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tbr_the_unconquered's review
2.0
Among the many cliches that populate the fantasy genres is the one of the monster hunter. They are the men and women who find their footing everywhere across literature and film and authors have placed them across various points in the history of the world. Post this book, I have now one more demon hunter to add to that list – Devi. Her realm is Chottanikara which at present is a town close to the city of Kochi in Kerala and is famed throughout the state for a temple dedicated to the goddess. The name Devi is also a synonym for the goddess and the author makes it obvious from the beginning that Devi’s character is synonymous with the goddess. At the start of the story, some of the mythological elements of Kerala’s legends are brought to the fore but a couple of chapters down the line the story settles into a flat and predictable narrative.
The lore that surrounds the temple of Chottanikkara talks about the power of the goddess to exorcise demons that prey on humans. The author takes this one aspect of legend and builds a backdrop for her character from it.The main antagonist is a Yakshi, a femme fatale from Malayalam legends that Devi tackles head on. The usage of ancient Kerala landscape, culture and relgious motifs are pretty well done. The heroic or warrior form of the goddess is called Durga in the Hindu mythology and the character of Devi seems to be inspired directly from this. She even rides a lion, the same way as the goddess is said to have done. The things I liked about the book more or less end here.
The story is rather bland and a few chapters down the line will give you a fair understanding of how the whole thing will end. Secondly there is little to no character development to be seen and almost everyone is one-dimensional. While I did mention the mount of the protagonist, the lion particularly has no role beyond roaring and glowering occassionally. Keeping the roaring aside, a war horse could have done the role justice ! Another character who seems to have an extended cameo that ends up going nowhere is the warrior monk Parashurama who in the story is Devi’s teacher. The cover is an entirely misleading one for there is no T-Rex in the story !
You might have read this story before under another name or under different characters.
The lore that surrounds the temple of Chottanikkara talks about the power of the goddess to exorcise demons that prey on humans. The author takes this one aspect of legend and builds a backdrop for her character from it.The main antagonist is a Yakshi, a femme fatale from Malayalam legends that Devi tackles head on. The usage of ancient Kerala landscape, culture and relgious motifs are pretty well done. The heroic or warrior form of the goddess is called Durga in the Hindu mythology and the character of Devi seems to be inspired directly from this. She even rides a lion, the same way as the goddess is said to have done. The things I liked about the book more or less end here.
The story is rather bland and a few chapters down the line will give you a fair understanding of how the whole thing will end. Secondly there is little to no character development to be seen and almost everyone is one-dimensional. While I did mention the mount of the protagonist, the lion particularly has no role beyond roaring and glowering occassionally. Keeping the roaring aside, a war horse could have done the role justice ! Another character who seems to have an extended cameo that ends up going nowhere is the warrior monk Parashurama who in the story is Devi’s teacher. The cover is an entirely misleading one for there is no T-Rex in the story !
You might have read this story before under another name or under different characters.
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