Book review of GRANDEST REVELATION - THE EXORDIUM by Anubhav Anand.

A pinch of mystery, some sauteed stories, and a well tadka of melodrama, cooked with pulpy characters are usually taken as a golden standard for a book to taste deliciously to your eyes, especiall
y when it tends to fall under the genres of science fiction, mystery, melodrama, and fantasy.

But both cooking and writing are considered jobs demanding tonnes of creativity and equal amounts of patience. And when you overcook or undercook a dish, the thin muscular tongue wouldn't hesitate to spit out some harsh words too. 

Does only the beginning of a book matter? Or is it the central theme?

Could there be a mystery, not seen with the naked eye but rather be seen by the deeper emotional seat of your heart?

With millions of questions and trepidations like these, I sought answers from my most recent read of 2022, GRANDEST REVELATION - THE EXORDIUM by Anubhav Anand. 

One-line review: 

'Anubahv came up with a plot, which makes it hard to place him under the category of the BUDDING author, rather, it would not be a hyperbole in considering him close to a professional author.’

Extended review: 

Plot synopsis (spoiler-free ):

The book begins with different perspectives and with multi-faceted chronology, slowly serving you the keys to unlock the mystery. Starting with Professor Arthur Kane Davis who mysteriously survived a war, way before the Prehistoric era, and realizes that a new war will soon be on its way to reach the pages of history. Followed by are the characters Shawn Hammer, Grisha Hathaway, and Ravin Bhan with respective hardships in different locations, just to unite together at a certain point where their paths were deemed to be crossed together. The trio learns about several theories and notions about their specialty and eventually comes across the fact that they were the immediate descendants of the stars!

Review:

The moment I read the first few lines, I knew that the journey of my eyes rolling along the text would be a long one. and that I would be the one who would get served with revelations coming up in spurts, as I travel along with the characters within the labyrinth of the plot. With a typical 3rd person description throughout the book,  the initial few chapters without any doubt were exclusively dedicated to the introduction of the characters, which indeed felt exclusive. Knowing the characters, and proceeding along with the story felt much thrilling while knowing interesting aspects inundated with secrets of this new world, oozing from Anand’s pen. 

Even as they say imagination has got no boundaries, putting down a million things happening in your imagination into a sequential order to produce the required adrenalin rush in the readers, becomes a demanding stance while coming up with a plot, which could only withhold its threshold till the first half of the book. The thrill you would be amazed to find in the first half of this plot from a debut author’s pen, seemingly slightly ebbs. 

Seemingly the plot demands the numerous characters which were perfectly created from Anubhav’s mind. Yet as a reader, I would really love to have a little much deeper dig into the character’s past, or instances that would bring the reader closer to the character emotionally rather than mechanically. As they say, while the plot is the rudder for a story, the emotion is the ocean, without either of them the outcome could easily prove to be disastrous. 

Despite me listing out my grievances, my take on this book drastically took a turn with the intrinsic idea of the plot. Rather than falling into the vicious trap of a typical sci-fi story, with futuristic machines and a lot more ‘out of mind stuff’, the author still sticks to the core idea with which the story began. With this, it would be hard to deny that the revelations were indeed mid-boggling and played with the reader’s nerves. Needless to say, the raw form of the story, turns a blind eye towards the commercial elements (of bestsellers) and still manages to maintain its hype, and I personally appreciate the author for accomplishing this in a world of writers and mutually competing plot lines. 

The teeny tiny bit of single-liners tagged at the end of each short chapter rekindles your curiosity to swiftly turn up the next page and proceed right into the story. Stating that the language used in this book was lucid, would only be partially true, as the young readers or the sci-fi beginners, might face a little alienation especially while scouring through the tougher terms and seemingly long endless sentences with a full stop showing up quite afar. 

The length of the book quickly forms the point of discussion, as the interminable story demands it, which was exceptionally well-edited considering the fact that this is the first book ever published by Anubhav. Anand came up with a plot, which makes it hard to place him under the category of a BUDDING author. Yet, it would be worth mentioning that the writing style was yet to be customized for himself. 

Being a rookie in the sci-fi world’s authors, especially in third world countries like India, has critically been a daunting task, but with Anand’s initiation, I would really keep my eyes peeled out to find more books, enlisted under the category of SCI-FI from India. 

Appreciable aspects of the book:

1. Firm plotline.

2. Loose ends are almost obsolete. 

3. Length of the chapters is limited giving wider scope to the reader to comprehend, what is being read.

Repelling aspects of the book:

1. Reduced momentum in the navigation especially in the middle one-third of the book. 

I generally don't gauge books, but.

Who doesn't like scores??

Well, I would give this book 4.2 out of 5 points.

Reviewed by:

Achyut Murari,2nd yr. MBBS,

Osmania Medical College.

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