Venya Vikas

Anirudh is dead. Avyay must now take up the mantle of Kalki and take control over EOK and the Chiranjeevi or the Immortals. Although everyone is overwhelmed with the young avatar’s death, they have bigger tasks to prepare for, greater responsibilities. Kali is alive. There will be war and there will be carnage and evil will rise to unimaginable heights, if Kalki can’t stop it. The Review: I had been looking to read this book for quite a long time now and had been waiting for it to release. My expectations were quite high as is justified by the amazing cliffhanger in Kali’s Retribution. The start was quite promising with new revelations about Anirudh’s master plan and Krishna and Bhoomidevi’s conversation with him in the astral realm. But sadly, the good part of the book ends there. I was hoping to see how well would Avyay handle Kalki because of the fact that she already has so many connections in place, she is far more experienced than Anirudh and also because she was trained under the Chiranjeevi. But I was disappointed to see that Abhinav completely shrugged off the fact that Avyay can do a better job and again put her in the sidelines. Honestly most of the ‘secrets’ that were revealed in the book weren’t so appealing either. But what bothered me the most was Kali, the harbinger of evil in fact the very embodiment of evil wasn’t shown as a strong character. How can he be defeated so easily was something that bugged me. Kali was supposed to be shown as a rival and not a feeble person who can be converted by a simple conversation, according to Abhinav’s earlier descriptions of his character. Most of the book revolved around Anirudh, how he became Purush and his complete detachment from the world. The book isn’t about Kalki or about the ascendance of evil so the title of the book and the title to the series itself is absolutely inaccurate with minimal references to the Bhagwat Gita or the Kalki Purans as shown in the previous books. For the most part I had to force myself to read the book. The end is stretched so much it nearly made me want to quit. The last good thing I can say is that the final part of the epilogue was beautifully written. Had it not been for the epilogue I would have given this a 1 out of 5. Final Comments: I feel that I wasted my time on this book, but this is my personal opinion. Reading this and then looking at the quality of work on the other two books it feels as if this has been written by a complete stranger. Disappointed.

Anirudh, the Kalki avatar has already faced his first threat from his enemies after the attack from Kalanayaka. Things are going too fast for him after finding out about the EOK and his new training. Everything is becoming real. There are many more secrets in store for him. More and more pieces of Krishna’s master plan coming together. But a question still remains, how can one vanquish Kali, for good... This book is truly one of a kind. Abhinav’s narrative style is fresh and new. He has brought the story of Kalki with mythological references splashed with modernity. The book starts off a little slow with the introduction of the new characters which were not as well written as of those in the previous book. But once you reach the middle the pace starts to pick up. The ending of the book was fantastic with a twist that was never anticipated, once again shedding light on Krishna’s strategic mind. Once I finished the book, I was left in shock with the new revelations. Props to Abhinav for creating such a fantastic book. Hopefully all the questions we have after reading this will be answered in the final book. Overall, Kali’s Retribution (Book 2 of the Kalki Chronicles) receives a 4.5/5 from me.