13 May, 2013

#BookReview : Ten Shades Of Life: An Anthology Edited by Nethra A.

In times when anthologies dwell on prosaic romantic accounts, Fablery presents Ten Shades of Life. From a nail-biting thriller to a spine-chilling ghost story, an exquisite romance to an ingenious fantasy, an adventurous science-fiction to mirthful and remarkable experiences of salaried men, stories of heroes and philosophies of life - it attends to the preferences of all readers.
When anthologies contain stories of one genre, after reading a couple of stories they get predictable and fail to keep a reader’s interest until the end, but a multi-genre book has something to offer to everyone and many things to one reader.
The writing styles of all the writers whose stories are included in this book are grand and the plots so engaging that they will force you to read another page and one another before you finally close the book. The stories will take you on a roller coaster between reality and fiction.


When I found out about this book, I realised it had two very familiar names on the author list. Two bloggers whose blogs I have been following for quite some time now. I love their blogs and always have high expectations from them. So, I picked up this book with conflicting feelings of excitement and trepidation. 

My favourite story in the book has to be ‘Where did you go?’ by Deepa Duraisamy. The story was categorised as Suspense/Thriller. The story deals with a missing kid, and while you might figure out who the culprit is, you’ll still be left wondering about how they’ll be apprehended. The best part of the story is that the author has managed to capture and portray a certain trait of the society’s mentality very effectively. A valuable message delivered through the guise of a suspense fiction.

The second favourite story would have to be the Historical Fiction, The Secrets of Ahiraah by Reshmy Pillai. This could also very well be categorised as a thriller. I have to admit here that Reshmy had me when she first spelled out ‘Sonar Killa’ as my favourite author, Satyajit Ray, has written a detective & then later on directed a movie based on that fort. Besides that I also liked her detail oriented nature and the dialogue deliveries. And the twist in the end gave me goose bumps when I tried to imagine one particular situation.

I am not the biggest fan of love stories, but Monika Pant stole my heart away with her story. It’s about two lovers who would stand strong and ready to defy the world to be together. Her simple language with a few words of Hindi sprinkled in and her characterisation really grew on me. The author through her few pages, transported me back to not only a different era but to a different world on the whole. I didn’t want to come back.

‘Harry’s Bluff’ took me for a ride. ‘Something Like That’ did bring on a few free flowing laughs. ‘A Good Day to Die’ was a rollercoaster on its own. These three works were quite good and made good reads. While these stories didn’t make me wanna throw the book, they also didn’t have that one outstanding thing about them. I didn’t love or hate them – but they are likeable.  I hope guys are getting my drift here. These authors are talented and hold some promise. I hope over the time they will only mature more and produce even better pieces to touch that cord.

I am not very much into sci-fi because I am personally very weak when it comes to science matters. In order for me to enjoy it, I have to understand it first and most authors fail to ‘explain’ their theories to me. Ofcourse it is not their fault that I am such a dumbo that even the very basic have to be explained to me. So when I say I didn’t like A Nootropic Egress by Karthik, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a bad story. It maybe that I didn’t catch on fast enough.

Barren Harvest by Vinaya Swapnil Bhagat is a Dystopian story that had the potential but felt a bit bland to me. Weekend in the Country by Bruce Memblatt, is yet another story that had great potential but the author lacked the finesse to create that atmosphere of Horror and was pretty predictable.

The Incarnadines by Cheyenne Mitchell is a fantasy work. This one particular story seemed overly detailed. Actually there is nothing as ‘overly detailed’ when it comes to a story, but I felt that while all the details were necessary, they just weren’t presented in a palatable manner that made me keep thinking to myself – ‘okay girl, I get you are anguished. But move on with the story already’ Also, with all that details in the introduction, the author actually missed out on providing information/explanation on some of the more important points.

Overall, the book as a whole made for a pretty entertaining read and I will certainly be keeping an eye out on most of these authors.


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4 comments:

  1. Thank you for the detailed review! :)

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  2. Thank you for the review DDS. I am glad you enjoyed the stories for the most part. I hope we grow as writers and come back with better ones! :)

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  3. nice review deb d. Beautifully penned :))

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  4. Thank you for the review DDS. I hope to give your more surprises as we move on in life :)

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