story begins in the world of Pantolis where in the border of the
two quarrelling kingdoms of Jaguar and Ivory, weird incidents are
taking place, trees turning black, a plague spreading and houses
along with the people in it vanishing without a trace. The matter is
brought to the prince of Jaguar, William who decides to help the
village but in turn, gets trapped by the forces of Ivory while
evacuating the villagers and gets forced into an unconditional
surrender.
It was found out by the Eleventh Master, the chief of the Order that
the person who was helping the Kingdom of Ivory was in fact, Dushtt,
the son of his close friend Ratraa, the lord of the underworld. The
Eleventh Master helps the prince escape the dungeons of Ivory along
with his subjects and also, Princess Sara, the princess of the
Kingdom of Ivory, a member of the Ivorian royalty against the
conflict on Jaguar.
The Eleventh Master understands that William and Sara are two people
with a pure heart and noble intentions and are people whom he can
trust and blesses them with magical powers for their battle against
the evil forces of Dushtt and sends them to the world of Hiblisk, in
order to prepare them for the battle which would decide the future of
Pantolis.
A really good thing that I liked about the way in which the author
presented the story was that it was to the point, with hardly any
digressions from the main plot although there was a lot of scope for
it, such as, although there was a prince and princess carrying on a
task together, no pages or chapters were wasted on romance, something
for which the author ought to be appreciated. Elaborating on my other
point about the perfect mix, there was an adventure, like in the case
of any fantasy novel but with it, philosophy was also involved, and
on several occasions, the author sounded like a philosopher more than
a story teller, very interesting philosophies on nature and the
balance between good and evil, on women, the duties of good people,
etcetera, indeed making it a story with a soul; although, personally
I may not agree with some of them regarding the limits which science
shouldn't cross but it would be best if I refrain from bringing in my
personal beliefs into a review. The history of Pantolis and Hiblisk
was also well narrated and to help the reader to keep track of the
places, the publisher has so generously provided the maps of
both Hiblisk and Pantolis and not to mention, the most important
aspect of any book, the plot or the story too, was really good,
although some might feel that the philosophical element to it was
rather boring, I felt it was very much necessary (though I hardly
felt that it was boring). A good plot when it is written well would
be add more flavour to it and that is the case with this book,
barring a few errors some of them caused due to oversight and some
inexcusable phrases such as using few with the meaning of some
and without using an article and also, very frequent usage of the
phrase 'comprises of'. It was also rather different, rather
than focussing on the conventional battles of 'goodies vs
baddies', it approached the whole task in a different manner with
a lot of twists and turns; certainly a combination which any reader
would look forward to.
The author constantly reiterates that the good aspects and evil
aspects go hand in hand although the degree may vary and that happens
to be the case even in the real world, including his book. To start
off, the names were weird, really weird. Probably, at first the
author planned a global audience for the book initially and the
initial names were all sounding European (Pantolis sounded Greek to
me) and if not, not Indian, to say the least, with names such as
William, Sara, Pedro, Philip, Aaron, etcetera but eventually, distances were
being measured in yojanas (ancient Indian unit of measuring distance,
approximately equal to 5-8 miles) and suddenly a 'Captain Sharma'
popping in and after around the 50th page, most names
appearing were Indian. However, there is nothing so negative about
this as it doesn't affect the story in anyway and after all, what is
in a name? The end too was rather abrupt but the way in which ended,
I could only assume that the author is probably only planning a
sequel. Another problem is, personally, I'm unable to categorise the
novel, although I'm not sure whether it is because of my incompetence
or by virtue of its nature since I'd certainly not say that it would
appeal to all the young adults because of the excessive amount
philosophy involved although it wouldn't be seen as a hindrance to
anyone who is interested in it or looks forward to learning such
things and at the same time, being a fantasy, I'm not sure how this
could be termed as a fully adult novel but if I've to choose one, I'd
go for the former.
I think I can close this review here with the comment that it was
really an enjoyable experience reading it and with all eyes being on
the Shiva Trilogy right now in India for fantasy, I feel this too,
deserves some attention. Since I felt that this book was really more
than just good, I'd gladly award a rating of eight.
Rating: 8/10
Have a nice day,
Andy
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