My Rating - 4 out of 5 stars
Publisher - Self-publishedGenre - Sci-Fi
Publishing year - 2018
Language - English
ISBN - 978-1-9733-54291
Pages - 245
My Review -
The Awakening is the first book in the Time Guard series written by Anmol Batra. In his debut book, the author creates a world that lies between humans and souls.
The male protagonist Arjun is given the ability to travel in the past and future by a mysterious character who further becomes his mentor. The female protagonist Swati received some envelopes meant to be open at a specific time and date; her curiosity leads her to open them sooner, and the content frightens her.
Soon, she realizes that the world is more mysterious than she ever thought. Her path crossed with Arjun's when his sister was abducted by drug peddlers, and he seeks Swati's help to take care of his body while he travels as a soul. At first, she didn't believe him, but with time her confidence grows, and she plays a significant role in Arjun's journey.
While Swati and Arjun trying to find what happened with Ankita, another character Zaffar comes into view with his secret agenda to retrieve long-lost artifacts. His fantasies lead him to a quest that involves the killing of innocents. When his trails intersected with Arjun, they both realize that things are pre-written, and the wish to control the world, the battle between soul and soul reaper is going way back in the time and beyond their intelligence.
The book started at a slow pace and picked up after a few chapters. The narrative is complex because of the past-present-future scenario along with the side stories of Zaffar and Maya. But the way Anmol Batra builds the curiosity of a reader is worth mentioning. Once I start reading the book, it was difficult for me to put it down. The characters are well developed, but many questions are left unanswered, making me inquisitive and eager to read the second book.
The story was edited by four people but still has grammatical errors that break the reading flow, not to mention the compact fonts. I'm expecting that the author will work on these two issues in other books.
The cover page seems nice, but I like the illustrations more between the chapters. If we talk about the theme of the book, then this one checks all the boxes. It has time travel, ancient mysteries, social message and dilemmas, biblical feuds, protected secrets, romantic arc (which I'm hoping to be more developed in the next book).
This genre has piqued my interest in the last few years, and I come across some fantastic stories, and this book is one of them. I enjoy reading it very much, and I recommend this gripping tale to all the sci-fi lovers out there.
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