08 September, 2016

#SpecialFeature :: Book Trivia by Shatrujeet Nath


*** Special Feature - September 2016 ***


About the Books:

VICTORY IS TEMPORARY. THE BATTLE IS ETERNAL.

Vikramaditya and his Council of Nine have fought valiantly to repel the rampaging hordes from Devaloka and Patala – but Avanti has been brought to its knees. Ujjayini lies battered its citizens are scared and morale is badly shaken. Meanwhile, the barbaric Hunas and Sakas are gathering on the horizon and cracks are emerging between the allied kingdoms of Sindhuvarta.

The only silver lining is that the deadly Halahala is safe. For now.

Bent on vengeance, Indra is already scheming to destroy Vikramaditya, while Shukracharya has a plan that can spell the doom for the Guardians of the Halahala. How long can the human army hold out against the ferocity and cunning of the devas and asuras? And will Vikramaditya’s love for his queen come in the way of his promise to Shiva?



The deadly Halahala, the all-devouring poison churned from the depths of the White Lake by the devas and asuras, was swallowed by Shiva to save the universe from extinction.
But was the Halahala truly destroyed?
A small portion still remains – a weapon powerful enough to guarantee victory to whoever possesses it. And both asuras and devas, locked in battle for supremacy, will stop at nothing to claim it.
As the forces of Devaloka and Patala, led by Indra and Shukracharya, plot to possess the Halahala, Shiva turns to mankind to guard it from their murderous clutches. It is now up to Samrat Vikramaditya and his Council of Nine to quell the supernatural hordes – and prevent the universe from tumbling into chaos!
A sweeping tale of honour and courage in the face of infinite danger, greed and deceit, The Guardians of the Halahala is a fantastical journey into a time of myth and legend.



Three commandos of the Indian Army’s elite Unit Kilo—Major Imtiaz Ahmed, Captain Shamsheer Suleiman and Lieutenant Rafiq Mehmood—are chosen for a one-of-a-kind ops mission: to enter Pakistan and eliminate dreaded underworld don, Irshad Dilawar. However, somehow, the Inter-Services Intelligence and Dilawar always seem to be one step ahead of them, foiling every plan they make. It doesn’t take long for Major Imtiaz to realize that something is amiss—the operation has been compromised. Will he be able to successfully complete his mission, or are he and his men, like Abhimanyu, entering a trap they cannot make their way out of? Set in the world of covert operations, where double-crossing and diabolical mind games are the norm, The Karachi Deception will keep you hooked till the very end.






Book Trivia:

1. In the first draft of The Karachi Deception, the last scene had Major Imtiaz Ahmed, the book’s hero, having breakfast with his wife at Wildflower Hall, Shimla. This was the only allusion to him having a wife, but as the scene never made it to the final draft, readers of the book never get to learn about Imtiaz’s marital status.

2. The original title of The Karachi Deception was “Project Abhimanyu”. The name was changed at the last minute when a friend of the author pointed out that Project Abhimanyu didn’t suggest a spy thriller. Shatrujeet then used Robert Ludlum’s naming format to pick The Karachi Deception.

3. In The Guardians of the Halahala, the scene where Amara Simha beheads a corpse to force a confession out of a captured Huna scout is loosely inspired from a scene in Brian De Palma’s gangster epic, The Untouchables, which is one of Shatrujeet’s all-time favourite movies.

4. In the Vikramaditya Veergatha series, Shatrujeet had initially planned for only one of navratnas (the Council of Nine) to be a woman, and Kshapanaka was chosen to be that female character. However, while writing Shanku’s character sketch and backstory, Shatrujeet saw the dramatic potential in making that character a woman as well.

5. In the Vikram and Vetal legends, Vetal is usually spelled V E T A L. However, as the Vikramaditya Veergatha series already had a character named Vetala Bhatta, Shatrujeet thought Vetal and Vetala Bhatta might end up confusing readers. So he chose to spell Vetal as “Betaal”, a pronunciation common in Bengal.

About the Author:

Door-to-door salesman, copywriter, business journalist & assistant editor at The Economic Times; Shatrujeet Nath was all this before he took to writing fiction full-time. He debuted with The Karachi Deception in 2013, followed by The Guardians of the Halahala and The Conspiracy at Meru, the first two books in the Vikramaditya Veergatha series. At present, he is writing volume three of the series. Shatrujeet lives in Mumbai, but spends much of his time in the fantasy worlds of his stories.


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Giveaway:
4 Lucky Winners can win 2 Books each (Set of The Guardians of the Halahala and The Conspiracy at Meru) this month. To find out how - be HERE on 22nd September for a quick Quiz!

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