The Fiction Freak Reviews

  Book Review: Legend of Suheldev Author: Amish Tripathi & The Immortal Writers’ Centre   “Darkness does not win because it is strong. It wins because the lamps stop fighting.” Before we get on with the review let me start by stating that this book was not written exclusively by Amish Tripathi. According to the forward provided by him, in his own words, “ I cannot write faster than a book every one-and-a-half to two years. And at that pace, I will die before I write down all the story ideas that Lord Shiva has already blessed me with. Hence, the idea of a Writers’ Centre. It was a suggestion from my team, and it made eminent sense to me. I work with a team of writers, to whom I relate the complete story, and the research material to be read. They then write the first draft, which I then work upon. So the genesis of the story and the final writing is done by me, while the team writes the first draft.” Amish Tripathi is one of the famous Indian author who had penned ...

  Book Review: Master of the Game Author: Sidney Sheldon   “Business is a game, played for fantastic stakes, and you're in competition with experts. If you want to win, you have to learn to be a master of the game.” Sidney Sheldon is one of such authors whose books has had reached every corner of this world. Millions of readers since decades have been praising the beloved author’s stories that features almost everything blending into an experience worthy of a one’s lifetime. Master of the Game was first published more than four decades ago and was in general loved by the readers. Four decades later, well this might not be true.   “The future was clay, to be moulded day by day, but the past was bedrock, immutable.” The plot of the book spans widely from the 19 th century to the almost entire 20 th century covering four generation of a family, their fall, rise and the hurdles that life brought along the way. Jamie McGregor leaves Scotland for Klipdrift, a pl...

  Book Review: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept Author: Paulo Coelho   “Love like rain, can nourish from above, drenching couples with a soaking joy. But sometimes under the angry heat of life, love dries on the surface and must nourish from below, tending to its roots keeping itself alive.”   Whenever you read a Paulo Coelho book, you seem to open a door to mysticism that takes your soul for a spiritual ride. Coelho has the dexterity of making the simplest of stories into magical tales. The Alchemist author has written some brilliant books and "By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept" is one such.   “We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.”   Pilar, the narrator, fell in love when she was just a girl of seventeen. Her lover, at that time, had left to explore the world. Pilar led a life of eleven years where she developed a charisma of never expecting anything from any men. Her hollow lif...

Book Review: The Talisman Authors: Stephen king & Peter Straub  “You don’t own a thing unless you can give it up, what does it profit a man, it profits him nothing."  Reviewing a King novel is a very amusing task. Both the authors have such great finesse in writing supernatural horror that when they team up, something amazing is bound to be produced. The Talisman is one such instance. Stephen King and Peter Straub collaborate to produce a thrilling ride for the readers with an engaging plot and out of the ordinary narrative. "He cried because safety and reason seemed to have left the world. Loneliness was a reality, but in this situation madness was also remotely a possibility.” The plot revolves around Jack Sawyer, a twelve year old boy, son of a yesteryear heartthrob actress of B-movies, also known as the "Queen of the B Movies". Jack begins a journey, an extraordinary trip out from Arcadia Beach, New Hampshire with the only aim to save his mother, who is dyin...

Book Review: The Handmaid's Tale Author: Margaret Atwood   “ Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. Don't let the bastards grind you down.”      To be perfectly honest, it was the tv series that made me pick this book out and I am glad that I had the pleasure of both reading the book and watching the series. Rarely it happens that a book is perfectly adapted into visual platform of story-telling and in this case not only the tv series covers almost everything that happens along in the book but it has something more to offer, something to tie up the loose ends in the book which, I am sure, is going to and has been giving the readers nightmares.   “ But who can remember pain, once it’s over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind.”     Now lets talk about the book. The Republic of Gilead or loosely a major part of United States of America where t...

Book Review: Holy Fools Author: Joanne Harris   “From a certain height, everyone looks the same - men, women, villains, kings - as if rank and fortune were simply an accident of perspective.”   I remember I was kind of skeptical to pick up my first Joanne Harris' book Chocolat. By the time I turned over the last page of that book, I was an adherent Joanne Harris fan. And since then I have had collected all her books. This one, "Holy Fools", came as a surprise (which I shall eventually explain) and proved it that Joanne Harris is one of the best storyteller ever. 'Holy Fools' has every bit of expertise storytelling with every page that one can't miss oneself to amuse over the simplicity yet powerful narrative.   “Love not often, but forever.”   The premise of this book is set in 17th century France, there is the murder of Henri IV which resulted into massive upheaval in the country, a time where witch trails, regicide and religious frenzy was ...